For some time now Mrs. Anna (Youth Development Director) has been working with the students at Bible Club on finding their character strengths. On Tuesday, it was Mrs. Anna’s first trip to the 4th grade classroom. For the next 8 weeks Mrs. Anna will be working with the 4th graders to become familiar with a new way of journaling.

Mrs. Anna began by explaining to the 4th graders that she would be joining them for the next 8 weeks to teach/show them how to find what strengths God has given each individual person. After the explanation of why she was there, she told the class that they would be doing something fun for the first night; they were going to be making a very yummy snack!

The students were grouped into groups of 3, and then she told two of each three that they would be working together, and they were not to talk to the other person in their group. Then the two students in each group were given a bag containing the contents of part of the yummy snack they were making. The one person in their group was given a bowl with some other contents in it. Mrs. Anna then told each group to make their snack. You should have seen the look on their faces when they began to figure out that they didn’t even know how or what they were supposed to be making. After a few minutes of confusion Mrs. Anna said to the students, “Didn’t you get a recipe?” Then they all figured out that the one person who had been left to work on their own was the keeper of the recipe! They were then told to work together to make the recipe.

After they were done making their snack, Mrs. Anna asked them what it was like to try and make the snack on their own. Amara answered, “It was confusing because we didn’t know what to do.” This led Mrs. Anna right into talking about the new way of journaling. She explained that God made each and every person unique and each one of us has a gift or talent. She used the snack mix items as an analogy by saying that some of us may be a marshmallow and some of us may be an M&M, but we are not all chex mix. She explained that in the Bible the apostle Paul talks about the parts of the body and how each one is unique and different, but not one thing works separate without the others. Just as the body parts work together, so should the people who make up God’s kingdom here on earth. Mrs. Anna talked about how God did not give us our gifts just for ourselves, but He made us so we can use them for others. After that was said, Mrs. Anna told each group to pick a class to deliver their yummy snack to as a way of sharing their “talents” with others!