Yep, I’ve take a break from blogging this past week. I didn’t realize how tired I was from 2 weeks on our El Salvadoran mission trip with SHIP (Shelter the Homeless International Project) .
Even though Steve & I stopped in Roatan on the way home for vacation, we were still tired from snorkeling & sunburn. I’m in total awe of my God and the gorgeous fish he created – fish of all sorts of beautiful colors. It was amazing to snorkel in the second biggest coral reef. Steve even followed a sea turtle & saw a barracuda.
Since it’s taken me awhile to get back to my blog, I’m hosting a giveaway of 1 pound of freshly roasted El Salvadoran coffee. It’s delicious!!
I should know because we had this coffee every morning on our mission trip with SHIP.
On Tuesday, we continued our study on We Choose Virtues – Content. I hope you can use these Free Bible Lessons for Kids in your own homeschool. Please leave a comment, letting me know how you’ve used this Bible lesson about contentment.
Singing
Today, we reviewed our songs called, Content & Diligent. These are easy songs for kids of all ages.
We Choose Virtues Review
To begin our Bible lessons for kids, we read the catchphrases for Diligent & Content. This was easy because we just sang those catchphrases together.
Next, I introduced the virtue, Content, with an object lesson found in For Instruction in Righteousness. I read Proverbs 23:5.
Will you set your eyes on that which is not?
For riches certainly make themselves wings;
They fly away like an eagle toward heaven.
After reading this verse, I asked what happens to riches & things when we focus on obtaining them. They grow wings and fly away….just like an eagle. I didn’t have an eagle to demonstrate, so we used paper airplanes.
Each table received a paper airplane and threw it. I compared our desire for money, clothes, friends to the airplane. They fly away when our focus is not on God.
Bible Story for Bible Lessons for Kids
Dennise had 3 volunteers act out our story about Jonathan, Saul & David. She talked about Jonathan being content, even though David would be king. Jonathan was the rightful heir, but didn’t whine or pout about his best friend becoming king. Saul, on the other hand, was furious.
Jonathan & David worked out a secret code so Jonathan could tell David if his father was still out to kill David. Jonathan would shoot arrows and send his servant to retrieve them.
You can find this Bible story in I Samuel 20.
Memory Verse from Bible Lessons for Kids
Last week, our kids had a hard time learning Psalm 131:2. The Spanish version from We Choose Virtues {WCV} is a bit outdated, so we changed the translation to Palabara de Dios para Todos. It’s closer to NIV and easier for the kids to understand the meaning.
Taylor explained the relationship between the verse, the Bible story and the WCV virtue. Since the kids don’t practice the verse altogether, Taylor pointed to each word as we recited it together. She also made it fun by having the kids yell the verse together; whisper the verse together; and say it normally together.
After practicing it several times together, she took away verse phrases from the flannel graph board. This is one of my favorite ways to teach memory verses in our Bible lessons for kids. If you have time, you can have volunteers come put the words in order.
Bible Crafts for Kids – Arrows of Jonathan & David
As always, Courtney began her craft time by saying, “Hola!” She always has a smile on her face and the kids are attracted to her.
Our craft is a set of arrows, to remind us that Jonathan used arrows to send a secret message to David. Jonathan is content to allow his best friend to become king of Israel.
The arrows are made of drinking straws, feathers, and construction paper. The quiver is made of a toilet paper roll, stapled at one end. The kids decorated the quiver with markers & stickers. They also pasted a copy of today’s verse on the back of the quiver.
Bible Snacks for Kids
Our snack was pretzel arrows, made with a half grape & pretzel. We were limited by the number of grapes we had, so each child received 2 pretzel spears and a handful of pretzels.
Review for Bible Lessons for Kids
In review, I introduced the idea of growing in Christ is like growing from a baby to adult. It takes time to grow in being diligent, content & patient.
Next, we talked about a caterpillar growing into a butterfly. This is a set-up for tomorrow’s crafts. We Choose Virtues uses the analogy of growing into a butterfly as you grow in Godly virtue. When I return to El Salvador, I hope to bring a chrysallis to watch turn into a butterfly.
In summary, here’s what we did for teaching patience:
- We Choose Virtues Content Parenting Card (includes virtue, memory verse, catchphrases, story)
- Object Lesson from For Instruction in Righteousness – Read Proverbs and paper airplane object lesson
- Bible Story of Jonathan being content even though David will become king in his place
- Craft – Quiver (tp roll) and Arrows (drinking straws), with memory verse on quiver
- Snack – Pretzel Arrows
- Songs – Diligent & Content song from We Choose Virtues
I am giving away a pound of freshly roasted El Salvadoran coffee. To enter this giveaway, you need to do 2 things.
1. SUPER-EASY: Subscribe to this blog. Use the form below to subscribe to my blog & receive an email every time I post. If you already receive emails every time I post to this blog, you’ve already done #1. Just check it off!
2. COMMENT: Leave a comment on any of my blog posts about our SHIP VBS. You can leave a comment every day until July 17th, 2014
- How you are teaching your kids that particular virtue
- How you struggle with that particular virtue
- Thoughts about going on a family mission trip
Here are links to each of the SHIP VBS posts. Leave a comment on a different post, every day! You’ll get a 10 point entry for every comment.
Day 1: We Choose Virtues – Learning to Be Diligent
Day 2: We Choose Virtues – Learning to Be Content
Day 3: We Choose Virtues – Learning to Be Patient
Day 4: FREE Bible Lessons for Kids – Diligent
Day 5: FREE Bible Lessons for Kids – Content
Day 6: FREE Bible Lessons for Kids – Patient
Question: How do you teach your kids to be content? You can leave a comment by clicking here.
6 Comments
I pray for them…and have them go pray as well-helps us all!
Prayer is always the basis of growing in Christ. Great reminder!
We haven’t been on a mission trip with our kids yet, (too young) but we started teaching them about what it means to serve others.
It’s never too early to teach our kids to serve others.