How can we practice listening to the Lord? Includes a lesson, 2 games, and a craft.
Needed: a flashlight, drawing paper, crayons or colored pencils, string and hole punch or a stapler
Intro Activity: Storytelling Sequence
Kids sit in a circle, each telling one sentence of a story. When it’s their turn to make up a sentence, they hold the flashlight under their chin so that it lights up their face as if they were at a campfire telling ghost stories.
Lesson
Ask, How many of you have ever been really happy and excited before?
When was the time that you were the most happy and excited?
Show me how you looked when you were the most happy and excited.
Oh, wow, your faces just lit up with those great smiles.
There was a time when Moses’ face lit up, too, even more than yours did.
(Have students take turns reading Exodus 34:29-35 , read it yourself, or summarize it.)
The Bible tells us that Moses’ face was shining because he had been talking to God. Do you think Moses would have been happy and excited to be talking to God? (Yes.)
Getting to talk to God is the best thing ever. And we can all talk to God every day, can’t we? What are some ways that we can talk to God? (We can talk to God by praying and reading our Bible and coming to church. When we do those things, we can talk to God, and God can talk to us in our hearts.)
Now, when Moses talked with God, his face was changed. He got all shiny. And when we talk to God, something about us changes us too. When we talk to God, we get happier and we start to love God more and we want to do the things that are right and make God happy.
But do you think Moses’ face would have stayed lit up if He never talked to God again?
(Read 2 Corinthians 3:13 .)
Moses’ face would light up when He talked to God. But afterward, the light would start to fade. Then, it would come back the next time He talked to God.
It’s the same with us too. If we go a long time between talking to God, our spirits start to fade. We start to lose the good changes that God made in us. That’s why we should talk to God every day. Every day, we should read our Bibles and pray so that we can keep growing in God and keep those good changes coming in our lives.
Craft: Learning to Listen
Give students drawing paper and instruct them to draw three scenes of them listening to God. They can then add more paper to their project to make a journal. Instruct them to write down any prayers that they say to God or anything that God says to them in church, through the Bible, or through their prayer time.
Game: Changed!
Divide students into two teams and play freeze tag, one team chasing and tagging the others. When someone is tagged, they freeze in place.
Every few moments, say, “God spoke to (the name of one of the frozen students). That student then unfreezes and can run to touch and unfreeze other frozen teammates. After a few seconds, call, “And the glory faded.” That student then freezes in places again.
The round is over when all students on one team are frozen. Play again, switching which team is chasing the other.
Game: Storytelling Sequence
Play the game from the intro activity again for as long as time allows.
Closing Prayer
God, we thank You for speaking to us just like You talked with Moses. We pray that You will help us to be happy and excited to keep talking to You and we pray that You will change our hearts so that we will live for You the best that we can. Amen.
This lesson is included in my book, Slaves to Conquerors: Children’s Sunday School Lessons for Exodus – Joshua.