I am so excited to introduce you to the Character Challenge Kid’s Camp! I know many of you are not beginning summer right now, in fact, it may be winter where you live like it is for me! Either way, Summer Camp at Home might be the perfect way to kick off your summer or may be a wonderful resource to discuss character with your kids as you disciple them at any time of the year! I hope this is a great opportunity to discuss character during your Family Bible Time or as you Disciple Your Kids! Here’s how it’s going to work:
DIY SUMMER CAMP AT HOME: CHARACTER KID’S CHALLENGE:
- Feel free to follow along our Summer Camp week as is or adjust according to what works with your family schedule. If doing a character each day doesn’t work for you then spread it out between two weeks or even do one per week!
- Each day you will have a different “camp counselor” aka our amazing faith blogger who will guide you through the character of that day with themed activities like an object lesson, recipe, craft or activity. You’ll find all of this on their blog.
- Once you complete that day look at the schedule and hop on over and visit the next “camp counselor” to get the activity for the following day.
- Make sure you follow each amazing faith blogger so you can continue getting their family-friendly posts after the Character Kid’s Camp is over.
To get the full details, head over to Inspired by Family Mag!
I get to host the last day of the challenge right here! So, let’s get started with Day 7 of the Character Challenge!
Day 7: Be Generous
Today we get to talk about being generous!
Generosity Bible Lesson:
To start the lesson off, have your kids go and find the item they treasure most or that is their very favorite. Don’t forget to also go and find your most treasured possession too!
When everyone is back, have each person share the item they picked. Ask questions like:
- What is it?
- Why is it your favorite?
- How hard would it be to give it up or to give it to someone else in need?
Discuss together how everyone’s items can reveal what we treasure most in life. Do we treasure our things, people, or God?
Next, let’s have a look at someone in the Bible and what she treasured the most.
Read Mark 12:41-44. Discuss the following questions, adapting for the age of your kids.
- Why was Jesus so impressed by the widow’s offering?
- Why does Jesus say she gave more than everyone else?
- Why do you think she was willing to give so much?
- Why should we be generous too? (Talk about how generous God is to us through Christ. We can love generously because Christ first loved us so generously!)
- How can you be giving and generous to others just like the widow was?
There are so many ways to be generous. We can be generous with our money, our time, our abilities, etc. Discuss some ideas of what it looks like to be generous in these different ways. Make sure to include how to be generous both inside your home with parents and siblings, and also outside of the home in the community.
Sometimes it is hard and we have to give up the things we treasure most, like the items brought together earlier that we love so much. What might it be like to give up the things we love in order to love others?
Verses for further study depending on ages of your kids OR if you’d like to spend more time discussing: 2 Corinthians 9:7, 1 John 3:16-18, 1 Timothy 6:17-19
Generosity Family Activity:
Today you get to do a fun family activity practicing generosity together! Choose from the following options or spread them out and do them all over a period of time if you’d like!
Donating Goods: Your job is to get into your cupboards and find all the canned goods and packaged foods that you have. Put them into a box and drive together to deliver them to your local food bank. Discuss along the way what the purpose of the food bank is, where the food you are donating will go to, and what it was like to be generous together. Spend time praying for those you are donating to and for those in need in your community and around the world. Ask God to help your family to give joyfully and sacrificially for His glory and name.
Have a Lemonade Stand Fundraiser: Yep, that’s right! Make a big batch of lemonade and maybe some cookies if you’d like, and have a good, old-fashioned lemonade stand outside of your house. As you are preparing the lemonade and any other goodies, make a decision as a family where/who you want to raise money for. Some suggestions may be: A missionary you know, the local homeless shelter/food bank, your friend’s adoption, your favorite organization such as World Vision or International Justice Mission, or your local church. You will be surprised at the amount of money you can raise when you are donating to a good cause!
Decide together to support a cause: Bring a few ideas that you are passionate about supporting and discuss together as a family what you want to support. Maybe you could choose to start sponsoring a child that is the same age as your child through Compassion or World Vision. Other ideas might be: Donate from the Samaritan’s Purse Gift Catalog (this goes along with a book mentioned later!), begin supporting a missionary you know or a missions agency, or give to a local mission you want to support. Get creative- those are just a few ideas, but you know the missions you are passionate about as a family!
Serve your neighbors together: Do you have a neighbor that you could bless with mowing their lawn, planting flowers, weeding the garden, or in some other way? Maybe they are extra busy or elderly or just someone you want to serve. Or maybe your church or school needs help in a similar way. Choose someone as a family to bless and be generous with your time together.
Those are just a few ideas to get you started. For a long list of great activities, I love the list at Kid World Citizen!
Children’s Books Encouraging Generosity:
Beatrice’s Goat by Page McBrier: This is by far one of our family’s favorite books!! It is a beautiful, true story of a family in Uganda who receives a goat from an organization (like the one’s listed above) and how it impacts their lives drastically. I would highly recommend this one!
Ronnie Wilson’s Gift by Francis Chan: This is another favorite in our family! It is about a boy who wants to give a gift to Jesus and what he finds is that as he is generous and doing things for others, he is also doing it for Jesus.
The Giving Tree by Shel Silverstein: This is a classic read and a great picture of the beautiful gift of giving to others.
I pray these ideas get you discussing how to be generous both with one another and outside of your home! Spend time praying for your own heart to grow in Christ-likeness in this area, and ask God to do the work in your kids’ hearts as well, as He alone can change their hearts and their character. As we do so, remember that our generosity comes from a response of how very generous our great God is to us!
“By this we know love, that he laid down his life for us, and we ought to lay down our lives for the brothers. But if anyone has the world’s goods and sees his brother in need, yet closes his heart against him, how does God’s love abide in him? Little children, let us not love in word or talk but in deed and in truth.” 1 John 3:16-18
For more on discipling your kids, check out these posts!:
Discipling Children: Where Do You Start?
Getting Started with Family Bible Time
Or the Family Discipleship tab for more resources.
If you’re new here, I’d love to connect with you! Head over to the About page to learn more about what Raising Everyday Disciples is all about!
If you haven’t already, make sure you don’t miss out on the other days of the character challenge:
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What a wonderful idea!! This will be such a blessing for families! 💕