Stewardship and Multiplication of our Gifts

"Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God's grace in its various forms" (1 Peter 4:10)  

"Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much..." (Luke 16:10a)

Today's activity was about recognising the gifts we have and how our faithful stewardship of those gifts can lead to them being multiplied.  I needed a visual hands-on material to demonstrate this principle, so I experimented with aqua beads (they are made of polymers that absorb and release water - frequently used as an attractive soil substitute for plants and flowers).

I thought about the strengths that Wugs and Dooey demonstrate at this early stage in their lives. Wugs is very good at gross motor skills such as control over speed on a ride-on car, steering action etc and he is compassionate (Often I find him soothing his younger brother with the words "Don't worry" or a hug).  Dooey is perceptive.  He watches everything that is going on in the room and gauges which toys are of pre-eminent worth (to his brother) and the moment they are put aside, he is there in a flash, picking them up or carting them off.  Dooey is also very funny.  He usually starts the unruly behaviour at the dinner table, blowing raspberries or bellowing out a chant that his older brother takes up.  I live in hope that these gifts will lead to something positive in the end!

In four small bottles, I added different-coloured aqua beads to represent their different gifts (I had only 3 colours (red, blue and white) so I doubled up on the white) and I placed them in a gift box. Then I asked Wugs and Dooey to add their beads to a glass and pour in some water (water symbolising faithfulness).  We watched the aqua beads expand as they soaked up the water.  About 10 minutes later, our tiny rock-like beads had become magnificent, glistening, crystal-like beads with a jelly-like texture. The boys played with the blue and white beads first, before adding the red and white ones (which had combined and turned orange).

What we used:
Gift boxes
Mini bottles
Aqua beads (sometimes referred to as Aqua gems)
Water
Bowls and Glasses
Spoons

The principle behind this activity was very mature for their ages, so we finished the activity with a gift bag each with a toy that represented their respective gifts.  For Wugs, he had a mini magnetic ball game and some plasters (he keeps asking me for plasters!) and for Dooey, a kaleidoscope and a whoopee cushion - which finished things off nicely!