Good Friday

Hi all. We are continuing the story of Easter today. Today’s story can be found in Matthew 27, Mark 15, Luke 23, and John 19.

Today is called Good Friday, though the story seems very very sad.

Jesus had been arrested because the leaders didn’t like how much the people liked Jesus. They were scared He would try to be more important than them. They took Him to the Israelite leaders and the Roman leaders and nobody could really decide what to do with Him.

Some of the leaders didn’t like that He said He was God’s son (even though He was.) Some of the leaders didn’t like how powerful He was (but remember, God can do ANYTHING!) Some of the leaders didn’t like how much the people loved Him (and how much HE loved them!!)

It was very confusing. Some of the leaders didn’t see any reason Jesus should die…but some of the others finally got the crowd all worked up and soon the people were yelling for Jesus to die.

(*parents of small children can edit this as needed) They hurt Him. They hit Him with sticks, they spit on Him, they took off His clothes and smacked Him with sharp thorny sticks. It was very very ouchy. But Jesus knew it had to happen. They made a crown from some thorns and put it on His head and laughed and laughed and said “HA! HERE’S YOUR ‘KING!'” They were making fun of Jesus. Finally, they got two big BIG pieces of wood and nailed and tied them together to make a cross. They made Jesus carry that big cross all through the streets. Some of the people in the streets (like the disciples and Jesus’ mom Mary) cried, because they loved Jesus, but most of the people were saying terrible things and were very mean to Him.

Finally, He went up a big hill and they put the cross in the ground standing up. Then they took nails and hammered through His hands into the wood (OUCH!) and they hammered His feet into the wood too. (OUCH!)

Some of the people laughed at Jesus and said, “If you are REALLY God’s son, you’d have enough power to get down off that cross!”

And that was true. Jesus DID have enough power to get off the cross. He could have asked for help from God, or for angels to help, or He could have just walked away, but He didn’t.

While He was on the cross, God put all our bad choices (sin) on Jesus. He felt all the pain and consequences for our choices. He did that so WE don’t have to. Jesus asked God to forgive us. You, your mom, your dad, your grandma, your cousins, His disciples, the Pharisees, “bad guys”…everyone. There were two other people who HAD made bad choices who were also dying on crosses on either side of Jesus. One of them laughed at Jesus, but the other asked Jesus to forgive him. And even though he was about to die, Jesus said, “Yes! I WILL forgive you. Today when you die, you will be with Me in heaven.” (It’s NEVER too late to choose Jesus!)

And the saddest part was, when He was taking our sin, God couldn’t even look at Him. (Because God is perfect, He can’t be around nasty sin…so He couldn’t be near Jesus) and that’s the worst thing…to be apart from God. God is all goodness and love so to apart from God is not feel any goodness, any love or any happiness. Our bad sin keeps us AWAY from God forever. But Jesus took that FOR US on the cross, so our sin doesn’t have to keep us away from God! We CAN live with Him in perfectness forever in heaven, because we are FORGIVEN by God…because Jesus took all that punishment, all those consequences FOR US. THAT is why it is GOOD Friday.

The sky got dark, there was thunder and lightning and an earthquake. God was mad. Do you know why? He was mad that Jesus was in so much pain. Do you know it makes your mom and dad very sad when you get hurt? And if they see someone hurt you it makes them mad. Because they love you! and they want everyone to be nice to you! When someone is mean to you, it makes them angry. God was angry that His son was so sad and in so much pain.

But an amazing thing happened. In the temple (the church) there was a big front room where everyone prayed. Then behind a GIANT curtain was a thing called the Ark of the Covenant (a special box where God’s Spirit was). When Jesus died, that curtain tore into 2 pieces, top to bottom and it was God saying “My Spirit will now live in EVERYONE who loves Me. Not just in the temple, but in everyone’s heart who loves Me and chooses Me.”

Then Jesus looked up to heaven and said “It is finished.” Then He died.

He meant His work of taking our sins was finished. He took it all. Every bad thing you can ever think of, Jesus died for that. It is forgiven if we just ask and decide we want Jesus to be OUR King. (1 John 1:9, John 3:16-17, Isaiah 53:3-5, Romans 5:6-10, Romans 3:22-24, 1 Peter 2:24).

You can talk with your parents/grandparents/pastor about this story and what it means to you. Maybe you’re ready to say “Thank you Jesus for dying for me! Please forgive my sins and be my King.”

We made cardboard crosses today, but mostly the discussion was our focus.

IMG_3109

Thanks for joining us. Can’t wait for SUNDAY!! Happy Easter-love to you all!

For God So Loved…

As we begin our Easter lessons tomorrow, I wanted to finish up the teachings of Jesus with this one.

This can be found in John 3:1-17.

There was a Pharisee, a man named Nicodemus, who came to Jesus one night and said, “Rabbi (which means teacher), we know that you are a teacher who has come from God. No one could perform the signs you are doing if God were not doing it.”

Jesus answered, “I tell you, no one can see the kingdom of God unless they are born again.”

Does that seem like a silly thing to say? What do you think that means?

“How can someone be born again when they are old?” Nicodemus asked. “A mommy can’t have the same baby two times?!”

Jesus answered, “No one can enter heaven unless they are born of the Spirit. People have people babies, but the Spirit of God helps you be born into a life with God!”

“How can that be?” Nicodemus asked.

The Jesus got a little frustrated that even the Pharisees-the leaders of the Israelites didn’t really understand God!

He said, “The Son of Man (Jesus) must be lifted up (meaning He would die for our sins), so everyone who believes may have eternal life in him.”

“For God SO loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him will not die forever but have eternal life. God did not send his Me into the world to punish everyone for their sins, but to save everyone!”

 

God loved us so much, He sent His perfect son Jesus to die in our place…because we are NOT perfect. Heaven with God is only for PERFECT things…so Jesus said “I will die in their place. They are supposed to die forever for their bad choices, but I will die and You (God) can see them as perfect instead.” If we believe this then we will have forever life with God.

 

For our craft today we cut out a blue circle (the world) and added any kind of green shapes we wanted (to make the land). We added a big heart and the words to John 3:16.

IMG_2900

This  is a cute song version posted from The Rizers.

This version is from Hillsong Kids.

Thanks for joining us again. Love to you all!

The Unmerciful Servant

Hello all! This month we are learning about the things Jesus taught. Today is another parable (a story meant to teach something).

Today’s story can be found in Matthew 18:21-35.

One day Peter came to Jesus and asked, “Lord, how many times should I forgive someone who is mean to me? Seven times?”

Jesus answered, “No, not seven times, but seventy-seven times!” (He was saying a LOT!)

Then He told this story to help Peter understand, “There was once king who wanted to settle accounts with his servants. There was one man who owed him ten thousand bags of gold. The man was not able to pay, and the king ordered that all that he had be sold to repay the debt.

But the man fell on his knees before him. ‘Be patient with me,’ he begged, ‘and I will pay back everything.’  The king master took pity on him, forgave the debt and let him go. ‘I will forget all the money you owe me.’

But when that man went out, he found one of his fellow servants who owed him just a little bit of money. He grabbed him and yelled, ‘Pay back what you owe me!’ His fellow servant fell to his knees and begged him, ‘Be patient with me, and I will pay it back.’

But he refused. Instead, he went off and had the man thrown into jail until he could pay back the debt.  When the other servants saw what had happened, they were angry and went and told the king everything that had happened.

Then the king called the man in. ‘You wicked man,’ he said, ‘I canceled all that debt of yours because you begged me to. Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’ Then the king sent the man to jail too, because he had not forgiven the servant.

This is how God has forgiven us and you are to forgive those who hurt you too.”

 

The first man owed a LOT of money but the king said, “I will have mercy on you and forget what you owe me.” Mercy means saving someone from a consequence they deserve. The man SHOULD have had to go to jail and sell everything to pay back the king. But instead, the king said, “I will forgive the debt and forget all about it.” Thats just like God. We owe God everything…and we can NEVER repay Him for loving us. We can never make up for our bad choices that disobey Him (sins). BUT, He is the Good King and when we ask Him to, He forgives us and forgets what we owe Him. Isn’t that wonderful?! We should have to be apart from God forever because of our sins. We owe Him everything. But He shows us mercy and says, “I will forget all you owe.”

But then…sometimes if someone hurts us, we are not as quick to forgive. Just like the servant who owed the man just a little money…he grabbed him and yelled “GIVE ME MY MONEY!” Sometimes when someone is mean to us we want to grab them and yell at them. “You hurt me! You owe me!” BUT, God says, we should remember how much He has forgiven us and that will help us show forgiveness to others. The man did NOT show forgiveness and he ended up in jail too! We need to forgive others like God has forgiven us. We can forgive the hurtful things people do to us because God has forgiven EVERY bad thing we’ve ever done.

 

For our craft today, we drew out the story as we told it (and afterward I made a copy since we have two kids), then cut the story into 6 pieces, mixed them up and glued them in the correct order on another piece of paper.

 

(Youtube does have a LOT of videos of this one…but I couldn’t find one I especially wanted to highlight. Feel free to go poking around though!)

Thanks for joining us! We’ll have two more lessons and then we’ll begin our Easter countdown!

The Prodigal Son

Hi all! This month we are learning about the things Jesus taught. Today’s story is another parable (a story meant to teach us something).

This story is form Luke 15:11-32.

This is the story of the prodigal son. Prodigal means to spend money wastefully and extravagantly.

Jesus was teaching the people one day about how much God loves us. He told the people this parable.

“There was a man who had two sons. The younger one said to his father, ‘Father, give me my share of the estate.’” (When a father would die, he would leave money and land to his children, but this younger brother didn’t want to wait until the father died. He demanded his money NOW!)

“Not long after that, the boy got together all he had and went far away to a place where he quickly spent all his money. He made bad friends and bad choices and he wasted his money on silly things. After a while he was completely out of money and had no food, so he went and got a job in the fields feeding pigs. He was so hungry he even wanted to eat what the pigs were eating, but no one gave him anything! When he came to his senses, he said, ‘How many of my father’s hired servants have food to spare, and here I am starving to death!  I will go back to my father and say to him: Father, I have sinned against you. I know I am no longer worthy to be called your son; but please make me like one of your hired servants.’ So he got up and went to his father.”

“But while he was still a long way off, his father saw him and was SO happy to see him; he ran to his son, threw his arms around him and kissed him! The boy said to him, ‘Father, I have done a bad thing and I am no longer worthy to be called your son.’ But the father said to his servants, ‘Quick! Bring the best clothes and put them on him. Let’s have a feast and celebrate. For this son of mine was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’ So they began to celebrate.”

“Meanwhile, the older brother was in the field. When he came near the house, he heard music and dancing. So he asked one of the servants what was going on. ‘Your brother has come home,’ he replied, ‘and your father has made a feast of all the best food because he has him back safe and sound.’

“The older brother became angry and said to his father, ‘Look! All these years I’ve been working hard for you and I have never disobeyed your orders. But you never threw ME a party!”

“‘My son,’ the father said, ‘you are always with me, and everything I have is yours. But we had to celebrate and be glad, because this brother of yours was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.’”

 

Jesus told the people this story to show them what God is like. Sometimes WE act like the younger brother. We want to live life our own way and do our thing. But when we decide we don’t need God, that can get us into big trouble. We DO need God to take care of us. The young man realized he made some bad choices and he felt so sorry he decided he wasn’t good enough to be the man’s son anymore…but MAYBE he could just work as a servant, at least then he would have food to eat! This is like when we are sorry for OUR bad choices and we humble ourselves before God and ask Him to please forgive us.

And does God say, “Ok. You messed up big time, but I guess you can serve me?” No! He RUNS to us! God is so SO happy when we tell Him we need Him. He is SO happy when someone comes to Him and asks Him to forgive them. We are supposed to die forever for our bad choices, but when we come to God and He saves us, we then get forever life with Him! THAT is a good reason to celebrate! We are lost without God, but found again when we give our hearts and lives to Him.

And what about the older brother? He said “You never threw me a party!” And the daddy said, “But you could have one anytime! Every blessing I have I share with you!” And when we are God’s children, He says He will share His blessings with us. It makes God very happy to share all His creation with us. God is a good father to us. He cares for us, loves us, saves us, and shares everything He has made with us. And He also celebrates SO much when someone decides they want Him in their hearts!

 

For our craft today we made circle stories. For this we used 2 paper plates and a pipe cleaner (but if you have one of the gold bracket things, that would work well too!)

We cut the plates to be two circles and on one plate we drew two lines dividing the circles into 4 parts. We drew each part of the story in the 4 sections.

Section 1 we drew the boy taking a bag of money

Our text reads “The boy took his money and left home”

 

Section 2 we drew the boy, some angry friends and some money/dollar signs

Our text reads “He made bad friends and spent all his money”

 

Section 3 we drew a pig

Our text reads “He had to live with pigs”

 

Section 4 we drew the very happy daddy

Our text reads “He went home and said ‘sorry’ and his daddy was SO happy! He forgave him like God loves and forgives us.

 

Then we took the other circle and cut 1/4 of it away (so it looks like pacman). We wrote on the top “The Prodigal Son, Luke 15, A story about God’s love and forgiveness”

 

Then we poked a hole in the middle of each circle and ran a pipe cleaner through it smushing up the ends. Now the top will spin around to reveal the story. IMG_2712

 

IMG_2714IMG_2715

 

This video is from the Beginner’s Bible (it’s longer than most at about 26 minutes, but very thorough).

This is a really cute video of a social media retelling (appropriate for older kids who can read) posted by  TMCYouthChannel.

And here is Prodigal by Casting Crowns posted by Mckayla Henderson.

 

Thanks for joining us today. Love to you all!

The Lost Sheep

Hi all! Welcome! This month we are learning about the things Jesus taught. Today’s story is another parable (a story meant to teach us something).

The verses for today’s lesson can be found in the Bible in Luke 15:1-7 and John 10:1-16.

One day the Pharisees and some other people who didn’t like Jesus were complaining about Him eating with sinners and bad people, so Jesus told them a story.

A lot of people back then took care of sheep, so everyone who heard this story would know that a shepherd works hard to take care of his sheep. He gives them food and water and protects them from coyotes or wolves…even if he gets hurt or dies while fighting them off. A good shepherd loves his sheep and knows them all.

“Once there was a shepherd who had a hundred sheep whom He loved and he lost one of them. He left the ninety-nine other sheep in the open country and went after the lost sheep until he found it! And when he found it, he joyfully put it on his shoulders and took the little sheep home. Then he called his friends and neighbors together and said, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who asks God to forgive them, than over ninety-nine people who do not need to repent.”

Jesus also said in the book of John, “A good shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought his sheep out, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me—just as my Father knows me and I know the Father—and I lay down my life for the sheep.”

Jesus was saying that He takes care of us and is even willing to die for us (and He did! on the cross for our sins!) He knows us by name and if we are really His, we will know Him and listen to Him. And how do we know what Jesus says? How do we know His voice? By praying and reading His words to us from the Bible! He gave us the Bible as His voice.

Jesus then told the Pharisees and others, “I have other sheep that are not with me yet. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.” Jesus was saying there are more people who need to learn about Him! And when they learn and accept Jesus into THEIR hearts, it’s like one big family, and He promises to take care of all of us! We can help tell others and bring them to God!

Jesus is our good shepherd. He takes care of us, He keeps our hearts safe from Satan who tries to keep us away from God. He provides what we need and He loves us and knows us by name. He even died to save us from being apart from God forever! He leads us and tells us what we should do in the Bible. We can listen to His words, follow Him and trust Him. He IS a good, good shepherd.

For our craft today we made little sheep out of paper plates. We used a black circle of construction paper and two u-shaped pieces of black construction paper; some googly eyes, a pom pom nose and cotton balls.

Our text reads: Jesus the good shepherd, Luke 15, John 10

This is a video of the Parable of the Lost sheep posted by Sabbath School.

This video is called the Baa Baa song posted by Sibling Harmony.

Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!

Treasures in Heaven

Hi all! Welcome back! This month we are learning about the things Jesus taught.

Today’s lesson is from Matthew 6:19-24. This is also from Jesus’ sermon on the mount.

Jesus told the people, “Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where things die, break and are destroyed. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven.” Don’t focus on having the most money or the best THINGS because things break. Instead, think about what’s REALLY important, like loving God, loving other people and telling other people about God!

He said “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” What you think is the most important thing is what you will give your attention to. If you think money or toys are really important, then you’ll spend all your time trying to get money or toys. BUT, if you think God and telling others about Him is what’s really important, then that is where your heart will be and you’ll spend your time loving God and others.

Jesus warned the people, “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money.” Jesus said, you have to pick. You can’t love your things and love God. Which one will be more important to you? The things of this earth that will break and be gone when you die? Or God and loving others? Then when you die, you’ll be with God forever, and maybe, if you’ve told someone else about God, they’ll get to be with you in heaven forever too! Isn’t that a REAL treasure!?

This video by Titus Ting is a musical version of these verses.

This is the song by Burlap and Cashmere.

 

For our craft today we made treasure chests from a rectangle and a 1/2 circle piece of brown construction paper. We drew on some lines and a lock and then glued on bits of confetti and gold and silver paper. (You could also draw money, or find gold trinkets at your local craft store, money scrapbook paper or even use play money from the dollar store.)

Our text reads: “Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, for where your treasure is, there will your heart be also.” Matt 6:20-21

IMG_2646IMG_2648

 

Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!

The story of the farmer and his seeds

Hi all! This month we are learning about the things Jesus taught. Today’s story is a parable, a story meant to teach something.

This story can be found in Matthew 13, Mark 4 and Luke 8.

Jesus was teaching one day and told the people this parable (story). There was once a farmer who went to plant some seeds. Some of the seeds fell along the road, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocks, where there was not much good soil. Those seeds sprang up quickly, but when the sun came up, the plants were burnt, and they withered… they could not really grow there. Other seeds fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants, so those seeds could not continue to grow. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—many many many stalks of good wheat grew there.”

But Jesus wasn’t just teaching the people how to be good farmers. He was telling them a story about God and about us. He then explained to the people what the story meant.

He said,”The seeds that fell on the road and were eaten by the birds are like when someone hears the words of the Bible and does not understand it. Then Satan comes and tries to keep those people away from God. The seeds that fell on the rocky soil and couldn’t grow are like the people who hear God’s words and obey them for a little bit, but then give up. The seeds that fell in the weeds and couldn’t grow are like people who are more worried about money and their troubles than trusting in God. But the seeds that fell in the good soil and grew and grew are like the people who hear God’s words, obey them and tell others about God.”

Let’s ask God to help us be good seeds in good soil so we can grow! We can listen to God’s words and ask Him to help us understand (we can ask our mom and dad, our grandparents, our pastor or other grown ups for help too if we don’t understand something in the Bible.) We can also pray and ask God to help us obey His words and tell others about Him.

 

For our craft today we made a book of the story.

We started by taking 4 pieces of paper. (You can use any color you want). We made green our biggest/last piece so we took a regular 8.5 x 11 piece of construction paper and folded it in half. Then we took a yellow piece, folded it in half and cut about an inch off the bottom. Then we took a brown piece, folded it and cut about 2 inches off. Then we took a blue piece, folded it in half and cut about 3 inches off.

IMG_2579

When stacked they look like this

IMG_2580

 

For each page, we open up the paper and the illustration goes on top half and words on the bottom half.

Page 1: We drew a road, glued on some seeds (we used various beans we had. You could use beans, actual seeds, rice, glitter, or just draw the seeds on). Then we added some birds.

IMG_2582

Page 2: We drew the rocky soil and glued on a few seeds.

IMG_2584

Page 3: For our thorns we drew some sticks with pokers on the sides and glued on some seeds.

IMG_2587

Page 4: On this page we glued on a lot of seeds and drew good brown soil, and tall yellow and green grasses and wheat.

IMG_2589

 

Then we stapled the pieces together to form our book:

IMG_2623IMG_2625IMG_2624

 

Thanks again for joining us. Love to you all!

The Beatitudes

Hi all! This month we are learning about the thing Jesus taught.

Today’s lesson can be found in Matthew 5. (In full disclosure, much of the verbiage used today is from “Jesus Calling Bible Storybook” by Sarah Young. I don’t get any kickback for mentioning that, but it’s a great resource we use often…very nice pictures by Carolina Farias and simple versions of Bible stories.

 

So one day Jesus was teaching and this particular speech is called His “sermon on the mount.” There are a lot of things Jesus taught the people that day; today we’ll just be talking about one of the things, called the beatitudes.

WHAT are beatitudes? The first part of the word “be-a-tus” means happy or blessed!

Jesus was teaching the people 8 reasons they could feel happy and blessed!

Jesus said, “Those who say, ‘I am a sinner,’ will be part of God’s family.

Those who are sorry for their bad choices will be comforted by God.

Those who obey God will live forever with Him.

Those who want to do the right thing, God will help them do it.

Those who forgive others will be forgiven by God.

Those who ask God to live in their hearts will see Him.

Those who help others find peace with God will be called His children.

Those who tell others about God, even if people are mean to them, are part of God’s family.”

 

This video features the Beatitudes song by Brook Hills music performed by Jess Chamblee.

This video posted by Outside da box is probably better geared towards older elementary/middle school students, but gets the point across nicely.

 

For our craft today we made a bouquet of blessings. We used various geometric shaped pieces of card stock and construction paper and just glued them together to make any shape flower we wanted. (Each child and I made a set of 8, so our bouquet features 24 flowers). I wrote one beatitude on each flower (so 3 of each). Then we taped a straw to the back of each one (you could also use pipe cleaners).

 

IMG_2555IMG_2551

Now we have a lovely bouquet of blessings on our table to remind us of God’s goodness!

Thanks for joining us today! Love to you all!

Do Not Worry

Hi all! This month we are learning about the things Jesus taught.

Today’s story is from Matthew 6:25-34.

Jesus was teaching the people one day and He said, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about what you will wear. There are more important things in life than wearing fancy clothes or eating special food.

Look at the birds in the air; they don’t grow food, or have money to buy food, but God feeds them (with berries, nuts and worms). And YOU are much more important than birds.

And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not have to make clothes…but God makes them look beautiful. Grass grows and then in winter, it’s gone…God makes sure even the grass and flower which are so small and gone so fast look so pretty. You can trust that He will take care of your clothes too.

People who don’t believe in God are always trying to find the prettiest clothes or the fanciest food, or the newest best thing… But I tell you, seek God first and His ways, and all these things will be given to you as well.

So do not worry about tomorrow. Nobody makes his life any better or longer by worrying. Follow God and trust Him.”

We don’t have to worry…when we do worry, we can pray and talk to God about it. We can remember that God loves us and promises to take care of us. He takes care of ALL things, and we can be sure if He takes care of even the smallest tiniest things, that He will certainly take care of us.

 

For our craft today we cut out pictures of birds and flowers and glued them onto our paper.

Our text reads: God takes care of the flowers and the birds, and He will take care of me! Matthew 6:25-34

 

This video has a cute illustrated version of the verses covered today. It was posted by QuizWorx.

Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!

The wise and foolish builders

Hi all! This month we are learning about the things Jesus taught.

Today’s story can be found in Matthew 7:24-27 and Luke 6:46-49.

Jesus said, “Everyone who hears My words and obeys them is like a wise man who built his house on the rock. When the rain came down, the water rose, and the winds blew against that house; but it did not fall, because it had its foundation on the rock. But everyone who hears these words of Mine and does NOT obey them is like a foolish man who built his house on sand. When the rain came down, the water rose, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell with a great crash.”

When you build a house, it has to be on strong ground…if you build it on sand, then when it rains, the sand will wash away and the house will fall over. But Jesus wasn’t telling the people how to build a real house. He was saying, “If you believe in Me and obey My words, then your whole life will be strong. And when bad, scary or hard things happen, you can remember My words, and obey them and you will be able to get through any hard time.” If you put your trust in other things, like pretend gods, or your stuff, then when bad things happen, you won’t really have any help. Your things can’t help you through a hard time. Only God is truth and He never changes. We can trust in Him. THAT is like building our lives on a strong rock. When hard times come or bad things happen, we won’t have to make bad choices because we can remember that God loves us and He will help us.

We illustrated this today by using a baking pan and two lego houses. We put one house on a cup (this was the rocks), and we made a pile of sugar (you could also use salt or sand if you have it). Then we took a full water bottle and dumped it into the pan. The house on the rock stayed, but the house on the sand washed away.

IMG_2453IMG_2455

 

Then we made a paper craft, one for each part of the story. (We used glitter for the sand)

IMG_2457

IMG_2459

 

This video posted by ThroughTheWaters is a song called “The wise man built his house upon the rocks.”

 

Thanks for joining us! Love to you all!