Raising Biblical Superheroes (Ephesians 6}: The Belt of Truth and The Breastplate of Righteousness...and a winner!

It has been a little bit of a rough weekend around here. Little A has not been feeling well. The weather has been yucky. And I have been consumed with finishing our upcoming "find joy in the journey" ebook.

All that to say, we did not get to have "Superhero Saturday" yesterday. Instead, we had "Superhero Sunday" today! :)

We started off with a game of Superhero Memory. Do your kids love to play memory as much as my boys do? When I saw it, I knew they would love it! Go here to download your own copy of the game. 

When the game was over, I used the pictures of the superhero characters on the cards to initiate our discussion of The Belt of Truth and The Breastplate of Righteousness, the remaining two pieces in The Armor of God.

"Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist." (Ephesians 6:14)

First, I pointed out the belt that Batman wears and we discussed the fact that God tells us we need to have The Belt of Truth buckled around our waist. Basically, we need to be secure in the truth of His word and not the lies that this world has to offer.

And then, I did the only thing I could think of to help them understand The Breastplate of Righteousness. I had Little A go get his chest protector (a piece of his catcher's gear) and put it on!

It really brought home the fact that the righteousness of Christ that covers us when we put our faith and trust in him will be what "protects" us from a life without God and an eternity spent separated from Him! Thank you Jesus for taking our place on that cross!

Go here to find out how you can have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ and eternal life in Heaven with Him when you die.

When we were finished, we of course put on our superhero costumes and went to "war!"

And that's it my friends, we have officially finished our Raising Biblical Superheroes series here on the blog. Not that we won't continue to have Biblical Superhero days around our house every now and then!

I hope you enjoyed playing superheroes with your little ones, all the while teaching them what it means to be a "warrior" for God, fully clothed in His armor!

If you missed it, go here to see how we taught The Sword of the Spirit, here to see how we taught The Helmet of Salvation and The Shield of Faith and here to see how we taught the Gospel of Peace.

And now, the winner of the Custom "Little Superhero Cape" from 517 Creations IS...{drumroll please}...

True Random Number GeneratorMin: Max: Result:17Powered by RANDOM.ORG
Congratulations, The Lewis Family! Contact me at worthyoftheprize@yahoo.com to claim your prize.
A BIG THANKS to all who entered and to Mary Jo at 517 Creations for her gracious donation!
Happy Sunday, friends! :)

About the Author: Erin Vick Franklin is the founder and director of Worthy of the Prize. Erin has a BBA in Marketing and Management from TCU and a Masters of Christian Education in Church Recreation from Southwestern Seminary. She is a published, award-winning author and poet. Purchase her book Worthy of the Prize Sports Camps: A Church's Guide to Implementing an Effective, Community-Reaching Christian Sports Camp to be used as an outreach tool for your church or mission organization. Erin is the wife of A, a Worship Pastor, and a work-at-home-momma to 2 crazy little boys, a and e.

Raising Biblical Superheroes {Ephesians 6}: The Gospel of Peace...with giveaway! CLOSED!!

Today was "Superhero Saturday" again at our house and I thought it would be fun to have "superhero races," because our boys love to race!

So they put on their capes and set out to see who was the fastest superhero in town!!! 

Afterwards, we talked about the fact that our "fast superhero feet" need to be fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace! 

In other words, we need to be filled with the peace that comes from knowing that Jesus is our Savior! Once all burdens are (lifted) turned over to Him and we are filled with the peace that only He can give (despite our circumstances), we will be light on our feet, able to soar! ;) Go here for information on how to make Jesus your Savior. 

I saw this picture floating around Facebook and thought it was perfect for this series. I wish I knew where it came from, so I could give credit where credit is due. Let me know if you find out!

You could print it onto photo paper (or have your local photo shop do it for you) and display it in your child's room or playroom as a reminder that Jesus died on the cross, to SAVE us from our sins and from an eternity seperated from God! He is the Ultimate Superhero!

And since every superhero needs a cape, my friend Mary Jo of 517 Creations is giving away 1 custom "little superhero cape" (see below) to 1 lucky winner! Winner gets to choose colors, fabrics (subject to availability) and letter! Keep in mind that Mary Jo is due with a baby in the next few weeks, so there might be a delay in the making of the cape, depending on how quickly the little one arrives! :)

My boys' absolutely love theirs! In fact, this Christmas they will be receiving matching superhero swords from 517 Creations! Shhhh... ;)

To enter the giveaway, simply leave a comment letting us know who your child's favorite superhero is OR what letter you would have put on your cape (should you win)!

For extra entries (leave extra comments for each one that you do):

1. Tweet this giveaway (leave 1 extra comment)
2. Share this giveaway on FB (leave 2 extra comments)
3. Pin this giveaway (leave 3 extra comments)
4. Blog about this giveaway (leave 4 extra comments)

You can enter through Friday, October 26th. Winner will be announced Saturday, October 27th. Goodluck!

Giveaway is CLOSED!!

Check back next Saturday as we wrap up our "Raising Biblical Superheroes" series! And be sure to post your Biblical Superhero pictures and ideas onto our Facebook page or simply leave a comment here, with the link to your blog post, or on Twitter using the hash tag #biblicalsuperheroes. I will feature them here next Saturday.

Go here to find out what we did to teach the boys about the Sword of the Spirit and here to see how we taught them about the Helmet of Salvation and the Shield of Faith!

Happy Saturday, friends!

About the Author: Erin Vick Franklin is the founder and director of Worthy of the Prize. Erin has a BBA in Marketing and Management from TCU and a Masters of Christian Education in Church Recreation from Southwestern Seminary. She is a published, award-winning author and poet. Purchase her book Worthy of the Prize Sports Camps: A Church's Guide to Implementing an Effective, Community-Reaching Christian Sports Camp to be used as an outreach tool for your church or mission organization. Erin is the wife of A, a Worship Pastor, and a work-at-home-momma to 2 crazy little boys, a and e.

Raising Biblical Superheroes {Ephesians 6}: The Helmet of Salvation and The Shield of Faith

Today was another fun "Superhero Saturday" at our house! The boys are loving the dressing up and playing, and we are loving the teaching them what it means to be a "warrior" for God...or Biblical Superhero, if you will!

I was planning to make superhero masks today, but when I found these cute little masks in the party section at Walmart the other day for only $2.00 (just $.50 apiece), I decided buying them was much easier! :) But if you would rather make them, go here for some printable superhero mask patterns.

The boys loved wearing them!

Scary...ha!

And it worked out perfectly because one of the masks in the package (Thor) was actually a helmet, not a mask, which led right into our discussion of the "Helmet of Salvation."

We talked about the fact that one of the pieces of armor that we need, in order to be in God's army, is salvation through Christ alone. In order to win the final battle against the devil and spend eternity in Heaven with God, we must have a personal relationship with Him through faith in Jesus Christ.

We MUST...

A - ADMIT we're a sinner, that we need Christ as our savior, and that all those who call on the name of the Lord Jesus will be saved! We simply need to turn from our sin and turn to Christ.

B - BELIEVE the Lord Jesus Christ is the Son of the Living God, who took our place on the cross, dying for our sins and then 3 days later rising again, conquering death and Hell, so that we can have eternal life in Heaven with Him when we die!

C - COMMIT our lives to the Lord, putting our faith and trust in Him as Lord and Savior, allowing Him to lead and guide us! We need to strive to live a life for Him, becoming more and more like Him, knowing that we will not be perfect until we get to Heaven.

Go here for more information about how to have a personal relationship with God through Jesus Christ, which leads to eternal life in Heaven when you die.

Then the boys put on some superhero costumes and went to war against the evil Daddy! ;)

I had not planned to discuss the "Shield of Faith" today but Little A was blocking the "fire balls" that Big A was throwing at him (actually squishy baseballs) with his Captain America shield and it was just too good to pass up. I used the opportunity to talk about how having faith in God, putting our trust in Him, will enable us to overcome sin and remain victorious against the devil and his lies.

The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still. {Exodus 14:14}

I hope you are having fun playing with your little superheroes, all the while using the Armor of God passage to teach them how to "fight" for the Lord!

Check back next Saturday for a fun little superhero giveaway! And be sure to post your Biblical Superhero pictures and ideas onto our Facebook page or simply leave a comment here, with the link to your blog post, or on Twitter using the hash tag #biblicalsuperheroes. I will feature them here next Saturday.

Go here to find out what we did last week to teach the boys about the Sword of the Spirit!

Happy Saturday, friends!

About the Author: Erin Vick Franklin is the founder and director of Worthy of the Prize. Erin has a BBA in Marketing and Management from TCU and a Masters of Christian Education in Church Recreation from Southwestern Seminary. She is a published, award-winning author and poet. Purchase her book Worthy of the Prize Sports Camps: A Church's Guide to Implementing an Effective, Community-Reaching Christian Sports Camp to be used as an outreach tool for your church or mission organization. Erin is the wife of A, a Worship Pastor, and a work-at-home momma to 2 crazy little boys, a and e.

Raising Biblical Superheroes {Ephesians 6}: The Sword of the Spirit

My friend Courtney (who blogs for our Hope for the Home series) posted a brilliant idea on her blog Lil Light O' Mine  a few weeks ago.You can read about it here.

It was basically saying that we can use the Ephesians 6 passage (The Armor of God) to make our little men into "warriors" for God, incorporating it while we play superheroes with them.

Um...LOVE! Hello, I have 2 boys who are CRAZY about all things superheroes. Off the top of my head, I know that we own the following costumes...Spiderman, Captain America, Ironman, The Hulk, Wolverine, and Bumblebee Transformer, to name a few. Not to mention we own our fair share of swords, shields, masks, capes, etc.

With this in mind, I decided to start "Superhero Saturdays" in our home. Basically, every Saturday in October (and maybe longer, not going to put a limit on how long they want to do this) we are going to dress up like and play superheroes, while discussing what the Bible has to say about being a "Biblical Superhero," ready for battle against the devil and his schemes!

I thought it would be fun if we included some sort of superhero craft or recipe as well, to reinforce the lesson for the day.

That said, every Saturday during October, I will post what we did right here on the blog, so that you can follow along if you want! If you can't do Saturdays, no worries. Simply choose a day and time that works for you.

Feel free to use my ideas or come up with your own. I would love for you to post your pictures and ideas onto our Facebook page or simply leave a comment here, with the link to your blog post. I will feature them here the following Saturday. I would also love for you to share your ideas and pictures on  Twitter using the hash tag #biblicalsuperheroes. I will feature them here as well. We may even have a fun giveaway along the way. :)

Will you fight with us?

We started with the sword, for no other reason than I had the supplies needed to make them. :)

Here is exactly what we did...

1. Dress up like superheroes, using anything they could find from the costume bins in their playroom or around the house

2. Make the swords, using the following steps:

First, I used scissors to cut strips of cardboard from boxes (that we no longer needed) in the garage, leftover from our recent move. I'm sure poster board, foam board or card stock would work too.

Second, I drew a sword onto the cardboard strips, using a pencil. I free handed it while looking at a picture of a sword. One, because I did not care if it was perfect and two, because I was too lazy to print a pattern. But you can use a pattern if you would rather.

Third, I cut out the swords using scissors.

Fourth, I set out the supplies...markers, foil, stickers and stamps. You could really use anything you wanted...fabric, crayons, glitter, buttons, etc. I just used what I had on hand in our craft cabinet.

Fifth, I called the boys up to get to started and had them color their handles. I helped them wrap the blade in foil and then they decorated their swords with stickers and stamps.

Last, we discussed Ephesians 6:17, which says that we need to take up the "Sword of the Spirit," the word of God. We talked about the fact that we need to read our Bibles daily and memorize scripture, so that we are ready to stand against the devil's schemes and the lies the world tells us.

Specifically, we talked about examples of things that the world says are true, that differ from what the Bible says. For example, the world says that we have to dress, look and act a certain way to be accepted but the Bible says in 1 Samuel 16:7, "The LORD does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart."

We ended the day playing "superhero wars" with Daddy...you know the whole fighting, wrestling, boy thing that takes place daily in my house. This time using their new swords. :)

Let us know if you have "Superhero Day" at your house and check back next Saturday for more "Biblical Superhero" ideas!

Here are the other posts in the series so far:

The Helmet of Salvation and The Shield of Faith
The Gospel of Peace..with giveaway!
The Belt of Truth and The Breastplate of Righteousness...and a winner!

Happy Saturday, friends! :)

About the Author: Erin Vick Franklin is the founder and director of Worthy of the Prize. Erin has a BBA in Marketing and Management from TCU and a Masters of Christian Education in Church Recreation from Southwestern Seminary. She is a published, award-winning author and poet. Purchase her book Worthy of the Prize Sports Camps: A Church's Guide to Implementing an Effective, Community-Reaching Christian Sports Camp to be used as an outreach tool for your church or mission organization. Erin is the wife of A, a Worship Pastor, and a work-at-home-momma to 2 crazy little boys, a and e.