Designed for Ages 6+

Materials:
Varied

Time Investment:
You will carve out around 10 minutes per day to discuss.

How To:
  1. At the beginning of Lent, make a list of 40 words that your family will use to anchor your prayer practice. Use the 40 words listed in the “notes” section, or think of your own.
  2. At the start of each day (except Sundays during Lent), take a look at the day’s word. Make sure everyone knows what the word is and commits to trying to think about the word throughout the day.
  3. At the end of the day, gather for prayer time as a family. Review the word and discuss it in one of the following ways:
    1. Draw a picture that represents the word
    2. Share a photo you took of something that represents the word
    3. Share what the word means to you, or how it affected you throughout the day
    4. Share how the word might be connected to the Lenten journey.
  4. Close by thanking God for the word and looking forward to the next day’s challenge

Notes
  • If you don’t want to come up with your own words, here are 40 you can use
    • Hope
    • Strength
    • Light
    • Fear
    • Love 
    • Freedom
    • Peace
    • Quiet
    • Dark
    • Cold
    • Water
    • Peace
    • Witness
    • Noise
    • Desert
    • Kindness
    • Friends
    • Strangers
    • Heaven
    • Wait
    • Despair
    • Weakness
    • Fire
    • Walk
    • Crawl
    • Run
    • Purple
    • Cross
    • Grace
    • Gift
    • Reflection
    • Remember
    • Eat
    • Shadow
    • Want
    • Mercy
    • Justice 
    • Lonely
    • Silence
    • Resurrection
  • The Spirit works in mysterious ways through prayer. It's fine if the photos, drawings, and stories that come out as a result of the prayer conversation don't feel "spiritual" or don't appear to have anything to do with Lent. Sometimes prayers that seem to lack significance at the time come to have meaning days, weeks, or even years later.
  • If you miss a day, just pick up again where you left off.

Variations:
  • Instead pf gathering as a family to discuss each word, gather once each week or once at the end of Lent to discuss how this went. This option might be particularly appealing for teens or older children who are interested in journaling and might not wish to share each day's photo, drawing, or thoughts.
  • As with the other two Lenten practices, these work well in larger groups. See if other families will join you for this Lenten practice.
  • Decide on the words together as a family before beginning.
​
*Taken from Faithful Families: Creating Sacred Moments at Home by Traci Smith
A Pray for Saying Thanks
     Thank you, God, for the gifts of sunshine, air, and water. Thank you for the gifts of smiles and words and each other. Help us to recognize these free and simple gifts you freely give us, all around us, and every day. Amen.

*Taken from Faithful Families: For Lent, Easter, and Resurrection
Weeks
A Baby is Born (Luke 2:1-7) Bible Passage
     What do you know about the day you were born or when you were brought home? Who was there? How did you get your name?

     After the Angel Gabriel visited Mary to tell her the news about her baby, she and Joseph got some more news. They heard that the Roman ruler, Caesar Augustus, wanted to count all the people in the Roman Empire; every man had to go to his hometown so that his family could be counted. Joseph's family was from Bethlehem. So Mary and Joseph left their home in Nazareth to go to Bethlehem. The trip was hard for a pregnant woman. Just imagine what it would have been like for Mary to make that trip with Joseph!

     While Mary and Joseph were in Bethlehem, they looked for a place to stay. It wasn't easy! Many people had come to Bethlehem. Every guestroom was full. At last, they found space in a room where the animals stayed. The baby was born in that room. Mary gently wrapped him in cloths and laid him in the manger, where the animals ate. This was the baby that the angel Gabriel had told her she would have.
Video
Saddleback Kids
This video is 1:55 minutes long
Sources
                                                                                      Prayer taken from:
  • Faithful Families for Lent, Easter, and Resurrection by Traci Smith (Chalice Press; 2021, All Reserved Rights)

                                                                                Bible Passage taken from:
  • Growing in God's Love: A Storybook Bible by Elizabeth Caldwell



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