How Not to Make a Jelly Sandwich
- Candace Cofer
- Aug 11
- 5 min read
Connection to the Lord's Requirement of Us
It's... "Peanut butter jelly time! Peanut butter jelly time! Peanut butter jelly time!"
We're singing all the sillies this week as we read the hilarious story, How Not to Make a Jelly Sandwich by Ross Burach. As we do, we'll discover Frankie's wildly overcomplicated attempt to make a jelly sandwich looks a lot like how we sometimes approach our faith and relationship with God. It's so very easy to overcomplicate the Bible, but God doesn't ask us to train unicycle-riding hamsters or twist ourselves into knots to earn His love or follow His lead. He invites us to lay down our complicated plans, step out of our elaborate "disguises," and simply trust Him to make our paths straight.
Come read (and sing) along with us today!
Here are a few thoughts to help prepare you for this intentional pause with your little one(s). I like to use a 3-Connection strategy in the following order:
· Connect with Me
· Connect with Another Book/Story I Know
· Connect with My World / My Reality
After this, I like to lead us through a simple prayer. Whether it’s bedtime or playtime, it’s important to teach our kids we can talk to God whenever, wherever we are. This is an easy way to model this with them.
Connect With Me
Before reading How Not to Make a Jelly Sandwich, I like to start with an opening question. This helps the reader (child) prepare to connect their own experiences with the story. This is an important step if the application of the story, usually the moral/lesson, is going to “stick.” Consider asking questions like:
· If you could put any flavor of jelly on your pbj sandwich, what would you choose and why?
· Explain the steps for making a pbj sandwich. (Also, this is a great time to start singing the beloved "Peanut Butter Jelly Time" song. If you're unfamiliar, the internet is sure to have a plethora of videos to help you embrace your silly side!)
Read the Story
If you're not familiar with this story or you'd like to read/watch the digital version, you can watch it here:
I recommend reading the story to your child or if your child is able, read together. Reading together can take on many forms, such as:
· The child reads independently only pausing when help sounding out/context clues from illustration is needed
· Help build stamina – child reads one page, adult reads the next, so on.
· Adult primarily reads but child reads the page(s) they know (especially true if this is a book which has been read before and is familiar to the child)
· Adult primarily reads and points to each word as he/she reads and allows the child to read certain sight words known, such as “the” or “cat” etc.
· Adult reads the words while the child enjoys (and “reads”) the pictures.
Connect With Another Book/Story I Know
After reading How Not to Make a Jelly Sandwich, it’s time to help the child make a deeper connection – this time to another book or story they know. To help bring a spiritual truth to a secular story, help guide the child to remember biblical stories they know, or ones you can introduce to them. Guiding questions for this title may be similar to the following:
Oh my goodness! Frankie is sooo very silly! She put on a duck disguise and an elephant on a merry-go-round! A wagging puppy tail to spread the jelly! A hamster unicycle!!! I've never needed those things to make a pbj, have you?!
While Frankie's silly adventures make us laugh, it also reminds me how easy it is to turn something incredibly simple into an overly complicated, exhausting ordeal. Sometimes it's not a jelly sandwich we're complicating but our faith and our relationship with God.
In the Bible, God offers us a simple, clear, and beautiful path: Love Him, love others, trust His guidance, and rest in His grace.
Connect with My World/Reality
Yet, so often, we lean on our own understanding and we end up adding a hundred steps:
Instead of bringing our honest prayers to God, we think we have to put on a "disguise" or perform perfect routines before He will hear us.
Instead of trusting His promises and being patient with His timing, we spin our wheels trying to solve life's problems with complicated schemes and our own strength.
Instead of walking the straight path He makes for us, we take detours that leave us tired, messy, and confused.
In Micah 6:8, the prophet asks what God requires of us. The answer isn't a complex, 10-step obstacle course—it’s simple:
To act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. - Micah 6:8
God doesn't ask us to train unicycle-riding hamsters or twist ourselves into knots to earn His love or follow His lead. He invites us to lay down our complicated plans, step out of our elaborate "disguises," and simply trust Him to make our paths straight.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him, and he will make straight your paths. - Proverbs 3:5–6
Where are you overcomplicating? Is there an area in your life (prayer, forgiveness, trust, making a decision) where you've added extra "steps" instead of keeping it simple?
What disguise are you wearing? Are you trying to act like someone else before coming to God, or can you come to Him just as you are today?
How can you practice "straight path" trust this week? What is one simple way you can obey or trust God today without overthinking it?
Family Memory Verse Challenge:
Micha 6:8 tells us:
And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God. - Micah 6:8
Tips to make it "stick" -
Save this as your phone wallpaper or home screen as a reminder to say this together in all your comings and goings this week.
Print or copy this verse to a post-it note to put on the fridge or a family memo board.
Write it on a napkin to add to your child's lunchbox.
Write it together with chalk on the sidewalk one afternoon or draw pictures of the "good" you see God provide for you and your family.
Then ask your child(ren): How can we practice living out this command to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God, this week?
Pray Together
Let’s pray together.
Lord God, thank You for making Your love and Your truth so simple. Forgive us for the times we overcomplicate following You—when we try to earn Your favor, scheme up our own solutions, or rely on our own understanding instead of Your guidance. Help us to strip away the noise, the performance, and the unnecessary worry. Give us the heart of a child to simply trust You, walk with You, and rest in the clear, straight path You have set before us. In Jesus' name, Amen.
May we be strengthened as we soak our minds in the truth of scripture and joy as we remember our focus is to act justly, love mercy and walk humbly with our God. May we experience peace as we resist the urge to complicate faith and may we rest in what God has already done for us!
For more examples of children's stories and how to connect "the Sunday stuff" to "the Monday stuff" for your family, check out the children's section at www.CandaceCofer.com
The good life, well it starts with a good day. Then another. Then another. Let's choose to live #TheGoodDay one day at a time.
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