For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires.
-Hebrews 4:12
Welcome to Family Faith and Fun Fridays! As the week winds down and I anticipate more family time over the weekend, I often ask God for one good idea that will enable me to bring the Word to life and bring our family together. Usually, the activity overflows out of something the Lord has been teaching me through His Word during the week. I’d like to invite you to join me and my family in the adventure. Sometimes I’ll post things we’ve tried; other times I’ll post an idea in the works. If you’ve got thoughts to add or suggestions on how to adapt or improve the activity, please don’t hesitate to comment.Enjoy!
Why We Can Be Called Royal (even though sin makes us rotten)!
Ever since we brought this simple scripture to life, Josh has been asking if we can “read the Bible with Play Doh again.”
So last night at the dinner table, I placed a small chunk of red and blue Play Doh on every child’s plate and used the dough to remind my clan of their ROYAL IDENTITY in Christ.
Here’s how we did it:
I asked the kids to hold the blue Play Doh in their hand as we talked about our fall from grace. When God first created people, He planned for them to live in perfect harmony with Him- walking with Him and talking with Him and enjoying their identities as His chosen children. But then what happened? (Adam and Eve at the forbidden fruit and sin entered the world- see Genesis 3).
So, when sin entered the world through Adam and Eve, it put a wedge between God and His children. God’s kids could no longer enjoy all the perks of being a part of God’s family, because sin kept them from being able to live in perfect friendship with God.
Sin made the hearts of God’s children sad and blue like this Play Doh.
God needed a plan to fix our sad hearts and bring us back into His family.
So He sent His very own son, Jesus. (See John 3:16).Now I had the kids pick up their red Play Doh and hold it in their other hand.
Somehow Jesus needed to help God’s sad and blue children become a part of His royal family again.
How did He do that? (The cross. Jesus shed His own blood and took the punishment for our sins.)
At this point, I instructed the kids to knead their Play Doh together as I said, So when Jesus offered His own blood to cover up our sinful hearts, what happened?
The Play Doh turned purple. We regained our place in God’s royal family!
I read Romans 5:12-19
You know the story of how Adam landed us in the dilemma we’re in— first sin, then death, and no one exempt from either sin or death. That sin disturbed relations with God in everything and everyone, but the extent of the disturbance was not clear until God spelled it out in detail to Moses. So death, this huge abyss separating us from God, dominated the landscape from Adam to Moses. Even those who didn’t sin precisely as Adam did by disobeying a specific command of God still had to experience this termination of life, this separation from God. But Adam, who got us into this, also points ahead to the One who will get us out of it.
Yet the rescuing gift is not exactly parallel to the death-dealing sin. If one man’s sin put crowds of people at the dead-end abyss of separation from God, just think what God’s gift poured through one man, Jesus Christ, will do! There’s no comparison between that death-dealing sin and this generous, life-giving gift. The verdict on that one sin was the death sentence; the verdict on the many sins that followed was this wonderful life sentence. If death got the upper hand through one man’s wrongdoing, can you imagine the breathtaking recovery life makes, sovereign life, in those who grasp with both hands this wildly extravagant life-gift, this grand setting-everything-right, that the one man Jesus Christ provides?
Here it is in a nutshell: Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life! One man said no to God and put many people in the wrong; one man said yes to God and put many in the right.
When Jesus made us right with God, we became part of the King’s royal family once again.
I ended by reading I Peter 2:9 as the kids used the purple Play Doh to make something that signified their royal identity.
But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood,a holy nation,God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.
You don’t need a fancy crown or a throne room to celebrate who you are in Christ–just a little Play Doh and a Bible and a willing set of hands! Why not serve your little princes and princesses a plate of truth this weekend? And delight together in the King of Kings.
For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. 
Sin made the hearts of God’s children sad and blue like this Play Doh. 
Copy away, friend. I steal half of my ideas from you anyway 🙂
Your Family Night lessons are my favorite!
And this is awesome!
I hope to copy it with my kiddos!