The Easter Jelly Bean Prayer

The Lent Jelly Bean Jar

Here's how we turned our jelly bean prayer into a kids Lent activity:

Each day, the kids earn jelly beans of a certain colour for certain things witnessed.  They get to collect their jelly beans earned in their own jars, until Easter when they get to eat them.

Red - for sacrifices made, including letting your brother go first for something, or giving something up so that someone else would benefit.

Green - for good deeds, like bringing someone else's dishes to the kitchen, or tidying up the living room.

Yellow - for sharing God's light through kindness shown to others - a little bit different than good deeds but there could be overlap - for things like complimenting someone, sharing, helping, etc.

Orange - for each bedtime prayer said.

Black (we substituted blue M&M's, since my kids don't like black jelly beans) - for going to bed without a fuss.

White - these are reserved for Easter morning.  The kids don't earn white jelly beans, but on Easter morning, their jars are topped up with white jelly beans, representing the grace of God.

Purple - for apologizing when they hurt someone (physically or for hurting feelings).

Pink - for forgiving someone (whether they apologized to you or not).

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I think my favourite part of this Lenten jelly bean jar is the white jelly beans (we have some white chocolate eggs too!) on Easter morning.  While God wants us to help others and do good deeds, it isn't ultimately those things that redeem us.  We don't earn our way into heaven.  Salvation is a gift of God's pure grace.  He tops up our deficiencies and fills us to the brim, just like our jelly bean jar.