The Big Questions:
1. How does God see people?
God loves every person. He sees people as precious and valuable. God sent Jesus to Earth to show His love for every single person. He taught us how to love others and He showed His complete love for people by dying on the cross for all of our sins. Nothing people do can make God love them more, and nothing people do can make God love them less. Read together from 1 John 4:7-12 (NIV), “Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love. This is how God showed his love among us: He sent his one and only Son into the world that we might live through him. This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins. Dear friends, since God so loved us, we also ought to love one another. No one has ever seen God; but if we love one another, God lives in us and his love is made complete in us.”
2. How do you see people?
It can be easy to see our friends and family as special and valuable because these people are important to us. But how do we see other people that we don’t know? Do we look down on others that need help? Do we think that we are better than others? More important than others? When we get to know God more we begin to see the world and see people they way He does. Describe some types of people that tend to be looked down on.
3. How can you show love to others?
It might be easy to say that you love people but they only know that we love them if we show them. Loving people is shown through our actions. If we worship God and say that we love others but then never show it, do we really love them? We show love to others by putting them and their needs before our own, by going out of our way to be kind to them or help them. We can show our love for people by doing things that help people that are in need. Choose a person that you can show love to in a creative way. Taking the time to plan something generous and kind shows that you love and care for someone. Isaiah 32:8 (NKJV), “A generous man devises generous things, and by generosity he will stand.”
Parent At Home Activity:
Help your children look at their community and identify ways that they can help others and show God’s love.
Directions: Lay out a large sheet of paper and have your children sit in a circle around it. Explain that together you are going to make a map of your neighbourhood. Draw your house, the church, neighbors, grocery store, park, school.
Talk about each location and how they are places where people are. Individuals that are valuable and precious to God. Ask, “How can we show love to the people here?” Write next to each location some ways you could help people there. For example, at the grocery store, help someone to carry their shopping bags or pay for some groceries to give to someone in need. At the park, you could invite someone to play who might be feeling lonely etc.
Explanation: Everywhere we go there are people. We love God and God is all about people. We want to show His love and connect people to God. It might be easy to think that our friends and family are precious and valuable, but when we look out in our community we can see the world through God’s eyes and His eyes see people.
Memory Verse:
“Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves; ensure justice for those being crushed. yes, speak up for the poor and helpless, and see that they get justice.” Proverbs 31:8-9
Preschool
Elementary
JHi