John 4: 23-24 Jesus says, It’s who you are and the way you live that count before God. Your worship must engage your spirit in the pursuit of truth. That’s the kind of people the Father is out looking for: those who are simply and honestly themselves before Him in their worship. God is sheer being itself – Spirit. Those who worship Him must do it out of their very being, their spirits, their true selves, in adoration.
This week at Bridge Kids, we talked about how Worship is one of God’s Love Languages, which can take many forms, just like our own Love Languages. Our main focus this week was Worship through Artistic Expression. We discussed showing love and thankfulness to God by creating art. Creating a work of art, in worship to God, is like the Love Language, Gifts.
We started out, talking about Core Values – what does that mean? It means it’s the center (core) of what we build everything we do on. We then took a minute to sit in our circle, quietly thinking about things we are thankful for – whether it is people in our lives, our homes, school, or our life. This gave us time to reflect and prepare ourselves for the act of worship.
Today, we set up stations so the kids could express themselves through different types of art and experience what it’s like to worship God through art. We challenged them to find time this week to do an art project, simple or complex, which reflects their thankfulness to God.
We will be discussing and exercising different ways to Worship God through the month of November – Art, Dancing, Songwriting, etc. We encourage you to talk with your kids about the different ways you like to Worship – what works for you, what doesn’t, what works for them, what doesn’t. And, ask you be open to trying new things.
Dine and Dish:
Talk –
Talk to your kids about worship. What does it mean to you? How do you like to worship God? Ask them how they think they might like to worship.
Ask your kids what they are thankful for in their lives.
Discuss the things you are thankful for in your life.
Do an activity together: If you are a parent who is timid about art – that’s ok. Let your kids guide you on this one. Be sure to take time to reflect – even if it’s 2 minutes – on God, things to be thankful for and make sure it’s a quiet time, or a brief discussion. See if having different types of music playing in the background inspires you in different ways.
Drawing/Painting – Get out paper and pens, pencils, crayons, paint etc. and draw or paint things you are thankful for with your kids. Take time before you do to be quiet together and reflect on the things you are thankful for. Mat or frame the art if you want.
Collage – This is a great way to get reuse your old magazines or newspapers….maybe even certain books. Cut, tear, glue, imagine.
Photography – Walk around your house or outside with your kids – if it’s raining, grab an umbrella. Let your kids take photos with your camera. If they are too little to handle a camera, let them direct the photography session. Get prints of the pics and frame them – even if the photos aren’t “centered” or what you might think are “good”. Be sure to remind them to be thoughtful of what they are photographing – ask why they are choosing a particular subject.
Play Dough/Sculpting – Yes, Play Dough can be used for Worship! Sculpt, twist, smash together, but be thoughtful and genuine in what you are doing.
Found Art – Walk around the neighborhood with your kids, go to the Goodwill and find things that wouldn’t normally be picked up and create a sculpture or picture with what you have found. This is a good way to talk about how things may get ugly in life, you can find the beauty in it, if you seek it.
Patches – Create clothing/backpack patches with your kids using old clothing. Rip or cut into squares and using fabric paint, Sharpie markers, embroidery, create designs and attach by sewing or using safety pins.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
2 comments:
Bird wanted to tell a spooky halloween story that she heard. Me being oblivious to the fact that it really might be spooky think "what a great idea, she can tell us a story..." so I turn down the music and she starts telling this story about a creepy six foot barbie doll that these people wanted to buy for 2000 dollars. And then this girl went to sleep, and heard in her sleep ... POLLY I'm downstairs from your room. She wakes up and says... Oh it must be a dream.
then she goes back to sleep and hears the voice "Polly I'm 14 steps from your room" ...
Well bird has everyone captivated, and I start looking at crystal that this probably is not going to be ending with polly being reunited with her long lost barbie doll. Quickly we say "Bird... This sounds like a pretty scary story, lets maybe finish it another time." so we turn up the music and start dancing.
I whisper over to Bird. "Does she get killed in the end?" She smiles at me and nods her head like I had just opened a special present. I dance over to crystal and tell her that Polly gets killed. Thankfully the kids don't know what happend to poor polly.
But I woke up this morning and realized that if you ever want a cheesy scary story to really get creepy... have a 7 year old girl tell it. YIKES!
Oh man! I was getting scared while she was telling that story and then when one of our other girls ran and grabbed Geoff's legs, I knew we needed to stop....Holy cow!
It was an amazing Sunday -- to get to have a brief meditation time with the kids was really cool. Where we were totally quiet - breathed deeply in, for one breath and then out, to clear our minds and concentrate on one thing we were thankful for, was really incredible. And the kids totally got it....I was worried about participation on the meditation piece, because we are typically pretty chaotic and loud....but, they did it. Or at least they were quiet for a minute! :) And to hear whether or not the kids and volunteers were having a good/bad day and giving them the freedom to be in a good or bad mind space was really freeing for the kids. You could see it. You could see a little light go on when we said God wants to know what's going on inside of us, even if you're feeling sad or angry. It was pretty cool, because we had everything from Bird’s collage of Autumn and Winter (her favorite times of the year) to Brad (a 13 year old visitor) that had different kinds of cars and designs on his, to Veda’s (who is 3) which was all yellow marker -- she said “I’m happy today.” and Missi (one of our volunteers) shared a drawing that showed she was thankful for one of her friends who helped out with her birthday party....
Can't wait for next week!
Post a Comment