Persistence in Prayer

Memory verse: "Ask and you will receive, seek and you will find, knock and the door will be opened to you." Luke 11:9

Scriptures: Luke 11:1-13

In today's lesson, the kids learned to continually pray to God for our needs and for the people around us. We read in Luke 11 how Jesus taught his disciples to pray and the story of the neighbor who needed bread at midnight and kept knocking on the door until his neighbor got up and helped him. When we pray to God, we must not give up and keep praying. At the end of the lesson, we read about the comparison Jesus made to parents giving good things to their children much like God gives good blessing to his people.

For our activity, the children learned the importance of keeping a prayer journal. It is important to not leave anyone out when we pray and keeping a journal is a good way to keep up with who you are praying for as well as the answered prayers.

I made 10 prayer journals ahead of time because I knew it would take the children a long time to do it during class. I used construction paper for the outside and stapled four blank sheets on the inside. I gave the children construction paper, stencil, colored pencils, markers, and glue to decorate and personalize their prayer journal. Below is an example of one:

Pray in Jesus' Name

The second part of our prayer series discusses the importance of praying in the name of Jesus. By praying using the name of Jesus, the prayer is a recognition of his life, death, and resurrection, which is what has brought us back to God. Because of our belief in Jesus, we can pray and receive anything that God wants us to have, including all of the promises in the Bible.

Memory verse: "Jesus said, 'I am telling you the truth; the Father will give you anything you ask Him for in My name'." John 16:23

Our lesson began with a story called "Aisha's Letter," which is a story of an old woman's faith in a letter that helped her to gain the access she needed to heal her blindness, which is a parallel to how we have faith that in the name of Jesus we can have our prayers heard.

After the story of Aisha's letter, I gave the children color paper, markers, envelopes, and colored pencils. We wrote out our memory verse across the top of the page. Beneath the memory verse, we wrote "In the name of Jesus, I pray that..." and we wrote what we desired of the Lord. We decorated our pages and folded them and stuffed them into an envelope with our name (I decorated mine), and then we sealed our prayers inside the envelope. We agreed that once a day we will pray in the name of Jesus with our envelope - this is to get the children practicing prayer and developing a prayer life.

At the end of the church service when Pastor Horne asked for any prayer requests, we told the congregation about our prayer envelopes, and we had the church pray with the children and their envelopes. It was a moving event, and one I believe that instilled the importance of prayer.

Why Pray?

From "Prayer" and can be found at bibletoday4kids.com

This week, the children began a seven-part lesson on prayer, using a lesson plan developed by Margaret Law and can be downloaded for free from www.bibletoday4kids.com. Part one of "Prayer" discusses why we should pray - because prayer is "our lifeline to God." The children learned that they should pray at all times and talk with God as if talking to a friend. We pray to develop a relationship with the Father. Prayer is something that should be a big part of a Christian's life.

Memory Verse: "Pray at all times." (I Thessalonians 5:17)

I also introduced a fun app on the iPad called Jesus Loves Me by Listener Kids. It is a fun app mainly for smaller children, but my ten-year-olds had fun with the recording section of the app where they sang "Jesus Loves Me" to several different music mixes, including dance, hip-hop, and video game. There are more games and songs that are not free ($2.99), but I think it is worth the price. Below you will find Listener Kids's video on YouTube.



The kids did their own recording of "Jesus Loves Me" to the dance mix and can be found on the Tabernacle of Praise website. Unfortunately, Blogger does not have a way to share audio. 

He is Risen

Central Truth: God sent his Son to bring eternal life to his people.

"If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." John 8:36

Memory Verse: "The Lord lives! Praise be to my Rock! Exalted be God my Savior!" Psalms 18:46

Scripture: Matthew 28


Kids' Bulletin

The Crucifixion of Christ

"The Crucifixion" from Bible for Kids app

Central Truth: Jesus came to put mankind in right standing with God.

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” John 14:6

Memory Verse: “A merry heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones.” Proverbs 17:22

Scriptures: John 18:28-19:42; Luke 23:34-35

On this Palm Sunday, the kids and I talked about Passion Week and the Crucifixion. The bible tells us that Pilate did not believe that Jesus deserved to die, but the leaders of the Temple encouraged the mob to demand that Pilate crucify Jesus. When Jesus was crucified, he gave his life so that we can have eternal life in Heaven.

Easter Garden

As part of our lesson today, we also created an Easter Garden using the instructions found on The Fugal Homemaker blog.

We used a flat container, a small container, pebbles, grass seeds, and a white crystal to create our Easter Garden.

I filled the bottom of the flat container with soil and then placed the small pot on top. I then covered the small pot with the remaining soil, burying it. The kids and I then laid out the pebbles to make a path to the empty tomb. Then, we placed the stone in front of the tomb. The last thing we did was spread grass seeds all over the soil and then added another layer of soil to bury the seeds.

 Hopefully, on Easter Sunday, grass sprigs will cover our garden.

Kids' Bulletin