During Lent, the 40 days of preparation for Easter, there is a special focus on prayer, fasting and almsgiving. My husband and I want to teach our boys to have a special awareness about doing these things throughout the year, but especially during Lent.
One of the ways we do this is what we call Jelly Beans for Jesus. The boys earn jelly beans by doing special acts of fasting, prayer, and almsgiving during Lent.
Read on to see how it works. Then you can download the free printable to help your kids with their own Jelly Beans for Jesus Lent Activity!
HOW IT WORKS
Each time the boys fast, say extra prayers, and do acts of almsgiving, they earn one jelly bean. We write their names on a clear plastic cup (clear so they can see the jelly beans they are accumulating) and set them in a special place in the house. We keep them up high so the 2 year old doesn’t get into them!
Once a special act has been done, the boys write what they did on a slip of paper and put it in the bowl that we place next to the cups. The younger boys who cannot write can tell us what they did.
Each day, my husband or I will read the slips of paper and place a jelly bean in their cup. Also, if we see them doing a special act, we will grab a jellybean and put it in their cup. We make sure to tell them what we saw and that they earned a jelly bean.
As Lent goes on, the boys can literally see how many extra things they are doing to prepare for Easter.
COLOR CODING
I decided to make the jelly beans color coded. Each action has a special color that goes along with it. We use the Starburst original jelly beans that are yellow, green, purple, orange, pink, and red.
Special prayers earn orange and pink jelly beans.
Fasting earns red and purple jelly beans.
Almsgiving (acts of kindness) earns yellow and green jelly beans.
So, not only can the kids see how many special acts they have done, they can see which types of acts they are doing. If their cup has a lot of orange and pink (praying) but not so much yellow and green (almsgiving) then my husband and I will point out that maybe they should focus some attention on doing some more almsgiving, along with extra prayers.
Prayer
Throughout the entire year, we say prayers together as a family before eating and at night before bedtime. So, we do not count these as prayers that earn a jelly bean during Lent. The boys need to say extra prayers in addition to what we normally do.
One way we help with this is to create a list of people and things that we can pray for. I print out the list and hang it up on the wall. Then the boys can use this list to pray special prayers throughout the day. You can get a copy of this list of prayer ideas in the free download at the end of this post.
We also set a rule that the prayers have to be substantial. Something like, “God, please help everyone traveling get home safely today.” wouldn’t be a long enough prayer. Even though it’s a great thing to pray for, I know my kids would be saying quick little prayers like that all day to get a bunch of jelly beans.
Therefore, it either has to be a set number of prayers or a set amount of time praying. We also talk about making sure the prayers are heartfelt and sincere and not just being said to earn a jelly bean.
Fasting
Often people think of fasting as giving up food, but we include giving up things and activities. We talk to the boys about fasting to rid ourselves of distractions so we can focus more on God. So, it is great for our boys to fast from video games and TV. We also try to have them fast from things like complaining and fighting with their brothers.
Of course, you might get something like what our oldest says every year – “Okay, I give up school!” or “I give up cleaning.” That is when we point out that it should be things that are a sacrifice or difficult to go without.
For the “Jelly Beans for Jesus” I also created a list of ideas of things we can fast from. We encourage the kids to pick one thing to fast from each day. For the jelly bean activity, they fast from that thing just for one day.
Almsgiving
Almsgiving is often thought of as giving money, food, or other goods to the poor. However, for our “Jelly Beans for Jesus” during Lent, we include doing kind deeds for others. So, helping a sibling or mom and dad do something qualifies as almsgiving. Giving of their time or helping a classmate, friend, family member or even stranger (holding open a door) all work for almsgiving.
BEING HONEST
When we start the Jelly Beans for Jesus Lent activity, we talk about being honest. Yes, the boys could lie about what they have done or make up that they did something (especially at school).
We discuss that God would know if they are lying and ask them if it is really worth lying just to earn a jelly bean. Then we have to hope that as parents, we have done a good enough job raising our kids that they would not lie for a jelly bean!
We also talk about how we are not fasting, praying, and doing almsgiving just to earn jelly beans. Like the name of the activity says, we are doing these things for Jesus and to help us grow in holiness. The jelly beans help to keep track of their actions and are a reward that they can enjoy at the end of Lent.
GRAB YOUR COPY
Included in the Jelly Beans for Jesus Lent Activity download is a color coded poster with the three areas of focus – praying, fasting, and almsgiving, a sheet of prayer ideas, a sheet of fasting ideas, a sheet of almsgiving ideas, and slips to write down what act was performed.
I also included sheets without the jelly bean clipart in case you would like to use the idea sheets but do not want to include the jelly bean element.
Click the button below to download your copy, and have your kids start earning Jelly Beans for Jesus!