Teach Me Jesus Thursday: The Treasure of Our Heart
Last week, I posted a review of Exploring Grace Together: 40 Devotionals for the Family
and talked about helping our children seek Christ as their greatest treasure. Today, I want to share a hands-on activity I posted last year to help our kids remember Christ as their treasure.
“Mom, you’ll buy us a new toy when we are on vacation, right?”
My kids are bombarded everyday with advertisements to buy new things. They receive a free Lego magazine in the mail where they see all the new sets they could buy. They pour over it, circling the items they want to save their allowance for. Even after getting a new toy, all too soon, I hear, “Mom, I’m bored!”
“What about the new Legos you just got?”
“I’m done with them.”
“Already?”
My heart is the same way. I want something new and then soon after I get it, I want something else that’s new. My heart is never satisfied. It’s because I fill it with temporary things that can never fill the place in my heart made for God alone.
This is a topic I talk with my children about all the time. We talk about how Jesus is the greatest treasure of our heart and that we are called to love him with all our heart, soul, and mind. We’ve done activities to help them think about the things they might put in their heart above Christ. I pray for them that Christ would be their greatest joy, treasure, and delight.
We once did a hands-on activity to help them remember their greatest treasure. I found small wooden treasure boxes at the craft store that I knew my boys would love to use to put their small collections of shells and other finds inside. They decided that instead of painting them, they wanted to draw on them with permanent marker. While they colored, I read to them the story of the man who found a treasure in the The Jesus Storybook Bible: Every Story Whispers His Name. We then talked about what it means for Jesus to be our greatest treasure. I told them that every time they look at their treasure box, it is a reminder of Who their greatest treasure is.
Do you have any fun object lessons that teach children about their greatest treasure? I’d love to hear!
