Hi all.

Today’s story is from 2 Kings 22-23.

So the northern kingdom of Israel had been taken captive by the Assyrians. Most of the kings of Judah (the other tribe or big family) were not much better than the kings of Israel had been. They disobeyed God and worshipped pretend gods called idols. They did what the wanted and didn’t take care of the temple (the church.) It takes work to keep a church looking nice. You have to clean it, keep the paint and finishes nice. Sometimes you fix things…but the church was falling apart because no one cared enough about God to fix it.

Then, a young boy named Josiah became king. His father had been king and now he would be king. But he was just a kid? That didn’t stop him from doing great things for God, though.

He obeyed God and tried to always do the right thing. As we got a bit older, he has his helpers fix up the church. They found some old scrolls (rolls of paper) that were part of the Bible. Josiah had his helpers read to him from the Book of the Law (the older books of the Bible). When he heard what it said, he cried and cried. Do you know why? Because the people were NOT doing what the Bible said and he felt so sorry to God. We don’t know what God wants us to do unless we read the Bible. When we know what His word says, then when we have decisions to make, we can know if it’s something that God would want us to do or not.

He called all the people together and shared with them the words of God. He led all the people in making a new covenant (promise) to follow God and obey Him. Then the people celebrated Passover (which is when they remember God leading them out of Egypt and His angel passing over the houses of the people who put the blood on their door and not killing the boys in the house.)

The people took down their pretend gods and did what was right. It doesn’t last for long as we’ll soon see, but Josiah is remembered in the Bible for doing the right thing.

You don’t have to be a big grown up to do the right thing. Josiah was a good example to all the people in Judah for how to love God…worshipping only Him, helping keep the church nice, praying to God, and obeying Him.

In 1 Timothy 4:12 it says, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith and in purity.” Even little guys can do the right thing for God and sometimes you can even show grown ups how to love God.

For our craft today, we cut out a smallish circle and two arms from red paper and one big crown from yellow paper and then we decorated them. (to show Josiah was a young boy filling a BIG position, even little people can do BIG things for God.)

The description says “young King Josiah leads the people back to God” and if you can’t see, both of my kids drew him crying…apparently that part stuck out to them.

Thanks for joining us. Love to you all!