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A Lenten Bean Jar

Although "fun" isn't necessarily a word we want our children to associate with Lent, we do want to engage their hearts and minds through memorable activities that will strengthen their faith during this time of preparing our hearts for the glory that is Easter.

A Lenten Bean Jar?
It's a tried and true hands-on project for the entire family! (We used this year after year while our boys were growing up, and I confess to now putting it out for just my husband and I.) Using a bag of purplish dried beans, the family works together to fill a container with them; each bean representing a fulfillment of one's Lenten resolutions. For Easter Sunday you replace the dried beans with Jelly Beans - signifying the sweet reward that awaits us in Heaven as we struggle to do God's will here on earth.

How to Start
Get together as a family and discuss what each will be sacrificing this Lent, and why. Ideally you would have prepared for this with your family prior to Ash Wednesday, but don't let a late start guilt you into inaction. A fruitful approach includes thinking of at least one thing to give up, things for your family to give back, and things to give your soul.

Giving It Up
Along with the required fasting and abstinence, one could give up anything, from a favorite treat or convenience to complaining, fighting with siblings or "forgetting" to do one's chores. Don't forget impatience and yelling (unfortunately, this mom's yearly battle.)

Giving It Back
This could be donating the money saved from fasting and abstinence (our family gives up Friday night pizza during Lent) to your Church or a charity, or giving your time to help a "neighbor" in need. This idea works for the home front too. Kids might take on extra household chores during Lent, from folding laundry to making school lunches, to taking out the garbage without being asked. A giving back to mom and dad!

Giving to Your Soul
Now is the time to add that inspirational reading or family prayer time that you've been meaning to find the time for. Perhaps a renewed effort to attend daily Mass is in order. Attending the Stations of the Cross as a family, as well as preparing for and attending confession together is another idea. The neat thing is that all ages can participate in some way. Older siblings can read to the younger ones, play games with them, or help them learn a new prayer. And both earn a bean! The whole family can add beans for watching a faith forming movie together. Even baby can get a bean for dreamily listening to angelic faith-filled lullabies, such as our Tiny Hands Precious Feet CD. Need help with ideas for family activities? Find a wealth of them in The Lent-Easter Book. Helping children understand the "why" of Lent can be found in Lent is for Children.

A Focal Point
Display the container in a prominent place in your home. We clear the mantle and place a jar on a purple cloth. You might add an item for Lenten reflection, such as a crown of thorns or just the tomb from the Easter Scene. Just as your Nativity Scene is the focal point of your Advent and Christmas, this Easter Scene could become a cherished Lenten tradition, with the Crucified Christ to be added during Holy Week, and the Risen Christ, along with the jar full of jelly beans, displayed on Easter. Another idea for a Lenten display, and one which the whole family can join in the making of, is The Stations of the Cross Grotto Kit. If you begin soon and make two per week, they will done by Holy Week (and of course all who participate get to add a bean to the jar!) What a marvelous way to prepare all of you to participate more fully in your parish Stations of the Cross. You can share the meaning of this devotion through our books, Stations of the Cross for Children, and The Story of the Cross, or an audio story, The Passion for Children, or the beautiful and meditative DVD The Way of the Cross for Children. Beans for one and all!

Filling The Jar
At each day's end, almost like an examination of conscience, each family member will review how they did that day, especially regarding the things they are trying to give up, and add beans accordingly. Everyone who participates in fasting and abstinence receives beans of course. Giving back, and giving to your soul can be immediately rewarded with beans throughout the day - and you will watch with joy as your children work together to fill up that jar! Assuredly, this family bean jar will foster kindness and cooperation as you encourage one another along the road to salvation.

"That's a Bean!" will become a familiar phrase in your home this Lenten season as your family's awareness of opportunities to practice Christian virtues increases along with the bean count. You will feel certain that as the jar fills, your souls are filling with grace as they prepare to remember our Lord's sacrifice and celebrate His resurrection.

Thank you to Leanne Rose for this contribution. After spending many years in the arid central valley of California, where she home-schooled her own two little "wise men," Leanne now resides in a sleepy coastal town where she delights in visits from her sons, picnic dinners on the beach with her husband, walking her dog rain or shine, and catching up on her reading.