You may have seen the little Jesus figures popping up all over. I love them because we can all use a little more Jesus in our lives! I ordered three bags of 100 for each of our three kids and their little families for Grandma Camp this year. They went along perfectly with the heart lock activity. I ordered a bag for me as well.

As I mentioned on last week’s post, we began with a “Family Love Lock” activity similar to the love locks couples put on bridges in Europe. Each family member was able to place a small, personalized heart shaped padlock onto a metal heart I found at one of my favorite shops in South Ogden, Utah – “The Treasure Basket”. This activity was to show that we are all linked together forever as a family and with Jesus. The heart represents Jesus. Once the locks are placed on the heart, they can never be removed.

When the kids went home, I sent each family their own metal heart, and personalized locks for each family member to do this fun family activity together with their own little families.

To start, I typed instructions to place the rotating picture frame of Jesus one side and their family on the other side out where everyone will see it the next morning. And then to place the metal heart next to it.

Take the bag of little Jesus’ and hide them all over the house, making sure to put them where their babies or dog wouldn’t get them and eat them by mistake. They do look a little bit like candy. 😊 They were to divide them up between their mom, dad, and the older kids and have them each put two little Jesus’ in places where each person will find them individually in their rooms or cars. When all 100 Jesus’ are found, they got to open an envelope with $25 and a note in it to go out for a special family treat to celebrate finding all 100 little Jesus’.

In regard to the Love Locks I encouraged them to take time as a family and talk about how we are linked together as a family to each other and Jesus. Each child was given an individual picture of Jesus to put in their rooms as a daily reminder of the “Family Love Locks”. Love Locks are a popular thing in Europe. Couples attach a lock to a bridge going over a river, then throw the key into the river symbolizing their love is locked together forever, and the bond will never be broken. This activity is much the same but geared toward families. The goal is to never unlock their locks once they have placed them on the heart representing the Savior and their family. I provided a small jewelry box for each kid to keep their key in as a special reminder of their locked connection with Jesus and their family. At Grandma Camp, Ron and I were the last ones to put our locks on. I wish I had thought about this sooner, we actually opened our locks with the tiny keys, then put the key on the open lock before we locked it permanently on the heart. It would have been nice for each person to do the same, that way locking the key to the heart makes it permanent with the ability to never take the lock off again.

Heavenly Father blessed us with Eternal families so that we can grow up to learn how to be kind, helpful, and loving to each other and someday grow and teach our own families how to do these things. Granddaughter #2 led this activity and wrote the following paragraph and that we all recited together at the same time out loud.

“I PROMISE to keep my Eternal family close and love them each and every day for the rest of this life that my Heavenly father has given me. Everything we do in life brings us back to Him. I (state their name) promise to always be kind and loving to whomever I meet. I will stick with my family and promise to always love them with all my heart and help them when needed.”

We then explained how each family would be given a packet with their own metal heart and a personalized lock for each family member. We explained how the big heart represents the Savior and their own little family. Each one of the locks represents us individually. When we place our locks on the big heart, it represents that we are Eternally linked to our Savior and our family. We each hold the key to keep us safely locked to the Savior and our family. Once we lock ourselves to the Savior, it is important to never unlock that bond ever again. We then told them they would end up with two little keys to keep safely in the special jewelry box we gave them to help hold their most precious little things. We told them each time they see the keys, we hope they will be reminders that we are eternally locked to Jesus and our families, never to be separated. I mentioned there was one for every family member, and we included one for our sweet Kai in Heaven. We love and miss him every day, but include him in our family activities as much as possible. He would have been seven this year. I always imagine him being here at Grandma Camp, and believe somehow he is with us in spirit.

We had fun doing this together as a family, and hope you order all the things to do something similar! This activity brought LIGHT into each of our lives, and I have our metal heart displayed on the dining room table. It brings LIGHT and a smile each time I look at it knowing each lock represents someone in our family who is near and dear to me!

Here are the links to find the metal hearts, the tiny love locks, and the engraver we used to engrave the names on the back of each lock.

https://www.treasurebasketogden.com

The owner Mikelle is wonderful and can help you with the metal hearts at The Treasure Basket in Ogden, Utah.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07GJ5QGMK?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_3&th=1

This is the link for the heart locks. They come in a 3-pack for $7.99.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DGMBSWJQ?ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_fed_asin_title This is the engraver that granddaughter #1 used to engrave the names on the back of each love lock. She did a much better job than I could. I had an extra lock that we used to practice on. There is a learning curve for sure. I was not as steady at it as my oldest granddaughter was. She was so good and wrote all 18 names on two sets of locks for this activity! She’s also a lefty, and has beautiful handwriting.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0D69W1TCZ?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_3&th=1

There are lots of options for the Little Jesus Figures on Amazon, but these are my favorite. They are better quality than some of the others I’ve ordered.

Have a great week, and look for an activity to include Love Locks with those you love! It will fill your soul with LIGHT and bring connection to you, your family and Jesus! These would also make a fun wedding gift! Include extra locks for future children.

Love Ya, Les 😊