Sermon Tone Analysis

Kids Bible Lesson on Obedience

Posted By Tony Kummer On December 10, 2010 @ 10:42 am In Lesson Plans | 4 Comments

Bible Point: Children Obey Your Parents

Scripture:

Target Age Group: Age 4 – 11 (U.S. K4 – 5th Grade)

Learning Context: Children’s Church

Target Time Frame: 40 minutes

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About 7 years ago, I read about the circle of blessing concept in Ted Tripp’s Shepherding a Child’s Heart.

I worked the idea into a family devotion and my oldest son still remembers the demonstration.

This lesson plan would be ideal for a children’s church or Sunday School setting.

Families could also use it at home in devotions.

Like all our resources, you are free to print it out and use it as you like.

Bible Point: Children Obey Your Parents

Scripture:

Target Age Group: Age 4 – 11 (U.S. K4 – 5th Grade)

Learning Context: Children’s Church

Target Time Frame: 40 minutes

Printer Friendly Bible Lesson: this lesson plan

You Can Help: Please share your feedback and suggestions to improve this kids Bible lesson.

Click here to respond

Learning Objectives:

After this lesson, children will demonstrate an understanding of the “circle of blessing” concept by responding to agree/disagree questions as a group.After this lesson, children will demonstrate a new desire to obey their parents, by picking one action they can do differently.

Items Needed:

Circle of about 3ft diameter.

I used a piece of rope attached to the floor with masking tape.

A large hula-hoop would also work.Squirt-gun or plastic spray bottle.

You could use a sports whistle to add optional emphasis.Optional props: stuffed animal horse, play money, hand held video game, math book, and posters to display the listening questions

Gospel Connection: Both kids and adults fall short of this command.

Our hearts have not always given the honor and love to our parents.

The grace of Jesus allows us to return to the circle of blessing through repentance and faith.

Jesus took the punishment for our sins and can grant forgiveness for our former disobedience.

Kids (and parents) must trust in the goodness of Jesus in our place – that’s the ultimate circle of blessing.

Optional: Download our free obedience coloring page to use with this lesson.

Obey Your Parents Teaching Plan

Getting Attention: Set up the circle and a few of the props while the children are watching.

Do not make any comments except to say how excited you are about today’s lesson.

The children will build interest and excitement to match your own.

Active Listening: Before you read the Bible verse, ask the children to listen carefully for the answer to these question.

“What can I do to make my life better?

What could I do to make my life worse?”

For added emphasis you could display these questions on a marker board or poster board.

I chose red colored for the negative and yellow for the positive question.

Then carefully read the key Bible verse:

Children, obey your parents in the Lord, for this is right.

“Honor your father and mother” (this is the first commandment with a promise), “that it may go well with you and that you may live long in the land.”

Ask the children if they can answer those two questions.

Introduce the lesson by saying: That’s what we’re learning about today.

I have a special name for this I call the “Circle of Blessing.”

Can you repeat that with me? “Circle of Blessing.”

Let’s Talk about that Bible Verse: Ask for volunteers to explain tricky parts to you.

Use their answers as jumping off points to briefly clarify the meaning of this passage.

Here are some parts that I chose for elaboration:

honor your Father and mother (what does that mean?) it’s more than just obeying but treating them like important people with love & respect commandment with a promise (what does that mean?) it’s the first of the 10 Commandments that comes with a specific promise from God, there is a reward if you do this right go well with you (what does that mean?) that God will help your life work out better, not perfect but much better than it would be if you did not obey live long in the land (what does that mean?) when God first said this it was talking about the promised land, but for Christians the promised land is mainly about heaven, if your parents teach you about Jesus you can have eternal life in heaven what if they tell me to do bad things?

because of sin, parents have sometimes asked their children to do things that are wrong (i.e.

abuse or lying to hide abuse).

In children are unsure, teach them to ask other trusted adults for help in knowing what to do.

📷Circle of Blessing Object Lesson: Invite a child to come up to the front of the room.

Have them stand inside an imaginary circle of about 3ft diameter.

Then say:

This is the circle of blessing.

It’s a way to imagine the way obedience keeps us out of danger.

Just like our Bible verse says, God will watch over us while we obey our parents.

To move outside the circle is like disobeying.

Moving outside the circle brings danger.

At this point surprise the child by showing them a squirt-gun (or water bottle that sprays a mist) that you previously had hidden.

Tell them as long as they are in the circle they are safe, but outside the circle they are in danger.

Demonstrate by shooting a jet of water outside the circle.

Then ask the child to step outside the circle to the spot you just shot.

Then give them a short blast of water.

Then say:

When we obey our parents it’s like staying inside the circle, God will keep us safe.

But when we disobey it is like stepping outside the circle.

When we do that we cause bad things to happen to our lives.

Circle of Blessing Case Stories: Ask for a series of volunteers to model the following scenarios using the circle of blessing.

Have the child stand in the middle of the circle while you tell the story.

Move them outside the circle as the character in the story clearly disobeys their parents.

Pretend like you are talking about the child who has volunteered.

At the marked parts in the story ask the class to respond if the person is still in the circle or not.

After each repeat the main concept that obedience brings safety.

Hint: Be sure to pick children who won’t be upset by getting a little wet.

I even ask the volunteer if they will cry when they get sprayed.

Obviously, this should be a silly activity and fun for all the children involved.

Kristy’s Story: [optional stuff-animal horse prop] Kristy is a nice little girl in the second grade.

She loves horses.

She loves them so much she has big posters of horses in her room.

Down the road from her house there is a farm that has horses, but her parents don’t know the owner so she’s never seen them up close.

Her mom says that it would be wrong to try to pet those horses without the owners permission.

[is she still in the circle?]

One day, when Kristy is playing outside in her front yard she decided to walk down to see the horses – she knows her mom will say “NO” so she doesn’t bother to ask.

[is she still in the circle?]

Kristy walks down the road and gets very close the horse fence.

She thinks about turning back and running home.

She feels like God wants her to do the right thing and run home, but instead she decided to get close to the horses.

[is she still in the circle?]

What do you think might happen next?

Allow a few responses from the children.

After each answer give her a little squirt from the water.