40 days and 6 Sundays

I wanted to post this separately from our end of the week update to share some of the things we started today for the season of Lent. My mom gave us some AMAZING resources that we will be using throughout the next several weeks and I will try to share some of the insights the boys share with me. For today, we read a narrative about Jesus' time in the wilderness from the Season's of the Spirit curriculum from last year. Then talked about Ash Wednesday is the first day of Lent and Lent is 40 days (plus 6 Sundays). Aidan picked up on the 40 days in the wilderness/40 days of Lent correlation right away.

The activity sheet had a check box style map/calendar thing and instead of doing that, we made a paper chain with blue for the non-Sundays and red for the Sundays. You can see how long it is in the pictures! We are going to take down one chain each day and then write on the slip of paper a way that we can either a) know and do what God wants us to do or b) share God's love with others (this is the language from the story about why Jesus spent time thinking about in the wilderness). We are going to cover the door to our school room with all of our paper strips as we go. For today, Aidan wrote the word "listen" because that is how we can know what we are supposed to do.



Caleb is holding Ash Wednesday at the top of the stairs and Aidan is holding Holy Saturday at the bottom.




Finally, I love talking with the boys about these aspects of our faith. It is amazing how their own revelations can strengthen and enlighten me. Aidan was sharing how he thought that even though we have people around us we can still be alone in the wilderness in our hearts. I was reminded of two friends (at least two that stuck out right away) who are each facing a wilderness of their own right now. The situations are totally different, and I always feel tempted to want to fix the wilderness for them. That isn't how the story goes though...friends don't swoop in and save Jesus from his time of trial. It isn't their job. God needed Jesus to go through his time in the wilderness to serve his greater mission. I realize that of course I couldn't fix their situations even if I wanted to, but I also need to realize that I am not enlightened to the Master Plan. Their journey is their journey. God will decide when and how it will end, not I! I may be a part of that, but if so it is MY gift and blessing from God to be a blessing, not me doing something amazing and wonderful off the cuff without guidance. It actually reminds me of a speaker we had at MOPS last year who talked about the meaning of a refiner's fire...but that is another post for another day!

So anyways, personal revelations courtesy of a 5 year old! I can't wait to hear what other wisdom he has to share with us as we continue to take apart our chain!