‘I’m a Child of God’ Childrens Lesson on 1 Samuel 1

BIG IDEA: I’M GOD’S CHILD

AIM: The ‘I’m a Child of God’ Childrens Lesson on 1 Samuel 1 is aimed at helping children to recognise that they are not trash, but they are children of God – children of the King of kings! This is the second session in the ‘I’m Not Trash’ teaching series.

SONG IDEAS:

1. ‘No Longer Slaves’ by Bethel
2. ‘Child of God’ by Hannah O
3. ‘Who You Say I Am’ by Yancy

GAME IDEAS:

1. Diaper Dive. (regular/widescreen) Melt a couple of chocolate bars and put the chocolate into each player’s diaper. Place the diapers on the floor in front of each player. The players must then get on their hands and knees and eat the chocolate from the diaper without using their hands.
2. Change the Baby. (regular/widescreen) Using a doll or a teddy children will race to change the baby’s diaper. The quickest diaper changed is the winning player.
3. Milk Chug. (regular/widescreen) Children must race to grab a baby bottle of milk and to ‘chug’ (drink) it really fast. To make the game easier you will want to cut a tiny bit of the end of the teat off the bottle.

BIG VERSE: I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:14.

Download Bible verse cards here.

(regular/widescreen)

Icebreaker Question: What’s the best thing about being a child?

INTRO VIDEO: Use the ‘Make Joy Happen’ clip featuring Bonnie and the Toy Story gang.

Explain: Remind the children that last time we looked at how, just like toys, we were made to please God and bring Him joy. In this lesson we’re thinking about how we are God’s children.

To introduce the theme you might also want to use this fun skit.

 

SET the Scene:

Read 1 Samuel 1. Explain to the children that in the time that Hannah was living it was very important for the women to have babies. Women didn’t have jobs or go to work. They were not well respected unless they had a child because everyone believed that that was the woman’s only role: to look after her home; her husband and her children.

VIDEO IDEAS:

1. ‘Hannah’s Prayer’ by Fishnet Bible Stories
2. ‘Slapstick Theater (Hannah and God)’ by Saddleback Kids

REVIEW QUESTIONS:

1. Who were Elkanah’s two wives? (v2)
2. Where did Elkanah go every two years? (v3)
3. Who did Elkanah give a special share of meat to? (v5)
4. Why and how would Peninnah upset Hannah? (v7)
5. What promise did Hannah make to God? (v11)
6. Why did Hannah call her baby Samuel? (v20)
7. When would Hannah give Samuel to the Lord? (v22)
8. Who did Hannah take Samuel to? (v25)

SPOT the Simple Meaning:

1. CHILDREN ARE PRECIOUS

If you have your own child, show pictures of them as a baby. You could also show pictures of a niece or nephew. Explain how precious that child is to you and why you love them so much. Link this to how Hannah also wanted a baby. 

Say: Woody loves his owner Andy. Why? Because there is something special about children! Our story today is all about how Hannah desperately wanted a child. Why? Because children are special! They are very precious. Psalm 127:3a says “Behold, children are a gift of the LORD.” Hannah knew she wanted a child, but only God could give her one. She wanted a baby and only God could bring her one at the right time.

Hannah wanted a baby because she knew that there was something very special about having a child to look after. In Bible times it was very important for women to have children, because that was seen as their job. In those days people would feel sad for a woman that didn’t have her own baby. Why? Because children are special and people believed that to have a baby gave you a special job to do.

Hannah knew this. She desperately wanted her own child and cried out to God to give her one. God heard Hannah’s prayer and He gave her a baby. Hannah called her baby Samuel and said that she would give him back to God. Samuel would become a man of God and a Prophet. It all started because Hannah knew that children were precious and she wanted a child of her own.

2. WE ARE GOD’S CHILDREN

You could show the video “Welcome to Sunnyside” where Woody reminds the toys they are Andy’s toys.

Show pictures of children from around the world. You could use images or flyers from a ministry you love that reaches children in another country and show them to your children. 

Say: Did you know that you are precious to God? As His child, He loves you and wants the very best for you. Just as Hannah loved baby Samuel, so God loves us with an everlasting love. His love for us is better than any other kind, because His love never runs out.

The Bible tells us that we are His children and He loves us with an incredible love. 1 John 3:1 says;

“How great is the love that the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God… and that is what we are!”

God loves us so much that He sent His one and only Son Jesus to the earth. You see, as His children we chose to do our own thing. We chose to ignore the Father God. When we did that, sin entered the world and our hearts. Sin is when we live for ourselves and not for God. It’s when we choose ourselves over others. Sin separates us from God and means we can’t have a relationship with Him. God didn’t want that, He wanted us to be His friends. Yet the punishment for sin is death. So God sent Jesus to die instead of us so that we might be His children and His friends. Jesus lived a perfect life and died a perfect death. That’s how much God loves us, His children.

Galatians 3:26-27 says “You were all baptized into Christ, and so you were all clothed with Christ. This shows that you are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus.” We are God’s children if we put our faith in Him and choose to follow Him. In fact, we become part of God’s big family – and He has children all around the world!

[Show pictures of children and explain that some children live in different countries, but we are all God’s children and He loves and cares for each of us.]

The Bible calls us ‘brothers and sisters’. Do you want to be a part of this great big family? Will you choose to be known as a child of God?

 

SEARCH the Scriptures:

All in! (regular/widescreen) Print off the children of God Bible verses. Tape them to some ball pool balls. Split your group into teams. Throw the balls out and play different rounds where kids collect certain colors of the balls. The team with the most colors of the balls win that round. Then play one last round where you shout “All in!” throw all the balls on the ground and the children must try and gather as many of the balls as they can. For each ball they collect they get 1 point, They will get 5 bonus points for every ball with a Bible verse attached.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Are children important? Why? Why not?
2. Do grown ups think children are important? Why/ why not?
3. Does God think children are important? Why/why not?
4. How should a child of God act?
5. How should a child of God think?
6. How should a child of God speak?
7. Who are God’s children?
8. Are you a child of God? Why/why not?

SENSE How You Feel:

How does it feel to know that you are God’s child?

Encourage the children to think about their answer to this question as they do one or more of the activities below.

1. Craft: Create a baby paper plate using the Baby Face template. Print the template, color it and cut it out. Place the face of the baby in the top center of the plate. Wrap both sides of the plate diagonally to the middle of the plate to act as a wrap around the baby. Tape down to secure.
2. Make the ‘Child of God’ headband or badge/medal. Simply print off the PDFs, color and decorate them. Choose to use a pin to attach the badge or thread some yarn through it to make it a medal. Attach it to a piece of long cardstock on each side and staple together to create a headband.
3. Sensory: Place some dolls on a sensory table with hairbrushes to brush their hair.
4. Build: Using lego or building blocks create a scene of Hannah in the holy tent praying.
5. Journal: Write about the best things about being a child and consider the best things about being God’s child.
6. Mould: Using playdoh or clay mould a mother holding her baby.
7. Fill in/Color the 5-7s and 8-11s booklets.
8. Check out the Child of God Pinterest board for more ideas.

SEEK God:

1. Create Paper people and write on them a thank you prayer to God to thank Him for making you His child.
2. Ask the children: Do you want to live as a child of God? Do you want to recognise Him as your Father? Encourage them to respond by putting their hand over their heart if they would like to become a child of God. Prayer: Father God, Thank You for all You have done for me. I believe in You and I want to be Your child. Please come into my life and help me to live like the King’s kid. Amen.