Faith Kids: Promises

Story

Jesus teaches about making oaths. (Matthew 5:33-37)

Big Idea
Be a believable person.

Bible Verse
Matthew 5:37 - "Just let your 'Yes' mean 'Yes.' Let your 'No' mean 'No.' Anything more than this comes from the evil one. " (NIrV)

What We Did
1. We talked about the story of the Boy Who Cried Wolf to see what happens to unbelievable people.
2. We played the game "Two Truths and a Lie."
3. To understand what Jesus was talking about when he said things like "Don't swear on heaven" or "Don't swear on your head," we acted out a little made-up story. We had my friend, Kaleb, hold an Xbox 360. I then spent the whole lesson trying to convince me to let me borrow it for the weekend. I made a promise. I swore on my mother's grave. I did the "Cross my heart and hope to die, stick a needle in my eye." I did a pinky swear. I even had a stack of Bibles to swear on. But after each one of these, Kaleb said "No!"
     And that's because I also described how I was a person who tended to break things. Like the time I broke my dad's laptop when I tried to use it as a frisbee. Or the time I broke the telephone because I tried to see if it would work underwater. (Remember, this is a made-up story!)
     So, the kids saw how, even though I made all sorts of crazy promises, Kaleb wouldn't let me borrow his Xbox 360 because I wasn't a believable person. I was just a person who broke everything I touched. If I wanted to someday borrow his Xbox 360, I'd have to prove that I was a believable person by not breaking things for a while.
     This is just what Jesus taught. We don't have to make crazy promises and swear on stacks of Bibles to get people to believe. We just need to be people whose "Yes" means "Yes" and our "No" means "No."

Materials We Used
1. Lesson Plan
2. Small Group Leader Sheet
3. Verse Activity

Faith Kids: Friends

Story

Jesus tells the story of the Good Samaritan. (Luke 10:25-37)

Big Idea
A Jesus follower is everybody's friend.

Bible Verse
 John 15:13 - "No one has greater love than the one who gives his life for his friends." (NIrV)

What We Did
1. We acted out the story of the Good Samaritan. Evan was our traveller. He was "beaten up" slow-mo movie style, complete with movie-action music. We then had three people pass by (Kaleb the priest, Raven the Levite, and Carter the Samaritan). Although the priest and the Levite were supposed to be good guys, they walked right on by poor Evan. But Carter the Samaritan stopped and helped him up, tied bandages on his wounds, and dragged him to a hotel to stay.
   We discussed how the Samaritan was a good friend to the traveller, even though he didn't know him at all. If we want to be a good follower of Jesus, we need to be kind and a good friend to everyone, not just those we like.
2. Our verse was about the greatest act of friendship possible: giving your life for your friend. So, as we learned the verse, we pretended to save each other's lives. We had a giant blue ball which represented an oncoming truck. We had one child pretend to stand in the street, oblivious of the oncoming danger. We then had a third kid, as the "oncoming truck" came near, say "Watch out!" and push his/her friend out of danger, who went flying out of the way and landed on our stunt mattress (for a nice, soft landing).

Materials We Used
1. Lesson Plan
2. Small Group Leader Sheet
3. Verse Activity

Faith Kids: Contentment

Story

Jesus teaches a rich young ruler about loving God most. (Luke 18:18-27)

Big Idea
Love God more than your stuff.

Bible Verse
Philippians 4:11b - "I have learned to be content no matter what happens to me." (NIrV)

What We Did
1. We made a list of stuff we'd buy if money was no object. The list ranged from ice cream and Wii games to a rocket ship and the entire country of France!
2. We acted out the story with Brianna playing the story of Rich, the rich young ruler. When Jesus said that it was harder for a rich man to enter God's kindgom than for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, we handed a stuffed animal to Brianna to represent our camel and had her try her best to get it to go through the eye of a needle.
3. As we worked on memorizing our big idea, we played a game where we tried to through a stuffed animal (representing the camel) through a hula hoop (representing the eye of the needle.) We kept backing the throwers up to the point that the kids said, "It's impossible to throw the stuffed animal that far!" I told them, "If you think that's tough, it's even tougher for us to enter God's kingdom if we love our stuff more than we love him!"
4. We realized that one way we can be content whatever the circumstances is to stop thinking about what we don't have. To do this, we took the list of stuff we'd buy if we had all the money in the world and ran it through a paper shredder. We then listed all the things that God's blessed us with (food, family, toys, etc.) and went around the room, praying and thanking God for them.

Materials We Used
1. Lesson Plan
2. Small Group Leader Sheet
3. Verse Activity

Faith Kids: Anger

Story

King Saul becomes so angry with David that he eventually attacks him (1 Samuel 16:14-25, 17:1-18:11)

Big Idea
When you are angry, don't lose control.

Bible Verse
Ephesians 4:26 - "When you are angry, do not sin. Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry." (NIrV)

What We Did
1. We described things that "pushed our buttons" while taking buttons and pushing them into playdough.
2. We acted out the story of Saul and David, with Brianna playing beautiful music on the harp (actually, a ukelele) and Kaleb throwing a spear (a foam swimming noodle).
3. As we learned our verse, we took turns throwing play darts at a dart board (with extreme adult supervision, rest assured!) This helped us remember our story, where Saul got so angry he started tossing spears at people. When we tallied up the points, Leiah was our dart throwing champion!
4. We discussed things we could do when we become angry to help us keep under control, including praying, going for a walk, and listening to music.

Materials We Used
1. Lesson Plan
2. Small Group Leader Sheet
3. Verse Activity