The kids and I found a turtle in our backyard on Friday. They were so excited that it turned our whole day into a turtle day. We watched the turtle, looked at him with a magnifying glass, looked up stuff about turtles on the internet, printed off turtle worksheets and finally decided to make a turtle craft–a cute turtle necklace! {I found this on another website which I cannot find again but if I do, I’ll link back to them!}

All you need is some yarn, beads, craft foam cut into the shape of a turtle (the template was on the website & I can’t find it!), hole punch, glue gun, scissors, paint & some plastic bottle tops.

We painted our bottle tops brown and made yellow spots. Well, Lydia did one giant spot. It was a box turtle & really, she looked just like the ones the kids painted! By the way, did I tell you they named her Daisy?

While the bottle tops are drying, cut out a little turtle shape and punch a hole in his front feet (paws? hands?).

Then string a piece of yarn through the holes and add a few beads. Asa loves stringing beads so this was a fun one for him!

When your beads are on, grab your hot glue gun and attach the new bottle cap turtle shell. (You can see Asa’s spots on that one!)

And that’s it! Tie it up and throw it around your neck–turtle necklace! Isn’t it cute?

As we beaded and painted I read all of Psalm 7. It’s a rough one about how David is about to be torn apart by his enemies like a lion tears apart his prey. But verse 10 is the one I wanted them to hear:

The Most High God is like a shield that keeps me safe.

“The Most High” is something our family talks about a lot. My dad’s favorite passage is Psalm 91. It’s kept us leaning on God through cancer, chemo, surgery and Hepatitis C treatments. And Lydia and I just had a big conversation in the car about dwelling in the shelter of the Most High. So, this verse is a perfect add on to Psalm 91′s focus of The Most High.

And the shield? Well, it reminded us of our little turtle shells! A shield protects just like a turtle shell! I had the kids repeat the verse several times and I really wanted to make a giant paper mache shield to write the verse on—but alas, we didn’t have any newspaper. Oh, well. Some other time!

But the point remains–the turtle reminds us of God’s protection in our life. The Most High our very own shield!

***Impress Your Kids has some new digs at ohAmanda.com! Come visit us there for all the Impress Your Kids archives and all our new posts–including our Easter newsblast with fabulous tips for celebrating a meaningful Easter with your kids!***