Firm Foundations 10:1 – Romans Road part 2 February 21, 2011

Theme: Sin is disobedience to God
“But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked people who suppress the truth by their wickedness.” (Romans 1:18, NLT)

Scripture Memory: The next stop on the Romans Road is Romans 6:23 – “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.” There are quite a few options for singing, if you want to learn this verse by song! Check out these Romans 6:23 melodies from Amazon’s MP3 store.

We’re going to memorize just the first half of Romans 6:23 today. Here are the actions I’m using:

• For the wages (Pretend to be handing out money)
• Of sin is death (Bow head)

Catechism Q&A: For clarity’s sake, I’ve again changed (and condensed) some of the Catechism question and answers. If you’d prefer to use the real wording, this week of lessons is based off The Catechism for Young Children, questions 28-30 & 37.

Q. What is sin? A. Sin is disobedience to God’s commands.
Q. What does every sin deserve? A. The anger and curse of God.

Missing the Mark: If your children have grown up regularly attending church and Sunday School, they probably have a general idea of what the word “sin” means. Nevertheless, I felt like it was important to define it clearly for this week of lessons. One of my goals is to help my children see sin as a personal issue – that they’ll know THEY are sinners too and not just those “bad guys” out there somewhere!

Play “Simon Says”. Increase the speed of the game until your children finally mess up. Explain to them that they lost the game because they didn’t obey you perfectly. You told them to do”this” and they did “that”.

Sit down with the Bible and read the following commands God gives us. For each command, discuss what “this” God tells us to do and point out what “that” we often do instead. Try to think of recent examples to illustrate how easy it is to disobey God’s rules.

• Colossians 3:9 – “Don’t lie to each other, for you have stripped off your old sinful nature and all its wicked deeds.”
• Ephesians 6:1-2: “Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord,^[a] for this is the right thing to do.  ‘Honor your father and mother.’ This is the first commandment with a promise.”
• Matthew 5:21-22a: “You have heard that our ancestors were told, ‘You must not murder. If you commit murder, you are subject to judgment.’  But I say, if you are even angry with someone, you are subject to judgment!”
• 1 Thess. 5:18: “…give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.”
• 1 Thess 5:15: “Make sure that nobody pays back wrong for wrong, but always try to be kind to each other and to everyone else.”

Notebook: I didn’t prepare any notebooking pages or ideas this week. If you’ve got something, let me know and I’ll link to it here!

Firm Foundation 9:3 – Romans Road November 15, 2010

Theme: We can obey God with confidence, for He always knows what’s best
“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your path straight.” (Prov. 3:5-6)

Scripture Memory: Review Romans 3:23

Catechism Q&A: Q. What did God require Adam to do? A. To obey the Lord perfectly.

Trust and Obey, part 1: Read Isaiah 40:11-15, 22-26. Before reading, tell your children to listen for: 1)What God measures and 2)Where He sits. This passage gives us a picture of God’s awesome knowledge and power.

Take some measuring cups, a scale and a ruler outside. Tell your children that you are going to measure how much dirt is in your yard. After spending some time digging and measuring, tell them the job feels too big. Do they agree? Even though it would take your family a very long time to measure all your dirt, God knows not just the amount of dirt in your yard but also the amount of dirt in the entire world! Emphasize that God knows everything. Tomorrow, we’ll talk more about how His omniscience enables us to obey with confidence.

Notebook: Mix some dirt with glue and then smear it onto the scale picture for today’s notebooking page

Firm Foundations 9:2 – Romans Road November 11, 2010

Theme: God gave Adam 1 rule
“And the LORD God commanded the man, ‘You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.'” (Gen. 2:16-17)

Scripture Memory: Review Romans 3:23

Catechism Q&A: Q. What covenant did God make with Adam? A. The covenant of works.
Q. What was Adam bound to do by the covenant of works? A. To obey God perfectly.

Making Rules: Do your children understand rules? If they’re like mine, they probably have a fuzzy idea but couldn’t define the word clearly. Before reading today’s Scripture passage, play this fun “make your own rule” ball game.

Gather some balls and baskets or boxes beforehand. When it’s time for the game, ask your children what a rule is. Talk about their definitions, then give one of your own: A rule is a command that must be obeyed consistently. What sorts of rules do you have in your house? Name some of the rules. Then tell them that they get to make the rules for this game! They can make rules for the following 4 areas:

1. What is the playing field?
2. How do you move the balls around?
3. When do you get points?
4. Is there anything you CAN’T do during game play?

Spend 10 minutes or so playing their game together! When the game is done, sit down and read Genesis 2:8-17. What was the one rule that God gave Adam? Shouldn’t be too hard, should it?

Notebook: Make a mini book using one of these lapbook templates and record some of your family’s rules. You can either have your children illustrate the book or find clipart using Google Image.

Firm Foundations 9:1 – Romans Road November 10, 2010

Theme: God created everything! Therefore, He makes the rules
“In God’s hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him.” (Psalm 95:4)

Scripture Memory: Over the next several weeks,  our memory focus will be the Romans Road, a selection of verses in Romans that clearly present the Gospel. This week we’ll begin with Romans 3:23: “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Here are a couple options for learning the verse:

• Download Romans 3:23 set to song.
• Steve Green’s Romans 3:23 song from Hide ’em in Your Heart
• And of course, make up actions for the verse. We’re going to do the Steve Green version, so I’m not going to post actions here. If someone else wants to come up with some, send them my way and I’ll post them here.

Catechism Q&A: The wording for this week’s catechism questions and answers is a bit too technical sounding for me. I’m going to reword it to make it more understandable for my children.

Here’s the original wording:

• Q. What covenant did God make with Adam? A. The covenant of works.
• Q. What was Adam bound to do by the covenant of works? A. To obey God perfectly.

Here’s my wording:

• Q. What did God require Adam to do? To obey the Lord perfectly.

Owner’s Rights: Provide your children with  a) some paper dolls,  dress shapes, glitter and stickers. Tell them to color and decorate however they wish; or if you have a boy that’s not so hot on paper dolls b) Some playdoh, buttons, pipe cleaners and pom poms. Tell them to create anything they want out of those objects. Set the timer for 5-10 minutes and allow your children’s inner artists to come loose!

When they’re done, pick up the doll or sculpture and pretend to talk for it. Have the created item tell your child it really wants to be different, that it would prefer to be a skydiver and so it needs a parachute and airplane. Or that it wants to be a firefighter and needs a jacket, hose and hat. Isn’t it silly for the toy to tell its owner what it should be and do? The owner makes the rules, not the toy!

Read Psalm 95:1-7a. God is our owner, as well as the owner of everything in the world. Doesn’t He have the right to tell us what to do and to make us the way He wants us? Compare our situation to their creations. Then read the Psalm again and rejoice in our great Creator!

Notebook: Snap a picture of their creation. Put the picture in today’s Notebook square as a reminder that the creator makes the rules!

Firm Foundations 8:2 – Holiness November 1, 2010

Theme: Sin ruins happiness
“The Israelites became greedy for food and tested you there in the desert. So you gave them what they wanted, but later you destroyed them with a horrible disease.” (Psalm 106:14-15 CEV)

Scripture Memory: Review Psalm 119:9-11. Do you remember all the actions?

Catechism Q&A: Q. In what condition did God make Adam and Eve? A. He made them holy and happy.

The Unfortunate Events: Do your children remember what “holiness” is? Pure goodness, all the way through! Even if they don’t remember the word, I’m sure they remember the candy bar…Just as the candy bar was yummy and wonderful, the world that Adam and Eve lived in was wonderful too. That is, until sin entered the world.

Read selections from Psalm 106. Talk about how the Israelites’ sin always got them into trouble. It always ended up making them unhappy. Show your kids another candy bar. What they don’t know about this one is that you scraped out some of the insides and inserted garlic and onion seasonings instead. Let them take a bite – Ewww! It’s pretty disgusting. That’s what happened when sin entered the perfect world. It ruined God’s wonderful creation, including ruining Adam and Eve.

Do your kids like yelling? What about when a friend is mean? How about when a sibling hits them? All those things make us sad, all those things are sin. Some sin looks good on the outside, just like the candy bar did. But once we get involved in it, it will turn out to be yucky and to hurt us.

Notebook: Smear some of the chocolate from the candy bar on to the square. Have your child draw an unhappy face saying, “Ewwww!”

Firm Foundations 8:1 – Holiness October 27, 2010

Theme: Holiness means goodness all the way through!
“LORD, who may dwell in your sanctuary? Who may live on your holy hill? He whose walk is blameless and who does what is righteous…” (Psalm 15:1-2)

Okay, so my definition of holiness isn’t exactly theological and definitely isn’t complete, but I think it’s provides a good introduction to my little ones. As they get older, we’ll explore the topic of holiness more in depth. But for now, bear with my simple definition!

Scripture Memory: Review Psalm 119:9-11. To keep the maze theme going from a few lessons back, try out this maze Scripture review game.

Catechism Q&A: Q.  In what condition did God make Adam and Eve? A. He made them holy and happy.

The Beauty of Holiness: Do your children know what “holy” means? Read Psalm 15 and point out the various attributes of the man who can stay in the Lord’s temple. He’s a pretty good guy, isn’t he! Holiness means being perfect all the way through! No faults at all. Ask your children if you are holy. They’re probably pretty aware of at least some of your sins! Talk about some of your faults honestly, emphasizing that apart from Jesus, you are NOT good all the way through. In fact, no one is! But amazingly enough, Adam and Eve didn’t have any  faults when they were first created. It was pretty wonderful!

For a fun (and yummy) object lesson that illustrates the definition of holiness,  grab some chocolate candy bars and check out this “Pure Goodness” lesson from kidssundayschool.com.

Notebook: Draw a smiley face! Or fill the box with smiley face stickers. Just make the square look happy!

Firm Foundations 6:3 October 11, 2010

Theme: The Bible warns us about dangers
“The ordinances of the LORD are sure and altogether righteous…By them is your servant warned; in keeping them there is great reward”. (Psalm 19:9b, 11)

Scripture Memory: Review Psalm 119:9. Tomorrow we’ll start on verse 10.

Catechism Q&A: Q. Where do you learn how to love and obey God? A. In the Bible alone.

A”maze”ing Escape: Read Prov. 1:10, 18-19; Prov 4:14-15; Prov. 10:4, 13, 25. Help your children identify the dangers these verses warn against. Share with them how important it is to heed God’s word so that they’ll avoid the snares of the world, the flesh and the devil. Share a personal account from your life of a time you either obeyed or disobeyed Scripture and the resulting situation.

Have some fun with this lesson by playing “A’maze’ing Escape”. This activity requires a good bit of preparation on your part, but it’s quite enjoyable so that makes it worth it, right? When your children aren’t around, draw a maze with chalk outside. Then put pictures of lions, bees, dragons, bears (anything that would count as “dangerous”) underneath bowls that are scattered throughout the maze. But also put a treasure box or castle or something similar under just 1 bowl. Any bowl that’s in the path your children have to pick it up and look at the contents. If it’s something dangerous, then they lose a point.Draw a map for your children to follow to make it safely through the maze without encountering any scary creatures. To the extent that they follow the map, they’ll be safe. If they decide to go their own way, well, watch out!

For added fun, let your children mix up the bowls and then guide YOU through the maze safely.

Notebook: Choose a preschool or kindergarten maze and glue it to day 3’s notebook square.

Firm Foundations 7:3 October 8, 2010

Theme: Honor our parents
“‘Honor your father and mother’ for this is the first commandment with a promise.” (Eph. 6:1)

Catechism Q&A: Who are our first parents? A. Adam & Eve

Scripture Review: Continue reviewing Psalm 119:9-11.

Royal Treatment: One definition of the word “honor” is “high respect, as for worth, merit, or rank“. To help my kids get a mental grasp on that definition, I’m presenting it as “treating like a king or queen”. We’re going to read Eph. 6:1-3, then will talk about 3 ways royalty is honored:

1. People don’t order monarchs around
2. People listen when kings or queens speak
3. People show gratefulness (whether they feel it or not) to royalty

We’ll do some role playing on how my children should respond to their dad and me. Then we’ll create Daddy a crown and write on it some of the things we appreciate about him!

Notebook: Picture of parent and add crown and/or scepter to it!

Firm Foundations 7:2 October 7, 2010

Theme: Children are a blessing from God!
“…children are a reward from him.” (Psalm 127:5b)

Some notes on this lesson – I’m structuring all the lessons this week around God’s design for families, and part of that usually includes (though not always) having children. It’s the whole “be fruitful and multiply” command in Genesis. I think it is important for our kids to know that they ARE a treasure and that we consider them a blessing, not a burden. The attitude we display towards our kids will be the attitude they carry into their own families, so let’s make it Biblical!

Scripture Memory: Review Psalm 119:9-10. Then on to verse 11:

• “I have hidden (Make one hand into a fist, then enclose it with your other hand)
• Your word in my heart (Point to your heart)
• That I might not sin (Put hands on either side of face and look scary!)
• Against You.” (Point upwards)

Catechism Q&A: Q. Who were our first parents? A. Adam and Eve.

A Present from Heaven: When your children arrive for today’s devos, have some sheets or blankets standing by. After all the memory work is finished, instruct them to wrap themselves up in their sheets as though they were a gift for someone. When they’re finished, go “unwrap” them as though you have no idea what’s inside the package. When you finally reach them, show suprise, delight and joy! Tell them that they are an extra special gift from God to you. Then sit on the couch (or wherever it is you do these lessons) and read together Psalm 127:3-5. To further celebrate the gift they are, pull out some old photos and ooh and ahh over your cute kids!

Notebook: Put your children’s pics in today’s space.

Firm Foundations 7:1 October 4, 2010

Theme: God created the first family – Adam  & Eve
“And He answered and said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female…” (Matt. 19:4)

Scripture Memory: Review Psalm 119:9-10. Check out this great post from the North American Mission Board on fun Scripture review games. There’s a lot to choose from!

Catechism Q&A: Q.  Who were our first parents? A. Adam and Eve. (Use some of the review ideas from the above link for the Catechism as well)

Thee I do Wed: Marriage’s foundations are found in the account of God’s creation of Adam and Eve. Read Genesis 2:15-24. Then create a Paper People Chain with your children. Talk about how God created marriage to just one man and just one woman for life. Decorate the paper people in the middle as a man and woman, and cut away the other connected people in the chain. Once we’re married, we stay married to that man or that woman and don’t get married to anyone else.

Pull out your wedding photos and/or video. Look at them together and talk about how special your wedding day was. Again, emphasize how you are married to your spouse for life.

Notebook: Paste your paper people on day 1 of this week’s notebooking page.