My Life in Tupperware Bins: :Princess Club

Sunday, April 22, 2012

:Princess Club

WOW!! Two princess clubs have gone by with no blog! HOW COULD THAT BE?!??!??!?!? I need to catch you all up!! So, here's a princess club BOGO (that's buy one get one free, for those who are not so up on their acronyms). For the next few weeks I decided to talk about simple, foundational verses with the girls and work on them memorizing them. There are so many important lessons in the Bible for kids to learn while they're young that are really exceptionally simple... They tend to grasp them quickly and have surprisingly mature insight into the concepts, while some times us adults are a little dense in getting it............I think these past two weeks were in fact a good kick-in-the-butt reminder for me of basic truths I tend to forget.

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Last week (April 14)

Matthew 6:25-35: Do Not Worry

²⁵ “Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothes? ²⁶ Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not much more valuable than they? ²⁷ Can any one of you by worrying add a single hour to your life^[a]? ²⁸ “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. ²⁹ Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. ³⁰ If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you—you of little faith? ³¹ So do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ ³² For the pagans run after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them. ³³ But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. ³⁴ Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

In planning for the lesson, I decided to start by researching what other churches were teaching their kids about this passage. Pretty interesting what I ran across. Several websites said to talk to the children about the difference between wants and needs. How we need food and water but we don't need toys, or even a bed to sleep in...while those things are nice, we can in reality live without them. They said to talk about not worrying about the things we want, and to be thankful for the things we that need and already have. While that is all very true, and in the right cultural context appropriate, it made me stop to think of my princesses. Like Nicol who shares a double bed with 4 or 5 siblings every night. Or Katy and Julissa who were taught to eat only half their snack and take the rest home because they might not have food at home. Or Maria who has very few toys to speak of. How do you talk about not worrying for necessities in a very poor community? I decided just to ask the girls

What do we worry about? How do we worry? The girls said they worry mostly about getting good grades, getting along with their siblings, and making good impressions on others. I asked them if they ever worry about having food to eat or clothes to wear. They said they think about it, but their parents always tell them that God will provide. We are very blessed in the community to have the Catholic church in town. They feed every school aged child in the community lunch seven days a week. While several of the girls have very little to eat during the rest of the day, they get a good, solid lunch.

"No se preocupen" means "Don't worry"

How do we seek the Kingdom of God? The girls agreed: reading your Bible, praying, and coming to princess club!! They said not worrying means focusing on what you need today and planning for tomorrow but not worrying about what will happen. I've got some pretty smart girls.

To help remember the lesson, I taught the girls how to make paper flowers. If even the flowers of the field have beautiful petal dresses to wear, how much more does God care for us and want to see us wearing beautiful princess dresses??

WARNING: While craft looks very cute, not for the faint-hearted crafter!!! Note to those who want to try this at home. I found a tutorial on how to make the flowers online. They looked really easy to make...two of the girls could do it without any difficulty, two needed a bit of help, but two really struggled. If you have crafty girls, they will LOVE this project and will catch on quick. This craft was a good reminder that not everyone is crafty.

This week (April 21)

Philippians 4:13

"I can do all this through Christ who gives me strength."

I asked this girls: Nahomy, I have a flat tire can you fix it? No?!? Why not?!? You can do all things with Christ, can't you?!? Fabiana, can you sew me a new dress for Sunday? NO?!?!? Why not?!? You can do all things with Christ who gives you strength!! Brithany, can you build a house for me? NO!??!?? Why not?? You can do all things through Christ who will give you the strength to do it!!

Yup. You can probably picture this conversation. They laughed at each suggestion. So why can't they do these things if Christ will give them the strength?? You guessed it. This is one of the most misquoted verses of all times. We have a tendency to use it for everything: winning football games, running marathons, taking tests in school, and doing things we don't like or don't want to do.

So, Philippians 4:13 does not mean—whatever I want to do, God will give me the strength to do it. Rather, whatever circumstance God brings into my life; whatever experience He takes me through, He will give me all the strength I need. I can embrace everyday with the strength that comes from our Heavenly Father. He will also walk through those situations with us and tell us how to handle them. When we listen to His voice, he will give us direction in how to navigate through our problems and circumstances.

To demonstrate this, I had the girls do a blind obstacle course. First I asked for a volunteer to go through the course blindfolded...with no guide. Katy, my first victim...I mean volunteer...had a difficult time and couldn't even make it to the first obstacle without hitting a wall...literally. Then I had the girls go in pairs: one blindfolded and the other with open eyes, speaking directions to the blindfolded girl to guide her through the course.

Cousins, Nahomy and Fabiana, navigate the course fairly well. Fabiana just kept saying "over here, over here" and pointing, forgetting that Nahomy couldn't see where "over here" was :)

For our craft the girls glued together "Super Princesses" who can navigate any situation God puts in front of them. Super princesses that turn their cant's into cans and their dreams into plans!!!