See below for resources to use for your family worship time, including a song, coloring page, learning activities activities, teaching materials and ideas for ongoing family fun. SING TOGETHERSing this song together with your kids. Enter full screen and follow the lyrics on the screen. Teaching Notes on Luke 18:35-43This story emphasizes the importance of passionately calling out to Jesus. The blind man was not content to let Jesus pass by. We should never approach Jesus with a “ho-hum, take it or leave it” attitude. Rather we should passionately seek after Jesus. THE POINTChildren will learn that the Lord can do wonderful things in our lives when we have the faith to trust in Him and ask. KEY VERSE“‘Go’, said Jesus, ‘your faith has healed you’.” Luke 18:42 FAMILY ACTIVITIESChoose ones that work best for your family or the amount of time you have. BLINDFOLD SEARCH
Fill a basket with a variety of items. One of the children will put on a blindfold and try to find a specific item in their basket which the teacher will name. Examples: a toy car, a stuffed dog, a plastic cup, a pencil, an eraser, paper, an apple, a marble. After the child finds the item, the blindfold is removed and the child hands the blindfold to the next team member who will go to the basket to find the item which the teacher names. Continue until all the students have found several items. BLIND DRAW (Elementary)
Show students a bright vivid photo (flowers or animals, etc.). Have them try to draw what they see. After they have drawn part of the photo, stop them and place a blindfold on them. Have them continue to draw while blindfolded. At the end, ask them which was more difficult. BLIND TREATS
Tell children to close their eyes and to put out their hand and make a request for a treat, PLEASE! Then the teacher will place a small treat in each hand before they can open their eyes! Or have containers with different small treats and have students draw from each container to make their own treat (ex. M&Ms, skittles, starbursts). TEACHRead Luke 18:35-43 or watch the video below. As Jesus and His disciples were traveling one day they came across a man. This poor man was sitting on the side of the road, begging for food since he was blind. Why was this man begging for food? When he heard that it was Jesus walking past, he yelled out, “Jesus, have mercy on me!”. Some people around him told him to be quiet, but he didn’t stop. He yelled again, “Jesus, have mercy on me!” Why was he yelling? When Jesus heard him He stopped, and He asked the blind man to come to Him. Jesus asked him what it was that he wanted, and he said, “My teacher, let me see again.” Should he have asked for something more? Jesus replied, “Go; your faith has made you well.” And immediately the man could see. Why did Jesus not touch him or pray over him or heal him some other way? I noticed what Jesus said to the blind man. He said, “Go; your faith has made you well.” Jesus didn’t ask him if he had followed the Ten Commandments. He didn't make him give everything away. He didn’t make him promise to help others, or go to church, or tell others about God and Jesus. Why do you think that is? Jesus would love it if everyone did all those things. And he would have loved it if the man did those things, but the truth is, he didn't. I don’t. No one does. That’s because we all sin and do things we shouldn’t do. And even though the blind man didn’t do all of those things, Jesus healed him anyway. Do you know why? Because God doesn’t ask us to earn His mercy. We can’t earn it, but He wants us to have it anyway, so instead of earning it, he just wants us to have faith and ask. In order to go to heaven, you have to be saved. But can you earn salvation? No, you can’t. Instead, all God asks us to do is have faith and ask. That’s all we have to do. We can’t earn it, but He can give it away. God still wants us to try to be our best. He still wants us to try to follow the Ten Commandments, and go to church, and tell others about Jesus, but it isn’t going to earn us a place in heaven, just like it wasn’t going to bring the blind man back his eyesight. We don’t have to worry about trying to earn our way into heaven. We just need to ask God to save us, believe He will, and try our best at everything else. But, we must always remember to ASK. MAKE IT PERSONAL
Closing: Read the memory verse to the children again. "'Go’, said Jesus, ‘your faith has healed you.'" –Luke 18:42. Say: As you leave today remember to have faith in Jesus. He can do wonderful things in your life, just like he did in the life of the blind beggar. All we need is to have faith and ask. Close the lesson in prayer, thanking God for all of the blessings that he has given the children and praying that they would continue to grow in their faith in Jesus Christ. (Say a prayer to close out your time together) FAMILY ACTIVITIES (REINFORCE)Check out these activities for ongoing learning and fun with your family! EYE CHART
Let each child draw a large eye with eyebrows and eyelashes on a sheet of paper. Have the children write "I WANT TO SEE JESUS" on the piece of paper. Before the class begins, the teacher will make a BIBLE VERSE EYE CHART that says, "What do you want me to do for you?" The blind man answered, "Rabbi, I want to see." The sentence should start in large letters and get progressively smaller like an eye test. Let the children see if they can read the writing from the largest to the smallest. NEEDS/WANTS POSTER
Give the children pictures that have been cut out of a magazine. Pictures should represent things that we need and things that we want. The children will then tape or glue under the proper column as the class discusses NEEDS AND WANTS. After the NEEDS/WANTS poster is finished, the teacher can place a long banner slanted across the picture, that the children have painted or colored that will say, "THANK YOU JESUS." Children can also draw and color items if magazine photos are not available.
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SING TOGETHERSing this song together with your kids. Enter full screen and follow the lyrics on the screen. Teaching Notes on Luke 18:1-8, Parable of the Persistent Widow/Unjust JudgeThe story of the persistent widow can be a little tricky for kids. Are we teaching kids to beg for things, or telling them that God will give them anything if they ask enough? What kind of lesson should be emphasized? The main element of this parable is that God loves us and wants to bless us with wonderful things. Not only that, but we are His children and should talk to Him at all times, whether asking for something or not. We can be assured that God hears our prayers and that He is a good father. THE POINTWe pray without giving up. KEY VERSE"Pray continually" - 1 Thessalonians 5:17 (NIV) FAMILY ACTIVITIESChoose ones that work best for your family or the amount of time you have. "Don't crack up!" (PRE-K)
Have your family sit in a circle. Designate one person to be the “wise cracker” and go in the middle of the circle. Give that person a phrase to say, and have them walk around trying to make the others laugh. The first person to laugh goes in the middle of the circle and does the same thing. This can be done with one child as the “wise-cracker” and an adult providing a phrase. Also, good practice for younger kids in telling knock-knock jokes and short stories. CONNECTION POINT: In our Bible lesson today, we're going to talk about a man who cracked under pressure and it was a good thing! "simon says"
Have one person (older child or an adult) be the “Simon”. Everyone else are the actors. Simon will give simple commands. When giving the commands, he/she will simply state the command or will begin with saying “Simon says…”. Ex. “Stand up” vs. “Simon Says stand up”. The actors should only follow the commands that begin with “Simon Says”. If they follow other commands or do not follow Simon Says commands, they are out for that round. To make this more difficult, Simon can act out ALL commands, whether they start with Simon Says or not. Often the actor will begin to follow Simon’s actions rather than his commands. CONNECTION POINT: Was it frustrating to get told what to do so much? In our Bible lesson today, we'll hear about a person who had power to tell people what they could or couldn't do, and he took it too far. "DON'T GIVE UP"
(1) Hide a snack or craft in a tough-to find spot. (2) Give clues to help each child find each. (3) Eat the snack or work on the craft as you talk about how they kept trying to find it. Talk about how we can pray the same way, without giving up. "MEMORY MAKER" (ELEMENTARY)
YOU’LL NEED Crayons • paper • cardboard • aluminum foil • paper towels (Prepare Ahead Have enough pieces of paper, cardboard, and aluminum foil for everyone to have a piece of each.) Say: Sometimes prayer is hard. Sometimes it seems as if God isn’t answering. But like the woman in Jesus’ story, we can keep trying and we pray without giving up. 1. SIT Have kids sit down, and give each child a Crayon and a paper towel. Say: Let’s say the Key Verse, 1 Thessalonians 5:17, “Pray Continually." After you say the verse together, give kids a chance to say it individually. 2. MARK Give everyone a piece of paper, and have kids each use a Crayon to make marks on their papers. Then have them try to wipe their papers clean with a paper towel. Next have kids make marks on a piece of cardboard and try to erase that. Finally, give kids the foil and have them try a third time. Let kids celebrate when they’re able to wipe off the crayon marks from the foil. 3. DISCUSS What made you want to keep trying or give up with this activity? • What’s something you try to do that’s really hard? • What can make talking to God hard sometimes? 4. MAKE THE CONNECTION Say: Prayer is our way to talk with God. Even when we don’t know exactly what to say, we can keep praying. God hears and answers, so we pray without giving up. "May I now?"
1. Play a game of Mother, May I? with your family by having everyone line up across the room from you. One at a time, they may ask to take a certain number of a type of step, such as giant steps, hops, normal steps, or baby steps. 2. Say no to the first 5 or 10 requests to move forward. 3. Say yes to some of the requests after several turns. 4. Play until someone reaches you; then switch roles. 5. Talk about what was frustrating in this game. Remind your child that the widow asked for help over and over, and we can pray like that, too. TEACHTalk to students about prayer. What is prayer? Why should we pray, and how should we pray? And does God really listen every time we talk to Him? Kids may have varying ideas about what prayer is and means. Share with them this intriguing parable from Jesus about prayer. Read together Luke 18:1-8. Tip: These can be fun to act out. Have students play the parts of “widow” and judge.” Talk with kids about what is going on here. Does this story seem a little strange? The wicked judge refuses to give the widow what she needs…but after enough pestering, he relents. Does this mean we should just beg and plead for things we want until we get them? Not quite. Jesus is making a point using contrasts. You might need to address for younger students what a contrast is: talk about opposites and how sometimes things show up more when there is something near them that is significantly different, like dark and light. The contrast here has to do with both characters, really… Ask older students what they think the judge might represent or be contrasted with…He is (or rather, is not) God. The judge was pretty much a bad guy, but even he gave the lady what she wanted eventually. God is not a bad guy at all. In fact, unlike the widow in the story (who the judge did not know), God knows us very well and loves us very much. So how much more will God give us the things that we need? This story also reminds us to be diligent in prayer. Note what this does NOT mean:
MAKE IT PERSONALOnce there was a little boy who wanted more than anything to play in the band at school. The boy went home from school one day and asked his parents if they would buy him an instrument and let him sign up to play in the band. Well, the boy's parents didn't say yes, and they didn't say no. They said, "We'll have to think about it. After all, a musical instrument costs a lot of money and we aren't sure you will stick with it."
A few days went by and the boy's parents still hadn't said anything, so the boy decided he should ask again. The boy's parents didn't say yes and they didn't say no. They said, "We are still thinking about it." On his way home from school the next day, the boy decided to stop by the local music store to check out the musical instruments. When he walked in the store, the first thing that caught his eye was a beautiful, shiny trumpet. It wasn't new, but it was in very good condition and it had a really cool fake alligator skin case. It was just what he wanted. That night at supper the boy said to his parents, "I went by the music store today after school and they have a really nice used trumpet. It is exactly what I want and it only costs $100." The boy's father turned to his wife and said, "I guess we had better go take a look at that trumpet or we are never going to hear the end of this." The next day, the boy went to the music store with his parents and they bought him that trumpet. The boy joined the band -- and he did stick with it. He played in the band all through high school and when he graduated from high school, he went on to college and studied music. After graduating from college, he became a music teacher. I wonder how differently his life might have turned out if he had asked his parents for that musical instrument one time and never mentioned it again. The Bible teaches us that just as our parents want what is best for us and will give us what we ask for, God, our heavenly Father, also hears and answers our requests. Sometimes we ask God for something one time and never mention it again. Maybe that is our impatience showing. When we ask for something, we want God to say "yes," and we want Him to say it right now! Jesus said that we should always pray and not give up. Perhaps God just wants us to show that we are really serious about what we are asking of Him. Does this mean that if we keep asking for something over and over again that God will always give it to us? No, but He loves us and wants what is best for us, and He will answer, "yes" if He can. We're looking forward to providing you with weekly resources for activities, crafts, and family experiences that tie into our home worship guides. Check in this upcoming weekend for our first one!
In the meantime, check out this helpful resource for how to talk to your children about COVID-19. |
It Takes a VillageFaith formation in children is a massive undertaking. While parents are the primary disciple-makers of their kiddos, we're here to let you know you're not alone. Archives
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