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The Armor of God for Children

Tuesday, December 2nd, 2014

My children drew the armor of God, and we discussed what each piece of armor meant. We also did exercises to grow in our ability to use each piece of armor.

The Armor of God

The armor of God can be found in Ephesians 6:10-18. These are the pieces mentioned:

Belt of Truth
Breastplate of Righteousness
Sandals of Peace
Shield of Faith
Helmet of Salvation
Sword of the Spirit

As the children drew the pieces of armor, we discussed what each one meant, and we practised implementing each piece for real in our lives. Let’s start with the Belt of Truth.

Belt of Truth

The only way to discern the truth is to study the Word of God. Our enemy is the great deceiver, and he uses half-truths and technical truths to lie. If you are rationalizing sin, for example, you are not dwelling on truth; instead, you are being deceived, and that deception will bite you by causing you to stumble and alienating you from God. All sin instantly separates you from God, and God does not forgive sin unless you repent. If you are saved, you don’t lose your salvation when you sin, but you have no fellowship with God and no ability to walk by the Spirit. You will not have peace and joy in your life.

Philippians 4:8 tells us to dwell on what is true. Do not go down rabbit trails in your mind to what is false or sinful. Keep your mind disciplined to dwell on truth and study truth. Truth conquers error.

Another deception that many people believe is that they are worthless. This causes them to spiral down in their minds to not accomplish anything for the Lord. If you need help in controlling your mind, I have a free audio for you here: Controlling your Mind. And if you struggle with depression, here is an article that can help: Fight Depression with Truth.

Breastplate of Righteousness

Righteousness is seeking after holiness, or getting rid of sin in your life. I often stop my children in the middle of sin, take them to a separate room, and describe the sin that they are committing. This way my kids can back up and see their sin for the ugliness that it is, and they can repent and turn from it and do what is right.

The more you get rid of sin in your life, the more the Holy Spirit will fill you. God cannot stand sin and is grieved deeply whenever we sin. This is why it is impossible to display the fruit of the Spirit in our lives (love, joy, peace) unless we are continually pursuing righteousness.

I Timothy 4:7 says to practice for the purpose of righteousness. That means we can deliberately practice how to act before we are presented with the same temptations where we normally sin. Come up with a plan for what we will do. For one of my sons, he feels anger whenever his sister is annoying. So what is his plan of escape when his sister provokes him again? Talk it through with your son, giving him a list of options for not sinning.

Feet Shod with the Gospel

We need to be prepared to defend our faith, and we need to be prepared to share the gospel. First of all, you should be ready to make a defense of your faith if anyone should ask you why you believe what you believe. If someone in a college class seems to present evidence that contradicts Scripture, how will you defend your faith? You must have a solid foundation in apologetics, which is the ability to defend your faith. Evidence that Demands a Verdict by Josh MacDowell is a set of two books that answers commonly posed questions with biblical answers. Creation vs. evolution materials are also helpful. Answers in Genesis and Intelligent Design are two places that have excellent materials to prove the existence of God based on creation. (For example, a single cell is so complicated that there is no way that it would create itself. This is why Romans 1 and 2 state clearly that all mankind knows that there is a Creator, and that people are without excuse when they turn away from God.)

You also need to be able to share your faith. My children paired up and practised sharing the gospel. I recorded my children sharing the gospel with each other in the video entitled “The Armor of God,” which is found in the Vault. Any child can share the gospel clearly, as you can see in the video. Practice until you are comfortable sharing the gospel.

Shield of Faith

Romans 10:17 says that faith comes from hearing, and hearing from the Word of God. Once you have faith, you can grow in your faith by studying the Word of God and through prayer. Studying the Word of God will teach you who God is, and you will trust Him more. But the greatest way I’ve grown in my faith is through prayer. Answered prayer has built my faith to a point that I know that God will grant certain requests because they are the will of God. Suddenly I had tons of power in prayer because I combined faith in the Word of God (that God’s Word is true) with aligning my will to God’s will. To know more about how to grow in your faith through prayer, I have tons of free audios and articles here: Prayer Audios and Articles.

Helmet of Salvation

Make sure that you are saved. If you have not put your trust in Christ, you won’t have the Holy Spirit living in you, enabling you to live the Christian life. It’s normal for God to transform your character in impossible ways. But if you haven’t trusted that Christ paid the penalty for your sin, and if you have no desire for Him to be Lord of your life, you will not be saved. Without a helmet, you will get hit in the head by the enemy and die.

The sad reality is that lots of so-called Christians blab some words and think they’re saved when they feel no remorse over sin in their lives. If you’re walking in overt sin in your life and you don’t care, you are not saved.

Sword of the Spirit

The Sword of the Spirit is the Word of God, and it’s our only offensive weapon besides prayer, which is mentioned right after the armor. The Word of God pierces into sin or temptation, so you are able to resist sin with Scripture, just like Jesus did. We need to commit the Word of God to memory so that the Holy Spirit can bring it to mind to convict us of sin later. We should especially memorize Scripture in areas of weakness in our lives, so that we can conquer those sins. You can also write a verse on an index card and tape it to the mirror to remind you of it throughout the day.

Here is a craft you can do with your kids to symbolize the Sword of the Spirit:

Sword of the Spirit Craft

Scripture memory and Sword drills are helpful exercises to do with your kids. You can speak the Word of God into an audio and play it back every day for easy memorization. You can also do Sword drills where your kids try to find their way around the Bible. They should memorize the books of the Bible and be able to know that Psalms is in the middle, for example. They should be able to find Matthew quickly, or Jude (go to Revelation and subtract a page). By knowing how to use the Sword of the Spirit, your children will have their sword sharp and ready for spiritual battle.

One of my children drew the armor of God as separate pieces instead of a warrior dressed in all the pieces of armor. He boiled each piece down to one word. I think he did a great job.

Ephesians 6:11 says to put on the whole armor of God, so that you may be able to stand against the enemy. Make sure to practice each of these pieces of armor to grow strong in each one.

If you would like to see the video that goes with this post, feel free to join the Unit Study Treasure Vault, which has a huge Bible section!

Tags:armor, Bible, Bible class, drawing, New Testament
Posted in Bible | 12 Comments »

I Corinthians 13: Love Illustrated

Monday, December 1st, 2014

My children drew pictures of I Corinthians 13 to illustrate what love meant. They tried to think of ways that people could show love or a lack of love to each other, and they drew pictures of those examples. You could also write skits to perform for a group, showing how to love other people selflessly, using the list of descriptive words from I Corinthians 13: 4-8b: (NIV)

Love is patient; love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres. Love never fails.

My oldest son drew a picture of a taxi driver who had lost his keys. The man who is obviously needing to get to the airport (lots of luggage) is being patient as the taxi driver tries to remember where he put his keys.

In real life, we need to show patience with each other all the time. Love suffers long. It waits. It puts the other person first and is not impatient.

My second son drew a picture of someone envying someone else. It looks like the person on the right is on a computer or tablet, and the person dressed in green wants it. Love does not envy. Love wants the other person to have good things, and rejoices when the other person rejoices.

A lot is going on in my daughter’s drawing. On the top left of the page, a younger brother breaks a teddy bear by accident, and the sister, even though she is sad, does not retaliate or get angry. She forgives her brother.

On the upper right corner, someone is giving a gift to another person, being kind to them.

On the lower right you see a person in blue encouraging the person in gray that their hair will grow back. He is not rude and doesn’t make fun of the poor guy who obviously had a bad hair cut.

On the lower left, you have someone trying to have patience and not keeping a record of wrongs when a vase was broken.

My third son has someone punching someone else in the face, and the person in blue is keeping a record of wrongs. Of course, these actions do not show love. Instead, the boy in yellow should have returned an insult with a blessing instead of a punch, and the boy in blue should have forgiven instead of harboring a grudge.

Sign up below for a free Bible crafts e-book!

If you enjoyed these drawings, you will probably enjoy the entire series of 31 Days of Drawing through the Bible.

Tags:Bible, drawing, Drawing through the Bible, love, New Testament
Posted in Bible | 6 Comments »

25 Christmas Gifts for Children to Make

Friday, November 28th, 2014

Here are 25 fun Christmas gifts for children to make. Twig frames, clocks, bottle cap magnets, and more! They look beautiful and can be custom-made for friends and family:

Twig Frame: Hot glue twigs to a frame. Gorgeous and simple. Make sure to choose a picture to put into the frame.
Clock: Make your own clock by getting the parts at a craft store. Stain or paint the wood, drill a hole for the clock parts to be mounted, and decorate.
Bottle Cap Magnets: Cut circles of paper and decorate them with markers. Glue into bottle caps, and put magnet backing on them.
Pottery: Get some self-hardening clay and a toy pottery wheel, and make some pottery.
Basket: Purchase a basket-making kit and weave a basket.
Decorated Candle: Glue tissue paper onto a jar with a candle inside.
Box of Homemade Cards: Have children decorate homemade cards with card stock paper, cloth fragments, glue, and markers.
Soap Shapes: Use a cookie cutter to make soap shapes.
Shape Books: Create shape books for younger brothers and sisters with paper, a stapler, and construction paper.
Dolls and Pillows: Cut out shapes of felt, stuff them, and sew them together. Add embellishments. (Here is another example)
Pop Bottle Bird Feeder: Make this simple bird feeder with a pop bottle for the bird lovers in your family.
Crazy Hat: Decorate a crazy hat for a younger sibling.
Costume: Make a simple Bible costume, Egyptian costume, Greek costume, or Roman costume to give away as a gift to someone who enjoys theater.
Embossed ornaments: Make some embossed ornaments with an embossing kit. Here are some tips for success in embossing.
Roman Coins: Make Roman coins for someone who likes that time period.
Clay Sculpture: Sculpt a shape out of clay that will delight the recipient. Sculpt a fish for a fisherman, an apple for a teacher, or a pie for a baker.
Coat of Arms: This would be for older children to sew, or you can have younger children glue felt shapes onto a shield shape.
Toy Trebuchet: Get a toy trebuchet kit and have your child put it together for a younger sibling.
Framed Poem and Illustration: Write an original poem and illustrate it. Frame both the poem and the illustration. (These can be heartfelt and poignant or downright silly.)
DVD of a Puppet Show: Have your child write and perform a puppet show, using the video camera on the computer. Burn the show onto a DVD and give it to a younger sibling or to Grandma.
Cross Mosaic: Get an unfinished wooden cross from a craft store and glue tiles onto it. Great as a wall hanging.
Canvas Bag: Decorate a plain canvas bag by sewing embellishments on it or making a design with fabric markers.
Decorated Ornaments: Make faces on regular Christmas balls with any crafts supplies lying around your house. These look goofy!
Box of Snowflake Cards: Make a box of snowflake cards by poking holes and sewing white yarn into black card stock paper.
Framed Textured Art: Create textured art by gluing pieces of fabric together to form a pattern. Frame your masterpiece!

Tags:art, Christmas, crafts, gifts, Homeschooling
Posted in Art, Fun Winter Activities | 12 Comments »

Chemistry Coloring Book

Wednesday, November 26th, 2014

I received copies of this book for free and was compensated for an honest review. This post may contain affiliate links.

If you’ve been following my blog, you’ve noticed all the cool chemistry experiments we’ve been doing. I have been teaching my younger two kids elementary-level chemistry and my older two kids high school chemistry. I had all four of my kids color one element per day in The Periodic Table of Elements Coloring Book, and we learned a lot about each element!

This chemistry coloring book has one element per page: one side lists bullet points to help us find out about that element, and the other side is a coloring page about that element. By coloring the pictures, you cement in your mind visually what each element is all about. Even though I aced my high school chemistry class years ago, I never learned all the elements so up-close like this!

Here is a video where I explain how I used the book:

I read the bulleted list for one element each day, and it took less than five minutes. While I read the page, the kids colored the coloring page. We located each element on the Periodic Table at the front of the book, and we became familiar with each element as the days went by.

The day we studied Neon, we were driving around in the car, and my 9-year-old daughter pointed to a Neon sign and shouted, “Neon! Atomic number 10! Let’s find more Neon signs, Mom!” She would never have known that Neon was atomic number 10 if we hadn’t studied it that day. The coloring book caused my elementary-aged daughter to become familiar with elements, and she wanted to play games trying to find those elements. She screamed with joy when she recognized the first Neon sign after having colored it in her book earlier that day.

For my high school-level students, you never really get the chance to become familiar with elements like this during a chemistry course. Because my high school students had done one simple coloring page a day, they internalized the lighter and heavier elements in their minds. For example, Hydrogen is atomic #1, and it is the lightest element. When we were halfway through the coloring book, we knew that the elements that we were familiar with were the lighter elements. The unfamiliar elements were on the bottom half of the chart. Each number goes up in atomic mass (or weight), so when my high school-level students were trying to find an element on the Periodic Table, they located the elements a lot more quickly because of their familiarity with each element. Like I said, we located one element on the chart per day as we colored the elements.

There is plenty of time during a school year to take it one element per day rather than just rushing through them. We also tried to locate those elements in real life each day when we could. For example, Sodium is present in table salt, so you can have a salt shaker in front of you as you read the Sodium page. We found some more elements in our rocks and minerals collection. When you study Helium, why not go to a party store and buy a Helium balloon to celebrate that element, which is obviously lighter than air!

There are no drawbacks from this chemistry coloring book aside from a few typos which are common in all books and don’t detract from the great content. Also, the book only covers the first 56 elements, and elements 72-86, which are the most common elements. I’m fine with that. We LOVED the book, and I highly recommend it for all the reasons I’ve mentioned.

After going through The Periodic Table of Elements Coloring Book, whenever we watch a show that mentions any element on the Periodic Table, we know what the show is talking about. Because we are more knowledgeable about the elements, my kids are confident in their study of chemistry.

Tags:chemistry, coloring book, Homeschooling, science
Posted in Science | 6 Comments »

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