This is also a great resource for parents/careers and grandparents to use with their little ones during online or face to face worship, or to use as family devotions during the week.
If you are worshipping on line and are unsure what to do with the “little ears” worshipping with their parents, please feel free to make these suggestions during your service so the young ones too can participate.
If at home you might like to make a space for worship it can be permanent or bought out at times of sharing faith together. We are in the season of After Pentecost, the longest season, and it’s colour is green.
You might like to place a green tablecloth on the dinner table or coffee table, or a white one with green ribbons.
It need be no more complicated than that!
OR you could add a cross, or something that talks to you about faith, such as your Bible.
You can even add a candle (with young children around I like to use the battery operated kind.)
START WITH: THE LORDS PRAYER IN ACTIONS https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOugEQpcc_k OR https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMjm93ylL2w
Or slot it in when the congregation says The Lords Prayer, if you are in a face to face service, or zooming in from Home.
FIRST READING: Exodus 17:1-7
READ: The Beginner’s Bible p.119
OR for the young ones My First read aloud Bible, or the 5 minute Story Bible both by Boshoff and Batchelor, God gives Water, pp.52-53
CRAFT: Take a paper plate or a thick piece of paper, in brown or yellow. Draw a picture of Moses with the staff in his hand, a rock then in the middle of the rock, pierce the rock, then poke from the back of the picture to the front of the picture and pull it through, a piece of blue material or a piece of crepe paper or tissue paper.
PRAY:
God who commands water,
God who can still it or make it flow. (put your hands out in front of you, wiggle your fingers and move your hands from left to right)
God who made me
Help me drink in you
like I drink in water (pretend to have a long drink)
when I am thirsty
Help me bathe in you
Like I enjoy a bath (pretend to splash)
when I’m covered in dirt
Amen
PSALM 78:1-4,12-16
READ:
Gather round, everyone, for I have a story to tell.
It is a story from long ago, all the way up to right now.
Listen up, children, for this is your story too.
Listen up, everyone, hear of the glorious deeds of God
and the wonders he has done for us.
Parents, grandparents, tell your children about our God
so that this new generation will put their hope in the Lord, and follow the ways of God, hopefully better than their ancestors did!
Once, this people were slaves in a foreign land, but God rescued them. Through plagues and hail and death God pulled them out of slavery, safely through the sea and into the wilderness. But the people got thirsty in the desert and grumbled to God. So God split open a rock and fresh water poured out. Then the people got hungry in the desert and complained to God, so he rained down birds for them to eat, and bread onto the desert ground.
Taken from http://www.conversations.net.nz/psalm-78-tell-our-story-to-our-children.html
COLOURING-IN: I have always recommended Illustrated Ministry’s work, though I prefer free stuff, I have found their work very reflective of how I find meaning in the passages, but more importantly I have noticed that chidlren of all ages love them and find meaning in them. Their FALL season has started and will give you a colouring in sheet each week until the end of November. It is $US19 for the quarter, and if you have kids that love colouring in it is money well spent COLOURING-IN https://store.illustratedministry.com/products/bible-story-coloring-pages-fall-2020?variant=31882216570978
SECOND READING: Phillippians 2:1-13
I have been thinking about how to present this passage, and given the times we live in it might be ok to present it within a COVID-19 framework, of everyone working together, if Jesus was here he would have done what needed to be done, kept a safe distance, worn a mask, washed his hands, even if he didn’t need to, becasue he was sent here to love and care for God’s people, and in wanting to be like him we would want to too. So we too need to humble ourselves and do what is best for everyone, not just ourselves.
so you might like to watch this book together, or sing this song
With older children, you may like to act out an “if Jesus was here now what would he do” scenario. Your view may be differnt to mine, and that is also OK.
SING: Totally God, Totally Man https://sovereigngracemusic.org/music/songs/totally-god-totally-man/
and He Humbled Himself https://www.seedsfamilyworship.com/product/the-journey-vol-9/#
PRAY:
Help me Lord,
To not be too proud
to care for the needs of others needs
Amen
GOSPEL READING; Matthew 21:23-32
WATCH:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ba1S7hzbtyk&fbclid=IwAR3Td61mM0I8m_hVlkm4O5FNmlwpTpRSxGoMT2x3rPiMdPpujAyMg34Ux0k
Older chidlren, might like to see how many story’s there are in todays reading. Then wonder if they fit together, and if nay apply to them, or someone they know, or if it’s about something much bigger?
Is it a morality lesson, or does it tell us something of faith?
End today with the 5 finger prayer
Blessings
Wendy L
The Cross in My Backyard 