Rebecca S. Ramsey's Blog, page 9

Faces of Easter 2: Jesus Is Lost and Found

Welcome to Faces of Easter 2: Jesus Is Lost and Found, our lesson for February 28. Since we’re presently in a pandemic, we’ll be sharing this story virtually.

This week we remember and celebrate the phase of Jesus’ life when he was a boy by telling the story from Luke 2: 39-52. In this story, Jesus is found in the temple after the Passover festival.
What a great opportunity for children to think about Jesus as a boy, a child near their own age. I’m sure that if they really start doing some heavy duty thinking about this, a zillion questions may spring up. It’s great for all of us to witness this and ask questions of our own!
At the end of the story, you can choose whether to ask children to find an item in the classroom that helps tell about this part of Jesus’ life or you can ask wondering questions.

Here are some wondering questions you might ask:
1. I wonder what your favorite part of this story is.
2. I wonder what the most important part of the story is.
3. I wonder what God can teach us from this story.
4. I wonder where you are in the story- what part of the story is about you.
5. I wonder what questions Mary had about all of this after they were back home again.

Idea Starters for Our Make a Gift to God Time
There are several ways you and the children can choose to go during your response time. You can focus on the story itself, you can help children think about the role of church in their own lives, or you could focus on the idea of God helping us grow during childhood. I’m sure you can think of other ways to respond to this story. Here are a few ideas you might find helpful for the children to use as a springboard:

For a focus on the story itself:

1. Make a scroll of scripture, like the ones Jesus might have studied.
Each child could make their own, or the children could work together to make a big one for the class, with each child writing a verse on it.
To make a scroll, take a sheet of white paper the size of your own choosing and let the children write or copy a verse or several verses. (Luke 2:52 would be especially appropriate for this week.) Then crinkle up the paper, straighten it, and repeat several times to make it look old. If they want, kids can tear the paper around the top and bottom edge (not the sides, where they’ll attach the dowel sticks.) Then curl the sides around dowel sticks and glue to dowels. Paint the scroll with tea and let it dry.

2. Act out the story. Have props available (or make them!) Be sure to take photos!

3. Children could draw Jesus in the temple, or draw the temple background and cut a Jesus figure out of paper so that you can move him around the temple. Kids could also cut out Mary and Joseph figures so that they can “enter” the temple and play out the story. Or you could turn a shoebox into a temple scene with clay or clothespin Jesus, Mary, and Joseph figures, in addition to temple leader figures. Or you could have the children just make the figures and let them retell the story using the Godly Play temple we have in our rooms. (Our Mary to the right comes with a question mark, because she’s wondering where Jesus is.)

For a focus on the role of church in the children’s own lives:
1. Have the children draw or paint or cut out photos for a collage on what their favorite thing is to do at church. Maybe have one side of the drawing of all the things we do at church, and then on the other side their absolute favorite thing.
2. Have the children make a church/temple out of a shoebox or popsickle sticks or lego or clay. Kids could go look at the poster in the Children’s Activity Room and see what the temple looked like first.
3. Make a stained glass window from torn tissue paper and construction paper, as shown here.

For a focus on the idea of God helping us grow:
1. Have the children trace each other’s bodies on butcher paper and color them in with markers or paint. You could hang your classroom of students on the wall and have the children come up with a title about how God helps us grow.
2. As you talk about growing, each child could plant grass seeds or flower seeds in a small pot–or if you really want to get creative with the Easter theme, in an (Easter) egg shell, as shown here.
3. Jesus grew by learning and working hard. How do the children do this? They could draw the things they do as they grow to learn and work hard. Or they could make coupon cards for their parents, good for cleaning their room or dusting the furniture or sweeping, etc.

For more art response ideas, see my Pinterest page, here.

I hope these ideas help!
Love,
Becky

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Ash Wednesday Messes

This Children’s Sermon was given virtually on Ash Wednesday, Feb 17, 2021, to help explain Ash Wednesday to children.

Good evening, girls and boys. What a treat to get to talk with you today about Ash Wednesday. Ash Wednesday is the first day of getting ready for Easter, a mystery that is so holy that we get 6 weeks to get ready. Those 6 weeks are called Lent.

Did you see anyone wearing a cross of ashes on their forehead or their hand today? Maybe you had a minister make a cross on your forehead.  I did. See?

And as Pastor Camille put this cross on my forehead, she said something interesting. Remember you are dust and to dust you will return.

It reminded me of the story of the Bible. The one that’s like a poem, that says after God made Earth and heaven, he took dirt from the ground and blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became alive a living soul!

It’s an interesting thing to imagine, that we are made from dust. And one day we’ll be dust again. We don’t live forever, do we? One day we’ll go back to God, and our bodies will turn to dust again.

Why is being dust and returning to dust important to talk about as we’re getting ready for Easter? Why do we wear a cross of ashes?

We know a cross is in the Easter story. But usually in church our crosses are pretty. Crosses with ashes look messy, like when I write with a pencil or pen and then drag my hand over it. It’s all smudged.

This year like every year, we’ll be spending the next six weeks getting ready for Easter in Zoom Sunday school by remembering the stories of Jesus’s life. We want to be like him. We want to love like he did, and be generous, and stand up for people, and forgive people. But we are messy. We just can’t do it. We lie, we hurt people’s feelings, we call people names. We don’t always act loving. We ask God’s forgiveness and we try again.

We’re messy like this cross. Maybe the cross reminds us that no matter how hard we try, it’s God who is the champion of love, not us. We need God’s help!

So we walk into Lent, towards Easter, with a cross on our forehead, it’s a way to tell God, this is who we are God. We try to love like you, but we can’t get it right. We need you God. We know you God can make something beautiful out of anything, even us.

Let’s pray together: Dear God, today we’re remembering how much we need you. Thank you for forgiving us. Please take our mess and make something beautiful. We love you, God. Amen.

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Faces of Easter I: Remembering the Birth and Presentation of Christ in the Temple

Welcome to Faces of Easter I: Remembering the Birth and Presentation of Christ in the Temple, the first Sunday lesson for the Lenten season.

If the Faces of Easter lessons are new to you, you’ll find that in Godly Play we use the season of Lent to remember Jesus’s life, step by step. In our first lesson of this series, we explore the story of Jesus’s birth. As you retell it in light of the Lenten season, why not also share the story of his presentation in the temple from Luke 2: 22-38? We don’t always share this part of the story and this would be a great time to do so.

If your Godly Play story baskets are all displayed in your classroom where the children can see them, I’d encourage you to include the part of the script in which you invite the children to gather one by one anything in the room that reminds them of this part of Jesus’s life, put it around the story tile, and share their thoughts about its connection with the story. As you know, the children can be so creative in this and make connections that we might not even think about.

If your materials are not where the children have easy access to them, here are some wondering questions you can ask, in lieu of having the children gather materials that support today’s lesson.
1.   I wonder what your favorite part of today’s story is.

2.    I wonder what Joseph and Mary did for Jesus when he was a baby to help him grow?

3.   I wonder what hopes Mary and Joseph had for Jesus and who he would grow up to be?

4.   I wonder what hopes God had for who Jesus would grow up to be?

5.   I wonder who else might have helped Jesus grow to be the person God made him to be?

As for the Give a Gift to God Time, here are some thoughts…

If your class is decorating a Jesus tree, (the trees should be in your room) there are several ideas for ornaments:

*Jesus in the manger
(Like this one on the right from catholicsupply.com)

The kids could make Jesus from a clothespin and make a manger out of twigs and leaves from a walk outside.
Make ornaments of baby Jesus and the pigeons out of felt as seen here. So precious! Or how about these felt doves here?
Or they could make the animals in the stable, the shepherds, angels, holy family, or the Magi.

Wyline had a great idea of making ornaments by having the children cut out egg shapes out of construction paper and decorating one side like an Easter egg and illustrating the other side with elements from that Sunday’s lesson.

As much as you can, let the children come up with how they want to illustrate the story. They’re so much more invested in their work when the whole thing is their idea.

If your class is working on completing the cross map of Lenten lessons, as shown here, this would be the time to make an illustration for the square of Jesus’s birth. Children could illustrate this with whatever materials they 
want–watercolors, markers, collage, colored pencils, etc.

Another idea would be to create three dimensional scenes in your classroom for each week’s lesson. For this week you could bring a baby doll to represent Jesus and have the children figure out how to make a manger to lay him in, maybe make pigeons out of clay for the presentation in the temple. Find material in the resource room for the kids to make a blanket with which to swaddle him. I bet the children can think of other elements for the scene. You could arrange these scenes around the room, making your own version of the stations of the cross!

You can find more ideas at my Pinterest page on the dedication of Jesus, here. Here’s a Pinterest board for nativity sets that might be helpful.

Thank you for all you do!
Love, Becky

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Transforming Love and Transfiguration Sunday

This Children’s Sermon was given virtually on Transfiguration Sunday, Feb. 14, 2021.

Good morning, girls and boys. I’m so glad you’re with us today.   I’ve been thinking about an old movie recently and I wonder if you can guess which one. It’s the one with this character in it. It’s Shrek and who is this? Princess Fiona! Do you remember what happens to her at the end?

When she finds true love in the ogre Shrek, they tell each other they love each other and they kiss, and then Fiona rises up in the air, glowing, with light streaming out from her, and love transforms her into her truest form, the true way she is inside: a loving green ogre.

I was thinking about this story – about how LOVE can change us and transfigure us into our truest selves—the you and me who God really made us to be, because this is what day? Transfiguration Sunday!

Did you listen to the Bible story read earlier? Jesus took Peter, James, and John up to a high mountain, and something remarkable happened. God’s love transfigured him. His clothes became dazzling white and shining! And all of a sudden, there were Elijah and Moses with him, talking to him, and those two men of God had died a long time before that! And a cloud appeared and covered them and there was a voice that said, “This is my Son, whom I love! Listen to him!”

This is how one artist thought that might have looked.

God’s love transformed Jesus into who He really was inside, shining, bright, full of love and holiness.

On this Valentine’s Day, it’s good to think of how God’s love changes us, transfigures us, into who we really are inside- the best, most loving version of ourselves!

Of course for Love to do this, we have to open ourselves completely to LOVE and share that love with others.

I wonder how you’re going to show God’s love to your family today. I know it will be beautiful thing to see.

Let’s pray: Dear God, thank you for the power of love to change us. Help us be so full of your love that it changes us into who you made us to be. We love you, God. Amen.

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Jesus Welcomes the Children

Welcome to Jesus Welcomes the Children, our story for February 14, which will be given virtually. This is a script I’ve written to share the scripture from Luke 18:15-17. The story script also alludes to several other stories from the Bible in which children play important parts, hopefully helping our children understand more of what Jesus is saying is important about how children think, love, believe, and trust.

I’ll include the script below, in case teachers from other churches would like to use it. (Just scroll down to the end of this post.) It’s been exciting for me to see our extra stories be used in churches all over the world! I hope this one works well for everyone.

Ideas for Response Time (Our Make a Gift for God Time!)

1. Children could celebrate Jesus welcoming the children by doing a collage of children’s faces from magazines. (There’s a big box of them in the art resource room near the door.) They could write the verse from Luke 18:17 at the top.
Or make a mural for your class, where each child draws themselves!

2. Children could make a puppet of themselves from a paper bag. We have lots of yarn for hair and fabric and all sorts of other things they could add. Could you video your kids using their puppets to sing Jesus Loves Me?

3.How about make a version of this? It comes from Growing Kids in Grace.

Children could write their own caption, using scripture or their own words.

4. How about letting the kids make story stones for Jesus and children- and maybe a disciple or two or parents. This idea comes from Flame: Creative Children’s Ministry.

Or you could make characters out of play clay or clothespins. Or whatever else kids think of!

5. You could always act out the story. My camera is on the blink right now, but if you have an iphone, send me the video and I’ll upload it for parents to see.

6. Older children might want to research Bible stories about children, and then share them with the class.
Joseph-Genesis 37-47
Miriam- Exodus 1:1-2:10
Moses-Exodus 2:1-10
The boy who led a blind man
Samuel – 1Samuel 1-3
Isaac- Genesis 22:1-19
Ishmael-Genesis 16:1-13, 21:1-20
David – 1 Samuel 13
Mephibosheth-2 Samuel 4:4; 9:1-13
The widow’s son- 1Kings 17
Two boys saved from slavery-2 Kings 4:1-7
The Sunammite boy- 2 Kings 4: 8-37
The enslaved girl- 2 Kings 5: 1-16
King Josiah-2 Kings 22
King Joash-2 Kings 11, 12
Jesus as a boy-Luke 2:1-20; Matthew 2, Luke 2:41-52
Nobleman’s son- John 4:46-54
Daughter of Jairus- Mark 5:22-43
Boy with the Loaves and Fish- Matthew 14:14-21; John 6: 5-13
Little sick boy-Mark 9:14-29
Rhoda- Acts 12:1-19
Paul’s nephew- Acts 23:1-22
Timothy- 2 Timothy 3:14-17
(This list is covered in the book, Children of the Bible, by Cindy Baw & Paul C. Brownlow)

You can find more art response ideas at my Pinterest site here.

Here’s the story script…

Jesus Welcomes the Children

Whenever Jesus came to a town, people wanted to go see him.

Add Jesus figure to the underlay.

If their bodies had sicknesses or if their hearts or minds were sick or sad, they hoped Jesus could heal them. They wanted to watch Jesus heal others and to hear Jesus’s stories about what is important to God.

Add crowd

One day when Jesus came to town, the people were very excited. They put down their work to go and be near him.

Add symbols of work- broom, wheelbarrow or bucket

Moms and dads wanted their children to see Jesus too. If Jesus would only touch them, how special that would be for their children!   So they brought their children to the crowd around Jesus.

Add children figures

The disciples were there with Jesus as he spoke to the adults, and they saw the parents coming with their kids. Before the families could reach Jesus, the disciples stopped them in their tracks and said, “Jesus doesn’t have time for children. Don’t you see that he’s talking about important things? His time is too special to bother with kids.”

Add stop sign

But Jesus knew how important all children are.  Jesus knew children could think important things and do important things, like loving and trusting.

I wonder if he thought of all the stories he’d heard in the temple about children, like the one about the little girl who was taken from her family in Israel as a slave.

Add Naaman figure.

When her master, Naaman, was sick with leprosy, she believed that God’s prophet Elisha could heal him. She suggested Naaman should go to Israel and see Elisha, and even though she was just a child, Naaman did what she said and he was healed.

I wonder if he thought of Samuel who served God in the temple, even as a little boy.

Add scroll.

I wonder if he remembered the way Miriam, the big sister of Moses, followed her mother’s directions and put Moses in a basket in the river and stayed nearby, when the pharaoh said all Hebrew boys had to die.

Add Moses in basket.

When the princess found him, Miriam suggested the princess take him as her own and have Miriam’s mother be his nurse.

I wonder if Jesus thought of the little boy who offered to share his fish and bread with the hungry crowds who had come to hear him, and with Jesus’ help, there was enough food to feed thousands.

Add loaves and fish picture

Jesus knew how children think and love and believe and trust– how each of you think and love and believe and trust. He thought it was the best way to be of all.

Jesus saw the disciples shooing the children away and stopped talking to the adults so that he could call the children back.

Add Go sign.

He said to his friends, “Leave these children alone. Don’t get between them and me. These kids are the God’s pride and joy. I’ll tell you something true: Unless you have their trusting kind of faith, you’ll never get inside the gates of the kingdom of God.”

Add children around Jesus figure.

Wondering Questions:

1.  I wonder what is your favorite part of this story.

2.   I wonder what God loves most about you.

3.   I wonder what God loves about the way you think and believe.

4.   I wonder what God would like adults to learn from children.

I hope it works well for you!
Love, Becky

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Perfectionism in Faith–Learning to Be Jesus-ish!

This children’s sermon was given January 31, during our global pandemic, so it was experienced virtually rather than by children in the sanctuary. I’m posting it here in hopes that it can be helpful to someone.

Good morning, girls and boys. I’m so glad you’re with us today. Do you ever get frustrated when you’re trying to do something or learn something and you want it to be perfect and it’s not? Ramon felt that way about drawing. Do you know Ramon? He’s the main character in a book called Ish by Peter H. Reynolds. I’m going to read it quickly to you and then we’ll talk about it.

[Read book]

So he let himself enjoy his own drawing, even if the vase looked vase ish. It didn’t have to be perfect. It could be what he could make it.

I wonder if that’s a way we can think about being like Jesus. Do you think we can be perfect like Jesus? Never say things that hurt others. Always be generous. Always be loving? Always do what Jesus would do? I don’t think so either.

But we can try, can’t we? Every day we can try again, do the best we can. We can be Jesus-ish, the closest we can make it. We can know God loves us no matter what. And tomorrow is another day to try.

Let’s pray. Dear God, help us remember that we can’t be perfect. Help us love the best we can. We love you, God. Amen.

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The Parable of the Loving Father

Welcome to The Parable of the Loving Father, the story Jesus tells in Luke 15: 11-32. At FBC Greenville, we’ll share this lesson this Sunday, February 7. We’ll be sharing this virtually this year.

I’ve always called this parable the Parable of the Prodigal Son, but I like that many others call it by this name, changing the focus from the sins of the son to the amazing forgiveness, grace, and love of the father.

What an important lesson to teach our children, that nothing can separate us from the love of God. (Romans 8:38-39!) The world is full of hurting people who need to hear this, don’t you think? Who hasn’t made mistakes and felt out of the circle– and who hasn’t also felt a tinge of resentment when someone not playing by the rules gets a free ride? (Or maybe that’s just me!)  Awareness of God’s grace is so important to our kids. It’s a perfect discussion topic for this week.

If you’re one of our Sunday school teachers at FBC Greenville, you will receive an email with the script included. Let me know if you didn’t get it or have trouble opening it and I’ll see if I can fix the problem. (If you’re at another church and would like to use the script, send me an email and I’m happy to send it to you. Or join this site and get this script and 9 others.)

The parable is in a gold box (after all, it’s a parable!) in your Sunday school rooms, ready for you.

Now, how can we help the children deepen their exploration and understanding of the story through their art response time? What ideas can serve as springboards for their own creativity in making a gift for God?

Starter Ideas for Art Response

(Called “Starter Ideas” because this isn’t your grandmother’s craft time. We hope to give the children germs of an idea and then let them take it where they want to take it! Children respond on a much deeper level when they contribute their own ideas to their responses.
1. Have a celebration feast, just like the father threw for the son, celebrating God’s special kind of love. The kids could decorate cookies–or here’s something corny… eat pigs in blankets–reminding them of the pigs the son took care of. You could eat at the end and spend the first few minutes making it really special, letting the children make have decorations for the table-like a tablecloth full of love messages to God. Candles on the table would be nice. And as you prepare, you could help the children remember what the feast is all about: honoring God, who loves us and welcomes us back to him, no matter what we do, no matter if we misbehave or if we stick so closely to the rules that we miss the whole point of love all together.
I’m glad to reimburse you for any supplies you need to buy. Just bring me a receipt (with only Sunday school purchases on it) and I’ll make sure you’re repaid quickly.2. Put a small mirror in a craft store frame which each of the children can decorate, writing on it with Sharpies something like God loves me exactly like I am. Children could decorate the frame however they like, by gluing on sequins or foam shapes, by using glitter glue or whatever supplies you have on hand.
We have a few of these frames in the resource room. If you give me a call before noon on Thursday, I can let you know how many we have and put them in your room for you.3. Children could make cards for Meals on Wheels and for our folks in the hospital or in nursing homes. I’d be glad to see that they get to those who need them.4. Some children might enjoy acting out the parable. If you can video it, send it to me and I’ll share it.5. Older children might be interested in taking a look at the much loved hymn Amazing Grace. They could illustrate it –or record themselves singing it. Let me know before Sunday if you need a recorder.6. I bet the children could be really creative if you ask them to make a valentine for God, however they want, however big or small, whether 2 dimensional or 3 dimensional (clay maybe?)

4. Why not make a door out of popsickle sticks, with the sign on it that says, “Welcome Home!” That’s a great reminder of the father who waits, ready to welcome home his son no matter what he’s done.

For more art response ideas, see my Pinterest board on the parable, here.

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Holy Work for Helpers

This children’s sermon was given January 24, during our global pandemic, so it was experienced virtually rather than by children in the sanctuary. I’m posting it here in hopes that it can be helpful to someone.

Good morning, girls and boys. Today is an exciting day! We have new deacons to ordain and install today- people who’ve said YES, I’ll help the church make decisions about how to serve God. We’re asking God to bless them as they begin their work and we’re adding our blessings on them too!

I want to tell you the story of the very first time this happened! The church had just been born. And it was growing! People wanted to be part of this kind of love.

There was so much love—and so much need. People who needed to be listened to. People needed to be healed in their hearts and bodies. People who were poor and needed food. Jesus had done it before but now he was gone.

Who was left to lead the group? Disciples. How many? 12.

They tried to lead, but God was growing the church so fast!

Disciples didn’t want anyone who needed help to be left out, and people were already whispering about that happening. The believers who spoke Greek were upset at the believers who spoke Hebrew because the Greek speaking widows weren’t getting as much food as the widows who spoke Hebrew, and that wasn’t fair. Jesus would have wanted everyone to have what they needed. So the 12 leaders met, and they said. We can’t keep all of these important parts of serving God ourselves. We’re trying to preach and teach. But feeding people is also a holy thing.  It’s too important to mess up. So let’s share this work with some new leaders. It lists the names of the seven people they chose, and some are Greek names, so they had people from both groups being in charge of this important ministry.

The Bible story says that they presented them to all the followers, who put their hands on them, praying for them, and asking God to bless them for their work. We do the same thing, today!

I wonder if you might choose to be a deacon, a church leader one day. Maybe even here at our church. There are many ways to serve God, whether as a leader or as a member. You are serving God now in your own life, when you try to follow Jesus. It’s a real gift to be part of God’s work in the world, isn’t it?

Let’s pray.  Dear God, thank you for people who are willing to share the work of leading our church. Please bless each one of them and help them as they serve you. We love you God. Amen.

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Jesus Visits Martha and Mary

Welcome to the lesson for January 31, Jesus Visits Martha and Mary, the story from Luke 10:38-42. We’re currently sharing our stories via Zoom, while the pandemic is still keeping us home. I love this story because it does such a good job of raising questions about hospitality- hospitality that we try to practice  and the unique, radical hospitality of God.Truth be told, I think I also love this scripture because I can really relate to Martha’s predicament. What kind of hospitality is important in our own lives? To what extent is it important? I find it interesting-and comforting- that Jesus doesn’t disapprove of Martha’s focused cleaning and cooking and all her caring for her guests. His response to her frustration of finding herself doing all the work (“Lord, make my sister help me!”) is to turn the focus to his own brand of hospitality to Mary.As I know you know, children will need help understanding what the word hospitality means. Does God ask us to show hospitality to others? What about God’s form of hospitality to us?Of course, one of the big questions this story raises is just who gets to receive God’s hospitality. You’ll want to remind the children that in Jesus’s time, rabbis did not allow women to sit at their feet and study the Torah, to listen and ask questions. Yet Jesus encourages it. Who would Jesus welcome to sit at his feet today, to act as a disciple? Are there people that some might choose to exclude? Children are so good at helping us broaden our circle!(If you’re new to the blog and don’t have this story script, it’s one I’ve written and would be happy to share with you. You may join the mailing list and have all ten new scripts sent your way or email me for this individual script.)

Ideas to Get the Children Started for the Give a Gift to God Time

*Our creative time works best when the child feels ownership over his own work–that it comes from her ideas and is merely inspired by the ideas we share to get them started.
Here are some ideas from which they can springboard. I’m sure you can add even better ones. Please feel free to share in the comments.1. Focus on Retelling the Story*Each child could recreate a set of the Godly Play materials for themselves either 2 dimensionally, through drawing the pieces and cutting them out, or 3 dimensionally, with clay (bucket, plates, etc), clothespins (Jesus and the sisters) and other materials-a twig broom, etc.* Make a mural of the story on butcher paper.

*Act out the story, either set in Bible times, or set in modern day. Let the children perform it for each other or another class. Children could play the roles of Jesus, Mary and Martha, and other children (who might be more shy) could be among of the 72 guests.

2. Focus on the theme of Who Would Jesus Want to Sit at His Feet?I can imagine this being successful as an individual project (either a drawing or a collage from magazine pictures) or a class project, with each child picking what kind of person she would like to draw. Would Jesus want the poor, the rich? Different races? The old? The young? Families? Singles? Prisoners? Sick people? Well people? Lonely people? Happy? They could even draw themselves! In fact, I love that idea!There is butcher paper in the hallway ready for a class to work on it together. (They could draw directly on the paper or on small sheets and then glue each person’s work to the larger paper.)3. Focus on Hospitality Skills*Some could prepare some kind of food as Martha did. Some could sweep and clean. Others could be Mary, listening to a teacher read a story. Afterwards, the group could talk about how it felt to play each role. Then the children could take a look at Matthew 4:4 “Jesus answered, ‘It is written: ‘Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.’”  This verse comes from Jesus’s desert experience (his quoting from Deuteronomy,) but it applies to this story as well. The children could write the verse in their own words and illustrate it with the Mary & Martha scene.

*We have a Love Luncheon with Senior Adults scheduled for Feb. 11, so one way our children could practice hospitality is to make decorations for the lunch!

 *Our second graders drew pictures of what each of us would do to entertain Jesus if he came to our house. For more art response ideas to get the children started, see my Pinterest page here.Enjoy the story!Love, Becky

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Jesus Gives the Sermon on the Mountain

Welcome to Jesus Gives the Sermon on the Mountain, the story for January 24 from Matthew 5-7. We’re currently sharing our stories via Zoom, while the pandemic is still keeping us home.

I love this story because the sermon covers so much territory–and because Jesus’ words are so poetic and full of images which children can understand. I also like it because he clearly illustrates how different his ideas were. (His message on the ten commandments, for example, that obeying the commandments was not enough…that we’re called to do more than they ask.) And I like that teachers can focus in the expression time on whichever part of the sermon that interests individual children.How do I love this scripture as a story for children? Let me count the ways…

Do your kids want to work on learning/illustrating the Lord’s Prayer? Why not?  Are there children in your class that are captured by Jesus’ message about worrying? They can focus on that. Older children might be very intrigued by the upside down nature of the Beatitudes. Why not go to the Bible and really go through these together?If you’re a Sunday school teacher at FBG and you haven’t received the story script in your email, let me know. If you’re interested in getting the script and you don’t attend FBG, I’m happy to share. The script is available free along with 9 others when you subscribe to this blog. You can unsubscribe at any time- no worries! Ideas to Get the Children Started for the Give a Gift to God Time

*Our creative time works best when the child feels ownership over his own work–that it comes from the child’s ideas and is merely inspired by the ideas we share to get them started.
Here are some ideas from which they can springboard. I’m sure you can add even better ones. Please feel free to share in the comments.
1. The children could make their own Godly Play set of the sermon, either by drawing it out or making three dimensional pieces from clay or paper or other materials–the door, the bird, the pack, the commandments, etc. Encourage the children to retell what they remember from the sermon.

2. The class could divide up the sermon and each child (or pair of children) could illustrate one part. This would make a great bulletin board for our hallway or a nice mural for the room.

3. The kids could each pick their favorite part of the sermon and reproduce it in some way.

Some of the fifth graders made a mural for the beatitudes. Look at the birds of the air, they don’t sow or reap or stow away in barns…

4. The children could play charades, each acting out a part of the sermon. The other children would have to guess what part they were playing.

5. You could help the children focus on the Beatitudes, assigning the beatitudes out to the kids to illustrate. (Matthew 5:3-12)

6. If you focus on the lamp, you could find photos of lamps in magazines to make a collage. Children could copy the scripture about being the light of the world (Matthew 5:14-16) at the bottom and write a sentence about what that means to them.

7. Children could focus on the commandments and Jesus’ words to do more than they ask. Children could illustrate this.

8. What does it mean to be generous? (Matthew 5:38-42) Children could illustrate this with drawings or acting it out.

9. Children could focus on the Lord’s prayer by copying it and practicing saying it. (Matthew 6: 9-13) Asking the children to illustrate each line of the prayer would ensure that they understand it. For younger children, teachers could photocopy the prayer in a large font, cut out the individual lines, and have the children arrange them in the right order and illustrate each one. If you wanted to do this in a grand scale, you could ask each child to illustrate one line, and then hang this in your classroom–the words and their illustrations.

10. Children could also illustrate someone praying like Jesus taught them to pray, in a quiet room, away from others. They could draw their own bedrooms, showing where they pray.

11. Why not have the children make a bird collage and copy the verse about birds and worrying? (Matthew 6:25-27) Or make a bird for the tree we have in our hallway? That would be great! You could cut simple birds out of different colored paper (decorated however the kids like) and hang them with string, like these from Family Fun:

The children could write the Bible verse on the back, Look at the birds. They don’t plant, harvest, or save food in barns, but your heavenly Father feeds them. Matthew 6:26. Or they could write the verse in their own wording.
Or use the simple template shared here to make the birds.

12. The golden rule is something the children surely know. It’s good that children see where it comes from. Why not write it out (Matt 7:12) and then illustrate it in some way?

13. The class could draw a mural of each child sitting at Jesus’s feet as he taught from the hillside

Our VBS for 2017 was all about the Sermon on the Mount, which might explain why I have two Pinterest boards about it, here and here. As far as what the kids did recently at FBGreenville, we made lighthouses and painted wooden birdhouses. [image error]

There’s so much richness to this sermon. Enjoy!

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