Hello again! Welcome to September…this month we’ll be learning stories from the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah and Esther.

Today’s story comes from 1 Samuel, chapters 1-2.

There was once a woman named Hannah. Hannah wanted to be a mommy more than anything. Her husband loved her and he wished she could be happy, but Hannah was sad a lot, because she just wanted a baby.

Every year, Hannah and her husband would go to the tabernacle (the church where God was) and pray and worship. Hannah would ask God every year for a baby.

There was another mommy who was mean to Hannah and always laughed at her because she didn’t have any children. That made Hannah EVEN sadder!

One year, Hannah and her husband went to the tabernacle to give God their offerings (gifts) and to pray to God. There was a big feast and her husband gave Hannah an extra portion to help her feel better. But even though he was trying to help, what Hannah REALLY needed was to talk to God.

She prayed (talked to God) and said, “If You will give me a baby, I promise I will teach him about you, and he will serve You his whole life!”

She prayed and cried and prayed and cried so much, that Eli the priest (like a pastor or preacher) came over and said “Is she crazy?! Lady, what are you up to?!”

Hannah quickly said, “I haven’t been doing anything bad, only praying to God.”

Then God told Eli to say, “May God give you what you have asked of Him.”

Hannah believed the words of God and when she went home, God gave her a baby in her belly. She had a baby boy and named him Samuel. When Samuel was big enough, Hannah taught him about God, and how God had listened to her and what a wonderful God He is. When Samuel got even a little bigger, Hannah took him back to the tabernacle so he could live with Eli and learn how to serve God.

(God had big plans for Samuel, and God used his mommy, Hannah to prepare him for how God would use him.)

Because Hannah trusted God, God gave her even more babies after Samuel.

When we pray, we can always know that God is listening to us. He wants us to talk to Him. God talks to us in our hearts and through His words in the Bible. If you want to know what God has to say to you, you can read your Bible.

Also, God has big plans for you. Sometimes, we don’t understand God’s plan. Why He makes us wait for something, or why He doesn’t give us something we want. But we can always trust that God has GOOD plans for us and that He wants what is best for us. Hannah trusted God. We can trust God too.

For our craft today, we cut out 2 circles (one big, one small) and one oval. We drew faces on the circles. Then, we took a regular piece of construction paper and wrapped it around into a cone shape. We taped the big head onto the cone and taped the small head and oval (swaddling blanket) onto the mommy’s cone body.

We also found this video posted by “Teaching Kids about Jesus.”

Thanks for joining us, more tomorrow! Love to you all!