Having the little 4-6 year old class is such fun, such a blessing. This is the latest lesson we did, I am still a few behind on sharing but I wanted to go ahead and share this one.
PROVERBS 3:3-4
"Let not mercy and truth forsake thee: bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart: So shalt thou find favour and good understanding in the sight of God and man."
Mercy: compassion or forgiveness shown toward someone whom it is within one's power to punish or harm.
Truth: the quality or state of being true.
When I did this lesson it was fun talking to the kids about what they view as the truth and what mercy is. Above, I show you the definitions of the words that are good to talk to the kids about. With my age group I like to use stories to incorporate something to their understanding, like telling the truth for example; Ask them if they have ever lied to mommy or daddy, talk to them about maybe an instance of breaking something and then saying they didn't or so on, then explain the correlation/opposites of truth compared to lies, untruth.
Mercy is harder to bring to their level, but is very important as it is something that we are instructed to live by, with. Talk to them about how they sometimes have to choice to get revenge or be mean to someone because they were mean to them, and how they can and should choose the opposite, kindness, forgiveness. God's mercy for us is by far unexplainable and unimagineable, it is AMAZING, for us as humans it is much harder to have such mercy.
CRAFT TIME:
The scripture talks about mercy and truth and that you are to "...bind them about thy neck; write them upon the table of thine heart..." So, I thought it would be fun to make a necklace, simple and fun!
What you need:
Card stock paper in any color (we used brown)
Hole punch
Scissors
Markers
Yarn
Cut out a heart for each necklace (write on this or have the child if they are able "Mercy and Truth" and the scripture) and cut out 2 rectangles or ovals, something to tie to either side of the heart. Punch holes in each side of heart and on each side of the heart. Cut 2 small lengths of yarn to tie between heart and rectangle on each side and then one long length of yarn to tie the length that will make the necklace. Let them color or decorate rectangles and heart if they want. DONE!
Enjoy!