Bible Point: Serve God.

Key Verse: "The Holy Spirit will teach you (adapted from John 14:26)."

Big Picture: Children will learn to serve God.

Note to Parents:

Preschoolers frequently enjoy working alongside and even helping adults with tasks that might not seem so fun to the adult, like dusting, vacuuming, or folding clothes. While children are most often mimicking what they see adults do, they are also learning to recognize things they can do that are helpful and things they’re good at. Use this lesson to help preschoolers see that they have gifts from God and can use their talents and abilities to serve God and help others in tangible ways.

Bible Story:

This week’s Bible passage (1 Corinthians 12:4-27) explains how God gives believers special spiritual gifts to use to serve God. Just as all the different parts of a body work together and no one part is more important than another, different people can use their gifts and work together to serve God. Encourage your child with the good news that all Christians, young or old, big or little, can use their gifts to praise and serve God.

Play and Pray:

Make a family “We Can Serve!” poster to hang in a prominent place in your home (near the dining table would help get those conversations going). To make your poster, cut out pictures of ears, hands, feet, mouths, legs, and arms from coloring books or children’s magazines. Glue the pictures collage-style to a sheet of poster board.

As a family, brainstorm ways your family could serve God using each of the pictures. For example, you could use your mouths to tell people about Jesus, and you could use your legs to walk over and invite a new neighbor to church. Talk about how, in all your ideas, the body parts work together to accomplish your goals.

Discuss ways you served God that day. Then, let your child place stickers next to the body parts used in service. See how many stickers you can accumulate!

Outdoor Adventures:

Take a family walk through a park. Point out all the different kinds of life that you see. Explain how each plant or animal plays a special role in making the park beautiful. Tell your child that the tree provides shade and makes the air clean for everyone to breathe. Point out any flowers and explain that flowers have the special jobs of making the park beautiful and feeding the bees. And the bees make yummy honey for people and animals to eat!

Tell your child that, just as each animal or plant in the park has a special part in making the park fun and beautiful, God wants each person in the church to use their unique gifts to help make the church a wonderful place.

ASK:

• Why do you think God gives people different gifts?

• What gifts do you think God has given our family?

• What can we do to use our gifts to serve God and the church?

Ready, Set, Grow!

This week, your child learned that he or she can follow Jesus. Your child committed to one of the following challenges as a way to follow Jesus. Help your child grow in faith this week and follow through on the challenge!

• USE your hands to serve a snack to your family. Tell your family that we SERVE GOD.

• SERVE God by helping your grown-up with a chore.