Sunday, June 17, 2012

Our Father's Day Lesson

"I Am Following Your Footsteps Dad!"

Here's the lesson we did for our J12 tweens (8-12 yrs old) in Children's Church for Father's Day.  It's simple but, I believe, it spoke clearly to our children as it did to us, teachers.

TOPIC:  I Am Following Your Footsteps Dad!

KEY VERSE: John 8:28
"The one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what pleases him"

SONG:  God Gave My Dad to Me (click for reference)

LESSON OPENER/ GAME: A-Z GOD
Divide the children into small teams, preferably 3-4 people in a group.  Distribute a lengthwise paper with letters A-Z written downward w/ one letter per line.  Ask the teams to describe God using the letters in the list as the first letter of the word (e.g. A- Almighty; J-Just; O-Omnipresent; and so on).  Give the group 7 to 10 minutes to complete the task.  Up to you to ask them to use English words only or perhaps their native language.  Some letters like X may be difficult for them, it's ok to leave it blank.  The team with the most valid & unique description wins.  The objective here is to allow the children think and acknowledge God's attributes & character, which you will later use in the lesson.

LESSON PROPER:  Read  John 8:28, 29, 42 (click for reference)
Jesus, in spite of being God Himself, listened and obeyed God by going here on earth.  The job He did here wasn't easy so He constantly sought His Father's direction.  He did not act on His own and only did what God told Him to do. Jesus remained confident that God's with Him because He always did what makes Daddy God smile.

DISCUSSION POINTS:
1.  Who is talking in the scripture you just read? Jesus
2.  Who is He really? Son of God
3.  What did Jesus do here on earth? Spoke what Daddy God taught Him.  Tell the world about the Father's love.  Save mankind.
4.  What made Jesus confident that God is with Him?  He always did what pleases God
5.  If we are God's children, what are the things we should do to make God smile? e.g. Love Jesus.  Spend time with Him through prayer, reading the Bible & going to church. Be good.  Honor parents.  Be friends with our enemies.  Share Jesus to others.  (Make this as personal, simple & relate-able to the children)

PRAYER:  Lord, thank for sending our son Jesus to save us. I believe in Him and accepts Him as my Lord & Savior.  Forgive me for all my sins.  Help me love you, hear you & follow you like Jesus.  I want to make you smile always.  In Jesus name, Amen.

ACTIVITY:  Following Your Steps Dad! Poster
This activity aims to acknowledge both our Dad's & our Daddy God's good characters, and to show our desire to make them smile by following their footsteps.

Cut out 2 colored foot prints, 1 big & 1 small.  Then, paste it in a colored paper with "I Am Following Your Footsteps Dad" writings.  Let the children personalized the design.  (Optional:  Frame the poster before giving to it the Dads)  

"Iam following your footsteps Dad!"

What I also liked in this activity, it challenges the Dads too!  Parang, Dad I am looking at you, watching you, & following you...be good. O, diba?  It challenges the Dads to be like the ultimate Dad of all - God, so they can pass these good traits to their children as well.

Ohhthat! Tin

Like what you read? Subscribe to Ohhthat! by Tin now for updates.

8 comments:

  1. what a beautiful project :-) love it :-) Happy Father's Day to your husband

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ang galing! I want to start a tradition with my kids measuring their feet against their dad every year so that we'll see how bigger they are getting. Thanks for this informative post!

    ReplyDelete
  3. This is one cool and meaningful project. Wish i could have done something like this for ather's day.

    http://daphneglowsinthedark.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  4. that is nice! i bet every day will love to receive one. i cannot wait for when my little man is bigger so we can start doing all these fun artsy crafts stuff! :D

    ReplyDelete
  5. this is sooo cute! What a great idea! I think it would be super effective if the kids traced their own feet and that of their dads as well! Patsy from
    HeARTworks

    ReplyDelete
  6. Very nice activity. I would like to do one like this when I have kids..

    ReplyDelete
  7. what a wonderful project! :)
    my daughter started school and i hope they have arts like this. :)

    ReplyDelete
  8. Nice naman ng activity na yan. Ang cute ng thought.

    ReplyDelete

Thank you for sharing your "Ohh, that!" thought/s. :)