Little Lenten Journals

Hello Friends,

Sorry for the brief absence here. I've felt a little swamped. Not sure by what exactly. Just the regular daily rhythm that doesn't leave much time for sharing with you all. I thought I'd pause amongst the dishes, laundry, and lessons routine to say 'hello' and give you a glimpse into what we've been up to.


Lent is upon us. Tomorrow! Eeks. I finally came up with a simple yet creative plan for the kids to work on daily. I don't have a great Lenten plan for myself. Hopefully something more substantial will emerge. I do love the thought of a spring cleaning for the soul. A time to clean out some of the gunk in there to make more room for the beautiful things God would like to show me.



Several years ago we created a Lenten Cross using the ideas from Catherine and Peter Fournier's Lent and Easter book for families. It is much like a Jessee tree used at Advent. The Jesse tree follows the family tree of Jesus throughout the Bible leading up to the first Advent. The Lenten Cross follows the messianic prophesies found in the Old Testament leading up to their fulfillment in the crucifixion of Jesus on Good Friday.



Every day a Scripture passage is read and then a corresponding picture is attached to the Lenten Cross. The kids loved coloring their teeny pictures for their Advent calendars so much that I decided to do something similar for Lent. Instead of hanging the pre-made pictures onto the Lenten Cross, they are coloring their pictures to glue in their own Lenten journals.





Yesterday and today we constructed little journals. Today they prepared for Lent by writing a few things in their journals. They came up with two things they would like to work on during Lent. Then they also chose a Scripture verse to write in their journal to help encourage them in the direction they would like to go. Sage chose to practice not having a sharp tongue. So if ever he has a sharp tongue, he'll go get his journal and read his verse that he recorded. They numbered each page starting with Day 1 all the way to Day 40. Every day they will glue in their colored pictures that are related to the daily reading. They will also have a few other items they may journal. Basil, for example, is working on being thankful. So he will be writing in his journal things that he is thankful for.

If you are interested in doing something similar, here are the readings for the first week of Lent. I'm sure you could find your own clip art to use for the small coloring pictures. If you'd like to know what our pictures are of, feel free to leave a comment and I'll share what we are using:

Day 1: Joel 2:12-13
Day 2: Genesis 3:1-20
Day 3: Genesis 4: 1-12
Day 4: Genesis 6:5-13, 9:8-11
Day 5: Genesis 22:1-18
Day 6: John 8:31-40
Day 7: Exodus 20:1-21




Anyhow, that's a piece of our lives. What are you up to??







Gotta get a pic of Mr. Mace in here, right?  ;)  My sweet sister and nephew came to visit this past weekend. So nice to have family within driving distance. Here's Mace with his cousin.