If you remember, our umbrella verse is 1 Timothy 4:12 "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love and in purity. So for our first week we tackled Super Speech! Our first day was this really great experiment. Our verse for Super Speech is an abriviated Matthew 12:34 "...your mouth says everything that is in your heart." As I said before, I've been using
ImpressYourKids as resource, so click the link to see the real thing. Timo and Cameron really enjoyed this one and it made a huge impression on them.
Basically we were making two different drinks, one yucky and one yummy. The principle is which would you rather have coming out of your mouth (speech), good stuff or bad stuff. I gather the supplies while they were at school. Leaves, dirt, rocks, sticks for the yucky and lemonade, lemons, strawberry ice pop for the yummy. I had each child make a drink...Timo, of course, wanted to make the yucky one and Cameron grabbed the sweet stuff.
Once they were mixed, I poured them into cups and asked "what happens when I pour this yucky stuff into the cups." Holding their nose and making crinkled faces, they answered "yucky comes out, ewwww!" Then I poured the yummy drink and both quickly grabbed that cup to drink. We then pretended the mixture was our hearts. If we put yucky things in our heart, like whining disobedience and complaining, then yucky stuff come out. But if we put good things in our hearts, like scripture from the bible about obedience encouraging words, love and being a blessing, then good things will come out of our mouths. Mission accomplished!
Another day we focused on Ephesians 4:29 "Don't let any unclean talk come out of your mouth but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen." Cameron had to put on her supergirl costume for this one...go figure. We made lip and said the verse over again. Then, through our lips, we said good things...like pretty flowers, rainbows, big trees, superhero, Mommy, hearts, etc...you get the idea. They couldn't say anything bad/negative for two whole minutes. Doesn't sound too hard but for two 4 year olds, it was a challenge! Things tend to turn silly real fast.
Then I pulled out their building blocks and we read the verse again, asking if it said anything about building? Yes, build each other up! So we built huge towers, each taking a turn adding a block. Each block they added, they had to say something encouraging about the other. My personal favorites were Timo to Cameron "I like the way you color pictures." Cameron to Timo "I love you because you are my brother." Timo to Mommy "I like the way you snuggle with me." And Cameron to Mommy "I like the yummy food you cook for me." This was such a good exercise for them about encouraging words. Not only that it's good to use encouraging words but how great it is to HEAR encouraging words.
We had an opportunity to put this into play the very next day. There was an argument that broke out in the car, something about who said what...I really can't remember what it was over, but the thing I do remember is turning around and asking them if they were building each other up right now or tearing them down with their words. They both stopped, rethought what they were saying and decided they both could be right, then said something nice to each other. Love when I catch them in a teachable moment and I can see how the Lord is working in their little innocent hearts!
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