Established
WELCOME TO WEEK 4
Does God love you more when you are good? Does he love you less when you do bad things? Can we change God’s love toward us by our good or bad deeds? This week we will see how David made some really big mistakes and even tried to cover them up, but then said sorry for all the things he did. We will see how God’s love did not change for David, and His love doesn’t change for us.
BIBLE STORY
Let’s play a game of Make your Partner Smile. I’m going to do some silly things and see if I can make you smile. You try to keep your face the same and don’t change your face into a smile or laugh. Try to do several things to make your partner change their facial expression to a smile or laugh. Then switch roles and see if they can make you smile or laugh.
Was it easy or hard to keep a straight face? Sometimes it was hard not to change our face into a smile. This week we are learning that God’s love does not change. Even when we make mistakes or do something bad, God still loves us! His love for us is not based on how good we are that day or how many mistakes we make. His love for us is unchanging. We will see that David makes a lot of mistakes and then tries to cover up his bad decisions with more bad decisions. When he finally realizes how wrong he has been and confesses, God still loves him. God’s love for him had not changed even though he did a terrible thing. David saw how much God loves him when he is good and even when he was bad.
Read or listen to the Bible verse for this week: 2 Samuel 11:1-15
When the Israelites went to battle, where did David go? (David stayed in Jerusalem)
What did David want that didn’t belong to him? (Bethsheba)
What was the name of Bethsheba’s husband? (Uriah)
What did David do to Bethsheba’s husband? (Sent him to the front lines of battle)
BIBLE STORY ACTIVITY
We can trust that God’s love is unchanging for us, even when we make big mistakes. David made several mistakes and even tried to cover it up, but God still loved him and forgave him for his mistakes.
Activity
Listen to these statements about the this week’s bible story. Use these true/false cards to say if the statements are true or false. David made bad choices and then tried to cover up his bad choices with more bad choices. We all make bad choices sometimes, just like David, but God’s love for us is unchanging. He not only forgives but also continues to love us.
Materials: printed true false cards and statements
Alternate
Draw a picture of any animal. As you draw your animal discuss the features this animal has. Then ask your child to change one feature of the animal into the feature from another animal. For example, if your child is drawing a dog, tell them to change the dog’s nose into the nose of an elephant. Continue changing the animals features until you have a new animal. We changed a lot of this animals features! It doesn’t even look like the ___ you were drawing! Just as it is impossible to change an animal to look like this, God’s love is unchanging too! We can make mistakes or do bad things and God’s love for us doesn’t change. God still loved David even though David made really big mistakes, God forgives and loves us too!
Materials: white sheet of drawing paper, pencil or colored pencils
Independent activity:
Complete the following activity sheet, pencil
Materials: printed activity sheet
ARTS & CAFTS
CRAFT 1
Coloring page
Materials: printed coloring sheet, crayons
Craft 2
Coloring page
Materials: printed coloring sheet, crayons
FOLLOW-UP
Did David confess to his wrong deeds right away?
What do you do when you make a mistake?
What should David have done when he first took something that wasn’t his?
When you confess your sins, how does it make you feel?
How can we know that we have been forgiven by God?
Practical Application at Home
We may sometimes think the things we have done are too big for God to forgive. Or we may think that God will never forget the bad things we’ve done and it will change his opinion of us. But God’s love for us is unchanging.
Complete the following scavenger hunt and use the pieces you find to fill in the blank on this scripture. Find all the words and place them in order to discover what the scripture says about how much God loves you. Print and cut the squares and place some in front of you and scatter the others around the room for your child to find. When they return with a word, read the verse and help them determine where in the verse their new word should go.
Materials: printed activity sheet, scissors,
Additional Resources
Outings to Reinforce Lesson
Donate to a local food shelter or toy drive this Christmas season. As a family, volunteer together or pick out toys you think another child your age might enjoy.