Family Faith and Fun Fridays: Bankrupt without Love
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!
Bankrupt Without Love
In conjunction with our Fourteen Days of Love, I’ve challenged my kids to join me in memorizing the Apostle Paul’s classic description of love in 1 Corinthians 13. When I was reading those verses in The Message last week, I was struck by the word picture painted by the contemporary translation in the verse that introduces all the others. If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love (I Cor. 13:3)
As I turned those words over and over in my head, I asked God to give me a way to communicate this convicting truth to my children: When it’s all said and done, even our BEST efforts mean NOTHING without love.
Last weekend, we used this simple little activity to drive a bit of truth home. (And based on the tears and tantrums that resulted, I believe the lesson hit the mark!)To begin, I set up a simple challenge course. The kids had to complete four different activities. They had to…
1. Toss 3 out of 5 balls into a large bucket
2. Hit a target on the wall with bullets from a Nerf gun
3. Run down the hallway without touching the floor. (They had to jump from pillow to pillow without letting their feet touch the carpet.)
4. Catch an airborne plastic ring on a short plastic sword (This is a pirate’s version of ringtoss!)Before they began their challenges, I gave each participant four tokens. I told them that for every challenge completed with success, they would gain another token. HOWEVER, once they had received their “payment” for the challenge, we’d have to see if their task had been accomplished in love.
In order to “test” their heart’s motivation, I spread out a whole deck of cards face down on the coffee table (Think Go-Fish pond here). If the kids drew a card in the suit of hearts, they would get to keep their tokens. However, if they drew a card that was not a heart, they owed me two tokens.
Quite often, a child would complete the challenge perfectly, but then still lose tokens. Without a doubt, the loss created great frustration. In fact, at one point, we paused the game for a major preschool tantrum when Joshua drew a spade and had to surrender his last token even though he’d struck the target on the wall on the first try.
“But I’ve got NO MONEY!” he hollered as he threw the Nerf gun on the floor. “It’s like my perfect shot didn’t even count!” (Precisely.) So no matter what I do I’m bankrupt without love.
When our challenges were complete, we counted the tokens. Two of my four participants were totally bankrupt thanks to the fact that they hadn’t drawn a single heart card the entire game. The other two were rich. Not only had they successfully completed each challenge, but they had drawn hearts every single time, thus keeping the tokens they had gained. Once the frustration dissipated, I read I Corinthians 13:3 from The Message (see above).
How would it feel to do great things for God and find out that none of your work counted? None of your great accomplishments mattered in Heaven? Everyone agreed it would be frustrating. Kind of like how it felt to complete these challenges and still lose your tokens?
Heads nodded. Eyes brightened with understanding. Motive matters. The condition of our heart matters.
Even small things done with great love make us rich. Great things done without love leave us poor.Bankrupt. And that’s a lesson my token-less tantrum-prone preschooler won’t forget too soon.
The Overflow: And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
-I Corinthians 13:13
The Overflow: And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
-I Corinthians 13:13
Oh, you are so right.. it isn’t just hard to teach this lesson to my kids.. it’s hard to get it myself. Don’t want to think about all the times I’ve done “great things” without love. Thanks for stopping by today. I’d love to hear how you modify this activity for boys only 🙂 Rougher, tougher, crazier? That’s certainly what my buys would like. Have a great weekend
Thanks for the encouragement, Sherri. I will bounce that compliment right back to you. So glad God gives me friends who inspire and spur me on.
I LOVE this!It is a challenging thing to teach children and teens how that how you do something – attitude and love – make a difference in the action and (inside) result. What a great idea. I’m going to be turning this over in my head and see how it comes out to my boys!
Brilliant again!
Your such a great teacher!
I was listening to a talk this week on teaching by the spirit…it was intended for all who teach! I took it as a lesson for myself as a mom! As I thought about it, I couldn’t help but think of you!
You truly let the spirit lead you!
Your amazing!
This was a brilliant family night! 🙂