Christianity Cove

These Sunday school lessons for children focus on the story of Moses parting the Red Sea. Children have little difficulty in believing in the miraculous. They are still often deciding what can be real and what is imaginary. Hence, before they get old enough to exercise doubt, they have great opportunities to celebrate the miraculous and cultivate a spirit of hope and possibility.

Through studying one of the greatest miracles recorded in the Bible, they can see that God is capable of anything, and in that, we can have hope for eternity.

We don’t have to run through a Red Sea today to escape bad armies! Still, we have “Red Sea” days in our lives. These are times when we could really use God’s help with something—we want something in our lives to change.

The Hebrews didn’t want to be slaves anymore. They wanted to be free and happy. Ask your students what is it that they want to be better or to change? Have your Sunday school students sit at the tables and, depending on their ages, either write down or draw something in their lives that they don’t like, that they would like to see changed.

Some triggers you might suggest are:
• We only have one bathroom in our house. I would like more.
• My big sister never lets me go anywhere with her. I want to do more things with her.
• I don’t have enough socks, but Mom says we can’t afford to buy anything now.
• My parents fight a lot, and I want things to be peaceful.
•  Nobody wants to sit with me at lunch at school, and it embarrasses me.

After crossing the Red Sea, the Hebrews had quite a long journey ahead of them.  Just like the Hebrews sometimes we don’t get rid of our challenges right away, but like the Hebrews, we can have hope because God can do anything.

During this lesson, we learn how to give a problem to God, and what that feels like in our hearts. If we’re looking to change a “Red Sea” problem in our lives, sometimes it helps to find a friend who will pray for us, too.

All our voices are different, and all our “Red Sea Problems” were different. But just like we know the sounds of different things, God knows the sound of each of our voices. We can believe he hears us and wants to help us be free.

Technorati Tags: Sunday school lessons for children, Moses parting the Red Sea, Red Sea, Sunday school

As a Sunday school teacher you learn quickly that children find the miraculous easy to believe in. This Bible study for children uses the stories of Moses leading Israel out of bondage. It is full of these stories and can bring the miraculous close to the children’s lives.

The Bible lesson they should start learning as early as possible, as exemplified through the journey, is that God uses normal people to do extraordinary things. Moses thought of himself as “just another man” who had actually done some bad things. But God looked at his willingness and his heart, and not at his appearance or his flaws. Therefore, we should feel confident that God cares about normal people like us. He watches over us and gives us messages, too.

Ask your students if any of them ever think it would be very cool to do something BIG for God someday? We don’t have any slaves in Egypt to lead away these days. But how about if God told you that you could feed a whole starving country or develop a cure for a terrible disease when you grew up? How would you feel about that?

Activity:
Give each child  three sheets of construction paper: orange and red and green. Have them place the red sheet directly under the orange sheet. Either draw for them or have them draw a giant flame. The flame should be big enough to take up most of the sheet. They should cut both sheets at the same time in the shape of the flame.
The green sheet should be a bush or treetop shape, which they can cut out.

You can use an orange juice lid to create the circles. The treetop should be big enough to take up most of the sheet. Put one flame sheet on either side of the treetop sheet. Using glue sticks, glue them together at the bottom.

Take two popsicle sticks and run glue down one side of each. Then place the sticky sides on either side of the flame/bush so that approximately two inches of the stick is pasted to the construction paper sheets, and the rest is pasted to the other stick.

Allow the students to fan themselves with the burning bush to let them know that God’s fires didn’t burn the bush, and it won’t burn them. They should put the burning bush in their rooms at home to remind them that God likes to speak to them in prayer, too.

Technorati Tags: Sunday school, Bible study for children, Moses, Bible lesson

“Thou shalt not lie,” the Ninth Commandment, is probably the one kids will be most likely be tempted into breaking. Establishing its importance allows us to to teach several things in these Sunday school lessons for children.

1) How being prepared to tell the truth prevents lying,
2) How to resist the temptation to lie, and
3) The consequences of lying, which include how people can’t trust you afterward.
Everyone wants their friends and family to trust their word. Hence, we should learn to tell the truth.

Ask your Sunday school students if there is anyone in class who has never told a lie? If any hands go up, joke that the person is probably lying. Lying is one of the easiest Commandments to break because it’s so easy. All you have to do is open your mouth and let it roll on out. But sometimes, the consequences of our lies are just staggering.

Sometimes telling the truth is not easy. It seems we will get in trouble if we tell the truth and it’s better to lie. But we want people to trust us and believe us when we say things. Therefore, telling the truth can take some practice.

Pretend lying situations.
Pretend you took some candy without asking your mom and you’re hiding it behind your back. She asks you if about the missing candy and you say you don’t know what happened to it.  That is a lie you are saying to your mom. Sneaking is lying with your actions instead of your mouth. So in a certain way you have lied two times.

Do you think your mom will be able to trust you again?  It will be difficult for her.

The Ninth Commandment is Thou Shalt Not Lie. What will we try to do this week with our mouths and with our actions?  Always tell the truth!

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“Thou Shalt Not Steal”, the Eighth Commandment, is easy for kids to understand. The themes here are excellent ones to use in your Sunday school lesson to teach this Commandment.  They understand fairness very well. Kids are known for saying, “not fair!” when they see an injustice.  Having something taken from them strikes a raw nerve.

The Eighth Commandment allows us to discuss with children what happens to people’s hearts when they steal, and how they need to react if someone steals from them. God wants us to learn to be patient and wait, so we won’t steal and so we’ll also know how to act if someone steals from us.

Talk about how God looks out for us when things go wrong. God always looks out, but sometimes we have to wait patiently.

Sometimes people steal things because they think God doesn’t see them. But he sees everything; He knows everyone.
When somebody steals or does something bad to us, it is hard to wait sometimes and do  the Christian thing, which is not to seek revenge.

If we wait, we find that God takes care of bad situations for us. God is always on time!

Technorati Tags: Eighth Commandment, Sunday school

With younger children it is often more effective to use Sunday school games to teach your Sunday school lesson. This lesson continues the theme of the fifth commandment-Honor thy Father and Mother.

One of the reasons God likes it when we listen to Mom and Dad is that it’s good training for us. Our parents love us more than anyone on earth. So they come closest to showing us how much God loves us, which is even more. That’s why we call God our Father in Heaven.

Game
Bring out one index card for each child. Go around placing the index card on one of each child’s shoulders  telling them all to hold the card in place with their hand.

Tell them to pretend this card is like a really good friend. Let’s see how well the friend stays with us. Everyone let go of the card, letting it balance on your shoulder.  Allow them to get the card balanced. Now everyone take three big steps forward.   All should lose their cards.

Go around with clothes pins (the pinching kind) and attach the card with the clothes pin to everyone’s shoulder. God’s love, which is a lot like your parents’ love, doesn’t fall away at the first sign of trouble. Tell them to not touch the clothes pin or the card. Have them jiggle themselves around and try to get rid of “gods’ love”(symbolized by the attached card). Give them a chance to wiggle and jiggle. Some will be able to dislodge the clothes pin, though most will not.

It is a lot harder to get rid of the love of God in your life than even a good friend, isn’t it? People give up on us sometimes and go find new friends, and that hurts. But God’s love is like a parents’ love. It stays.

Technorati Tags: Sunday school games, Sunday school, fifth commandment