"Preaching" through pennies

So far the "penny jars" have kept the kids a bit more on their toes. All of our kids but one are spending some extra time on their beds at "rest time" (as we were out later than their bedtimes last night with church friends) and I am sure there will be some if not all of my kids going to bed earlier than normal tonight...but I am encouraged by the "awareness" it has raised in their little minds. But, I don't just want to address their little brains but their little hearts most of all...so, here are a couple more verses we talked about today in regards to keeping things picked up as well as our continuing "Fruits of the Spirit" talk on love.

James 1:22-25 says,"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing."

Poor Titus, he was in tears this morning over having to put a penny in his jar for leaving his breakfast cup out. Through tears streaming down his face he said, "Mommy...I didn't mean to...I just forgot." My mommy's heart wanted to just say...it's okay sweet boy...you go ahead and take that penny out of your jar. But I picked him up, held him tight and just told him, "Buddy, I know you just forgot...and that is why you are not being spanked. But you need to learn to remember and that is why the penny has to stay in the jar." The verses in James helped the kids to see that our "forgetfulness" can have much more serious consequences than just a messy house or going to bed early. It can become a "habit" that makes it much easier to forget things that matter not only in this life but in the life to come. We also want to know that we are living in such a way that vs. 25 will be true in our lives...that we will be blessed by God!

I also read Phil. 2:3-8 to them:

"Do nothing from rivalry or conceit, but in humility count others more significant than yourselves. Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others. Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus, who, though he was in the form of God, did not count equality with God a thing to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the form of a servant, being born in the likeness of men. And being found in human form, he humbled himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross."


As followers of Christ, we need to follow His example in all things. He set aside His "interests" and died for our sins. We are called to not look at our own interest only, but the interest of others. We are called to live unselfishly. The kids and I read (and took a few minutes to memorize) 1 Cor. 16:14, "Let all that you do be done in love" and we spent a while trying to wrap our brains around the fact that love (agape love) willingly and self-sacrificially serves others...and God is calling us to do EVERYTHING with that kind of love. To seek the interest of others above our own every time. All of our eyes were wide and even a bit uncertain at such a high calling. But, the beauty of it all is, the more we get to know God through His Word, the more we see that there is no way we can even live a MOMENT without His power at work in us. It truly keeps us dependent on Him (or miserable if we are trying to live in our flesh!). And that is a truth that I need to remind myself daily about and my kids need to have ingrained into their precious little noggins!