Frugality Idea: Having Fun (with a Spiritual twist) :)

It's fun to see how seemingly random things are used by God.   A few weeks ago some ladies online and I decided to do a Bible study together.  We all have children who are 2 1/2 (with many of us having other children also).  We settled on the book "The Power of a Positive Mom" by Karol Ladd.  I was unfamiliar with this author but liked the summary.  We have only done 3 chapters so far but I'm really enjoying this study.  Not only has it been a great study on parenting; the author encourages you to focus on a verse or verses from your reading to memorize. 

In my post on frugality I had mentioned one of my priorities was to Have fun! Some of the ways I had listed to achieve this was to do crafts, etc.  Well, this week in "The Power of a Positive Mom" we were encouraged to foster our children's natural, God-given gifts.  Showing that their talents come from God and all they have is to be used for God's glory.  Chapter 3 focused on speaking encouragement to our children.  One quote that caught my eye was "We can use Scripture to encourage our children as well.  We can compliment them on demonstrating the same kind of loyalty that Ruth showed  toward Naomi or on being a good friend like Jonathan was to David" (pg 46).    The author also asked us to look for those things that really capture our children's interest.  What they love to do! 

I had an idea in mind but wanted to see if the kids would really be interested.  As soon as I told them my idea they loved it and off we went.  Here is what we did.  I let them choose a Bible story for us to read together.  They both chose the story of Zaccheaus.  So I pulled out my Bible and read, then I asked them the following questions:
1) Why didn't people like Zaccheaus? He had cheated them, been unkind.
2) What example did Jesus show to the crowds? He showed love for someone who wasn't very loveable..He lived out "love your enemies"
3) What happened when Jesus went to Zaccheaus' house?  He believed and was saved.
4) What can we learn from Jesus?  That no matter how unkind someone is we still need to be kind and to show them God's love.  We don't know what is in their heart and they may just be waiting for someone to show them God's love before they will believe.
5) What can we learn from Zaccheaus?  When we realize we have sinned we need to repent and turn from our sin.  Zaccheaus didn't just say he was sorry he actively showed the change in his heart.

While we were discussing these questions Ethan was drawing and coloring a storyboard/background of what happened (he did two, one of when Jesus saw Zaccheaus in the tree and one of Zaccheaus' house).  Ethan loves to draw and is very artistic.  He also decided to build two Lego figures to place in front of the background (to act out the story).  Hailey loves anything musical and will often write little songs so her task was to write a song about what happened.  She was very excited to do this. 
Not only did this activity give the opportunity for spiritual discussion but it also highlighted their talents, was a lot of fun for them and was free!  I'm certainly planning to do this again in the near future.