How to Love God. Lesson 4: Love All Your Neighbors. TM.com

How to Love God Lesson 4: Love All Your Neighbors TM.com

How to Love God TM Lesson 4 Love All Your Neighbors Unit Summary When Jesus was asked to identify God s greatest commandment, He answered, Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength (Mark 12:30). But what does this truly mean? What does it look like? Too often we give children pie-in-the-sky platitudes but without supplying practical steps they can apply in everyday life. This unit will help your children know what it means to love God with actions not just words. Your kids will discover how to love God with all their heart, soul, mind, and strength. They will also learn that loving God involves loving other people, too. Lesson Summary When you find something fantastic, you want to tell others about it, right? What can be more wonderful than finding out that God loves us, forgives us, and offers us eternal life through Jesus? When we become followers of Jesus, God wants us to tell others too! If we wonder what it means to love our neighbors, God provides a secret just love them the way we love ourselves. We never fail to love ourselves, so if we will just treat others the way we want to be treated, we will always know just what to do! God also makes it clear who our neighbors are everyone we meet, regardless of who they are. If we know them, and they need Jesus, they are our neighbors! Paul s Power Principle: Love who God loves everyone! Disciple Targets In this lesson, your children will... Know Their neighbor is anyone who needs help Feel Inspired to show God s love to all their neighbors Do Identify one neighbor who is hard for them to love and choose to treat him/her as more important than themselves 1

SUPPLies General Supplies Bibles, puppets, video projection (optional) Pencils, pens, paper Spark Interest WELCOME!: no additional supplies LET S PLAY!: none Explore Scripture LET S LEARN: boxes KEYVERSE: none Inspire Action DRAMATIZE THE POINT: various props PowerPoint Presentation As you plan your lesson, select PowerPoint slides that correspond to the lesson elements you choose. In the Slide Sorter View, you can rearrange and/or delete the slides as necessary. For descriptions of the included slides and tips on their use, see the notes accompanying each slide. SPARK INTEREST Choose from the following activities and ideas to engage kids and grab their attention. How to Love God Lesson 4 2013, DiscipleLand. All rights reserved. Karl Bastian / Kidology.org Welcome! My Neighbors Supplies: My Neighbors sheets printed out, one per student, and pens, markers or crayons As students arrive, pass out the My Neighbors sheets (available at the end of this lesson), and give students something to write with as well. Encourage them to collect as many autographs as possible from the other kids as they arrive. The goal is to get a signature or name from every other child in the room. Optional: Suggest that those with the most signatures or names will get a yummy award! (You can end up awarding everyone with some candy for participating.) Let s Meet-n-Greet! Take two minutes and have the children turn and greet the person next to them on each side, saying, Howdy Neighbor! Play a quick game of Paper, Rock, Scissors as a way to meet and play with the person they just met! Leaders, be sure to stop whatever you are doing to move through the audience and greet the children, especially those you do not recognize. Announce any birthdays for the week. (See the How to Use DiscipleTown guide for quick and easy ways to acknowledge visitors and birthdays.) 2

Let s Worship! In your time of worship, be sure to demonstrate through both your song selection and how those up front conduct themselves that the worship time is a time for expressing love to God. Consider asking the kids to even take turns each week calling out, I love God because and completing the sentence. Recommended Song: John 14:6 or Colossians 3:12 from Complete Library of Songs by Kathy Vincent, The Scripture Lady, available at Kidology.org/ScriptureLady. Puppet Intro Leader & puppet introduce today s lesson. You will find a scripted version of this intro at the end of the lesson. Puppet comes out with a stack of stickers he made on the computer; the stickers all say DISCIPLE. Leader asks what Puppet is going to do with them, and he tells Leader to look at his back. Leader pulls one of the stickers off the puppet s back; it says, DISCIPLE. Puppet says, I want the world to know that I am a disciple of Jesus! Leader says, Well, that s nice, but what are all the other stickers for? Puppet says, Look at your back! Leader turns around, and the audience sees one of the stickers on Leader s back! Leader takes it off and asks, What is this? Puppet says, jokingly, I got your back, Leader! Leader laughs and says, How did you get that on there? Puppet just laughs. Leader asks, More importantly, why did you put that there? Puppet says, I am going to go to the mall and stick these on people without them knowing it. Pretty soon everyone at the mall will be a disciple! It might just start a new fad! Who knows, I might just come out with a whole new line of clothes hats and underwear and pajamas! Leader says, Hold on a second! Underwear and pajamas? Puppet says, Of course. We are supposed to be disciples of Jesus 24/7, night and day, so there needs to be full coverage! Leader says, I think you are getting ahead of yourself here. Puppet says, You re right. That s why I m starting with stickers. You have to start somewhere. Start small, and let it grow from there. But someday, people will be driving Disciple Cars and flying Disciple Airlines! Leader says, What I meant was, you don t make disciples by sticking stickers on people or a shirt or a hat. They have to decide on their own to follow Jesus. Puppet, suddenly downcast, says, But that s hard work. Leader says, I know. It takes time and patience and showing them what a Christian is, not a sticker. Puppet says, Tell you what, how about I start out just making sure my friends and neighbors know who Jesus is and what He has done for me? Leader says, Now you re getting the idea! Puppet says, You never know it just might stick! 3

Let s Play! Would You Rather Would You Rather is a fun interactive game that involves the entire audience as well as some volunteers on stage. A child is invited up as a volunteer. You may use one volunteer for the entire game, or choose a new one for each question. He or she is presented with a choice that has two equally compelling answers, but the person must choose one of them. The leader reads both choices and offers two index cards with the answers. The volunteer takes the card that represents his or her choice. The child should not reveal in any way which was chosen. The leader reads the choices again to the audience members, who move to one side of the room or the other based on the choices. Label one wall Choice A and the other wall Choice B. Note: The audience members do not answer the question; they try to guess which answer the volunteer chose. Everyone should keep track of how many times they guessed correctly. Below are suggested questions. You can make up your own (there are many would you rather websites you may reference), but keep the questions somewhat related to the topic of neighbors. 1) Would you rather live... 3) Would you rather... A. on an island all alone or A. feed a homeless person or B. in a house with 100 people? B. heal a sick person? 2) Would you rather... 4) Would your rather... A. give a speech in front of the entire school or A. not wear shoes the rest of your life or B. ask a bully to stop picking on someone? B. not ever get your driver s license? The point: If we love God, we will love what He loves, and God loves people! So we should too! Connect with Your Kids Have you ever done something to help or reach out to a neighbor? These stories can be powerful! I once saw that a neighbor s lawn had been neglected for weeks and felt God urging me to mow it for him. I frankly did not want to do it! But I finally did it. Soon it was raining, and the task turned into a big job. When I was all finished, I left a note on his door that said, An unkempt lawn can be a sign that all is not well in the home. I just wanted you to know that a neighbor cares and that God loves you. Turns out the neighbor figured out who did it and wrote me a long letter detailing what was going on in his life and told me that very afternoon he had pulled his car over and prayed, God, if you are real and love me, prove it to me somehow. He got home, saw his lawn mowed, and read my note. God had answered his prayer and proved He was real; He loved my neighbor through my simple act of mowing his lawn. What if I had not done it? The next Sunday the family went to church. What is your story? How has God used you to make a difference in the life of a neighbor? Remember, a neighbor doesn t have to be someone who lives in your neighborhood. 4

DiscipleTown Visitor Character: Kindness Ninja is radical about helping people and sharing God s love in a practical way. Kindness believes that a random kind act shows the greatest amount of no-strings-attached love that can be given. Kindness randomly makes ninja moves while talking. Props/Costume: Kindness Ninja wears a brightly colored ninja-type outfit cargo pants with free stuff in all the pockets (prizes, candies, etc.), a utility belt with an umbrella, a Bible, zip ties, balloons, grocery bags, and any other kind of tool to serve you can think of. A small backpack contains cans of soup and apples. Leader should have a stash of drink boxes or snacks to offer to Kindness Ninja. [Kindness Ninja is out of supplies and in need of some help. Kindness has found some children with no lunches for school tomorrow and really wants to help.] Kindness Ninja: Oh, I m terribly sorry! I am sorry to interrupt, but I think I need some help! Leader: Oh, no problem, are you hurt? Kindness: Oh no, not at all, but there are some kids who need help. Leader: Oh dear, has there been an accident? Kindness: No, thankfully! However, I have a whole family of kids who just don t have enough money for lunches this week for school. I want to make sure they aren t hungry. Leader: Wow, I ve never heard of that before! Kindness: I m the Kindness Ninja. I look for opportunities to show God s love in really practical ways. When I care for the real needs of people, they often ask me why I am doing this. Leader: So, why DO you do all this? Kindness: [Excited:] Oh man, that is my favorite question to answer! I do all this to create opportunities for me to tell my story. Leader: Your story? Kindness: Yeah! When I was 9 years old, I was biking, and I fell off my bike. I hurt my knees, and I was bleeding all over. Then a stranger came up. She just happened to have some wipes and a Band-Aid in her purse. She cleaned me up and helped me get back on my bike. Then she said something so simple to me, but I had never heard it before. Leader: I m sure she warned you to be more careful when riding your bike! Kindness: No, not at all. She looked at me and just said, This is to show you how much Jesus loves you. That s it then she was on her way! Leader: Wow, so what did you do then? Kindness: I had to find out who Jesus was, and when I found Him, I knew that I wanted everyone to know how loved they were too. Leader: So, what is all this gear? [Kindness shows a few of the props and explains how they are used or tells about times when this prop was used to help someone else. Improvise on this.] Leader: That s so amazing! So how can we help you help these kids? Kindness: Well, I have apples, sandwiches, and cookies for all four kids, but I still need drinks. You wouldn t happen to have any drink boxes you could donate, would you? 5

Leader: Well, in fact I do. I just bought a new supply for our class. [To kids:] Kids, are you okay with donating some drink boxes to Kindness Ninja? [Allow kids to respond, while bringing out entire supply of drink boxes.] How many should we donate?? [Allow them to dictate the number you will donate.] Kindness: Oh, wow, thanks so much! Your kindness will not be forgotten! These kids are going to feel God s love tomorrow! This is so exciting! [Takes drink boxes and runs out.] Leader: You know, kindness is an easy way to start a relationship with someone. I think if more Christians knew how to love God by loving others, our world would be a different place. Why do you think Christians stop when it comes to loving their neighbor? [Allow discussion to go on as long as time permits.] 6

EXPLORE SCRIPTURE Seize on the children s interest and direct them into God s Word. Let s Search! Bible Dash Supplies: Bibles Ask all kids with Bibles to participate, or invite a few volunteers to come to the front. As children hold Bibles closed with hands on covers, state the Bible reference twice, then on the command SEARCH! have the students race to locate the verse. Once they have a finger on the verse, they can stand and call out, FOUND IT! Have the first child read the verse aloud while you project the verse on a screen via PowerPoint. See suggestions below for comments on each verse. Keep your comments brief and to the point of the lesson. 1 John 4:8 John 3:16 John 15:13 John 13:34 James 2:14 16 1 John 4:10 11 Philippians 2:3 4 Luke 6:27 Romans 15:2 1 John 4:21 Ephesians 4:25 If you love God, you will love others, too. God loves everyone (the world). The greatest love is to love others. We are to love each other. Help neighbors in need. God loved us, so we should love others. Think of others as more important. Be kind to your enemies. Build up your neighbors. If you love God, love your neighbor. Speak truth to your neighbor. Paul s Power Principle: Love God by giving Him your all! Suggested Bible Narrative Luke 10:25 37 The Good Samaritan Jesus told this parable to directly answer the question: who are our neighbors? Anyone we encounter is our neighbor and anyone who is in need should be the focus of our love. Let s Learn! Love All Your Neighbors Opening Skit: I ve Got a Lesson to Teach! You will need several leaders or volunteers to come in and interrupt the leader with some needs, just as the leader is starting to teach the lesson on how we need to love our neighbors. Each time the leader says, Sorry, I can t help you, I am starting a lesson right now on how to love your neighbors. Send the volunteer away without any help! With each interruption, get more annoyed and explain in more detail that you are trying to teach the children about how we need to love people because God loves people! It will become obvious to the kids that the leader is doing the opposite of what he or she wants to teach to the kids! Finally, with the last of the interruptions, say, Look! I am trying to teach these children that people are more important than churchy stuff, but I can t do that with all these interruptions by people with needs. So please, go away and let me teach my lesson on how our neighbors are anyone who is in need who comes across our path and how we should never turn them away! Okay?! 7

If the kids don t catch on (they should!) just ask, Do you see anything odd between what I am saying, and what I am doing? Allow for responses. Read Mark 12:30 31, focusing on the last phrase: Love your neighbor as yourself. Do you know that a man once asked Jesus, Who is my neighbor? Jesus answered him with a story. Do you know what story Jesus told? It is one of the most popular stories in the Bible. The answer, of course, is the story of the good Samaritan, found in Luke 10. Ask the children to summarize the story of the good Samaritan for you, and reward them based on the amount of detail they provide. Read both Luke 10:36 37 and Romans 13:10. One of the best ways to love God is to love other people. Jesus really cared about people even those He had never met! Jesus told us to show love to all people and to treat them the way we want to be treated. Did you know it is impossible to love God and to hate another person? Read 1 John 4:20 21. Box Word Unscramble: How to get J.O.Y. Supplies: Three large boxes of the same size with the letters J, O, and Y on one side of each box. You can put other letters on the other five sides that spell other words. (Your choices.) Mix up the boxes so that three letters that will spell a word are scrambled; have a volunteer come up on stage to rearrange the boxes, stacking them to spell the word from top to bottom. After doing several, do the word J-O-Y last. Do you know the secret to JOY? Point to the J, and say, We need to put Jesus first loving Him with all our heart, soul, mind, and strength. We ve been learning about that for the past three weeks. Then point to the O, and say, We need to put others second, putting their needs above our own. Then, point to the Y, and then to the kids, saying, Lastly, the Y stands for you. Pointing to the letters as you mention them, say, You need to put Jesus first, others second, and yourself third. When you do that, you will have true JOY. As you grow up, you will notice that selfish people are never truly happy people. God made us to love Him and to love others. When we do that, we end up joyful! Read Philippians 2:3 4. One of the greatest needs of our neighbors is to learn about Jesus and come to know Him as their Savior. When you know Jesus, it s like having a ticket to heaven. If you had an extra ticket to a great concert or show, you would probably invite a friend or neighbor. What if you had extra free tickets to heaven? Well, you do! Game: Ticket to Heaven Print the Ticket to Heaven sheet provided at the end of this lesson in two bright colors, such as yellow and lime green. Find a video demonstration of this game at Kidology.org/ticket2heaven. Invite two kids onto the stage, ideally one boy and one girl. Ask the audience if they know what the word Gospel means. Explain that it means good news. Then explain that there can be good news only if there is bad news, and the bad news is that everyone in the audience is lost and on their way to you know where. The good news for the two kids on stage is that they have tickets to heaven. Produce the two tickets you have prepared. (Note: they must be printed in two different colors.) Let the volunteers on stage know that because they have the Gospel Ticket to Heaven, purchased for them by Jesus, they get to go to heaven! But the good news gets even better. It is a ticket they can share, but time is limited. They can rip their ticket in half and give the other half to someone else! Both halves will still get them in. In fact, even the person they give it to can rip theirs in half and share with someone else, who can also get in. In fact, explain that the good news is that the ticket can be ripped in half as many times as possible, and it is still good for getting into heaven! 8

Let the audience members know they must remain seated and cannot get up or move around. They can only sit and hope someone comes to them and shares a ticket with them. If no one does before the time is up, unfortunately, they will be lost. Designate opposite walls of the room for each color. Kids with tickets are to go to the wall of the correct color in order to enter heaven. Let them know they can go there at any time during the game; they do not need to take anyone else along with them if they don t want to. Or they can save someone else on their way to heaven; it is totally up to them. But when time is up, they need to be at the wall in order to get into heaven. (In reality, no one is penalized for not being at the wall when time is up; this is just to give kids the decision to determine whether they will look out for themselves or others. In practice, everyone ends up being saved in the game.) At the end of the game, usually around two minutes, see which side is bigger and congratulate that color team for being better evangelists; but applaud everyone for reaching everyone else and leaving no one unsaved! Then bring the two kids who started it back to the center of the room and talk about the crowd that is now in heaven because of them. They may have reached only a few, but those few reached so many more because of them! You have no idea how many people will be in heaven because of you! Dee s Disciple Tip: LIVE IT MORE! If you want to reach your neighbors, telling them about Jesus is a good start, but you need to live out what you believe and know and learn at church. As you live it, others will want to have what you have. How can you live what you believe? 9

Click here to change text KeyVerse Topic: The Greatest Commandment Reference: Mark 12:30 31 Encourage the children to memorize this verse. Work on it each week. This week focus on the final phrase. Use the following hand motions to learn the verse. Review the motions from last week and add the motion for the last phrase. Love: cross arms over chest the Lord: form an L with your thumb and finger; start on your left shoulder and then move the L down to your right side, forming a royal banner your God: point up to the sky with all your heart: point with both index fingers to your heart; then moving in opposite directions, draw a giant heart on the front of your body, ending with fingers together again at the waist and with all your soul: interlock thumbs with fingers open and lift hands up waving fingers to make a bird (dove) and with all your mind: with both hands point to the head from the sides and with all your strength: tell the kids to strike a bodybuilder pose, and let them be creative. They can do it any way they would like to! The second is this: hold up two fingers all the way out with a fully extended arm love: cross arms over chest again your neighbor: point at people randomly around the room as yourself: move from pointing around room to having both fingers pointing to yourself There is no commandment: motion no with one index finger greater: both hands palms up moving up and down with arms out than these: point at heart, head, muscle pose, and neighbors quickly For the reference: Mark: make a check mark in the air 12: show all ten fingers, quickly switching to one finger on each hand for twelve (ten + two) 30 31: on left hand, lift three fingers and on right hand make a fist; close all fingers and lift three again on left hand and one finger on right Review briefly again what you have learned today about what it means to love your neighbors. 10

INSPIRE ACTION Encourage kids to apply the Bible truth to their lives. Dramatize the Point Characters: Timothy a teenage boy who thinks he s all that! Timothy needs some swagger, some bling, and some attitude. He talks with a hip-hop ring in his voice. Lisa an ordinary girl, with a big huge genuine smile. Dressed like any other person. Shelley a girl who has just been traveling and has two huge suitcases, a purse, a coat, and some extra things to carry. She is trying to get home, but her car broke down. Props/Set up: Lisa will be hidden until the very end when she opens the door or curtain on stage left for her final chat with Timothy. If you wish to give her more of a house setup, you can do this. Shelley will need all her luggage pieces. She is set up to enter from stage right. Timothy will need a piece of paper with e-mail printed on it. [Timothy enters from stage left as if he is in a hurry.] Leader: Well good morning, Timothy! Where are you off to in such a hurry? Timothy: Well, I am off to Lisa s house. She is going to introduce me to her family, and I don t want to be late! Leader: Okay, I won t hold you up! See ya later! [Leader exits. Timothy continues across stage, checking his watch as he walks. Shelley enters from stage right, struggling with her packages. She trips and falls and twists her ankle.] Shelley: Excuse me, sir! Timothy: [Points to himself.] Do you mean me? Shelley: Yes, I just wondered if you could help me. My car broke down, so I tried to carry my things home, but I just fell and hurt my ankle. My house is only a few blocks away, and I just can t carry all of this stuff. Would you help me? Timothy: Oh, I m sorry, I can t! I am meeting my friend, and I can t be late. Shelley: Oh, sir, please! My ankle is twisted, and there is no way I can make it home on my own. Please, sir, it would really mean a lot. Timothy: [Frustrated, vents to himself, facing audience.] Oh, man, this is just great! I am going to be late to Lisa s house now. What will she think? What will her parents think? This lady could totally ruin it for me. [Checks his watch, pulls out the e-mail he had printed off.] What time did she say I should be there? [Scans the e-mail.] Yup, I m going to be late if I help this lady. [He scans the e-mail further and stops, reading aloud.] P.S. Timothy, for the record, you don t have to be able to lift all that stuff. True strength is measured in how you care for people! Hmm, it seems that helping people is important to Lisa, and it seems like it is the right thing to do. I guess maybe I should help this person and apologize and explain to Lisa why I am late. I m sure she ll understand. [Turns back to Shelley.] Okay, ma am, I will help you. I can see you are in need. [Takes her bags and puts them over his shoulders and under his arm. Keeping one arm free, helps her up and lets her hold on to his arm as they walk very slowly to her home.] Shelley: My name is Shelley. You don t know how much this means to me. I hope your friend won t be too angry with you. We are almost there. That is my house right there. [Points to the door.] If you leave me here and just knock on the door, I m sure my sister will come and help. Timothy: Are you sure? 11

Shelley: Yes, absolutely. Thank you. [Timothy continues with luggage and goes to the door and knocks. Lisa answers.] Lisa: Oh, hi, Timothy! You re late, but I m glad you made it! [Looks at all the luggage.] How long are you planning to stay, exactly? Timothy: [Shocked:] What? How did you know my name? I thought this was Shelley s house. Lisa: Shelley? Shelley s here? [Moves past Timothy, who is still as confused as ever and runs to her sister.] Shelley, what s wrong, are you okay? Shelley: Oh, it s a long story, but my car broke down. I thought I would walk, but I twisted my ankle a few blocks away. This wonderful young man saved the day. Lisa: [Helps her sister to the door, then gives Timothy a big unexpected hug!] Thank you, Timothy! I m Lisa. You have no idea what it means to me that you stopped for my sister. I haven t seen her in two years, and I shudder to think what could ve happened to her if you hadn t stopped to help. Timothy: [Still shocked:] You re Lisa? Lisa: Yes, and this is my sister Shelley. Why don t you come in? You feel like a part of the family already. [Together Lisa and Timothy help Shelley into the house with her luggage. If possible they should exit stage directly as Leader returns.] Leader: Wow, it looks like Timothy discovered what it means to love your neighbor as yourself. One of the best ways we can show God we love Him is to share with others the love He gave to us so generously. He wants everyone to know how much He loves them. How will they know what true love is unless someone loves them with God s love? How will they know about the good news of Jesus unless someone tells them? What are some ways that we can show God s love to those at school or in our neighborhood? [Allow discussion as time allows.] Object Talks Kids Help Their Neighbors Supplies: video projection The video clip for this lesson features Max Imas, a wacky news anchor bringing stories and commentary about kids who are making the news. This video features stories of several ways kids made the news by helping their neighbors. Featured Verse: 1 John 3:17 12

on presented by month day year Let s Talk! Small Group Discussion Supplies: map of your city, notecards, pens and pencils, Bible Let s Talk Gather your small group around the map of the city. Ask, Which part of this map does God NOT care about? Try to point out areas of your city that might be poor or snobby or violent or crime-ridden. Does God really care about these areas of town? Ask the children how they know that what they are saying is true. Look up the following Scripture passages: Romans 5:8, John 3:16, Luke 15:4, Luke 19:10. What do these Scriptures say about God and our neighbors? Pass out the notecards and pens. Encourage your small group to write down three random acts of kindness no-stringsattached ways to love, share with, be kind to, or to serve their own neighbors this week. If they are asked about why they are doing what they are doing, encourage them to respond with, I just wanted to show you God s love, in a practical way. Use these questions to discuss the day s topic within your small groups: 1) What happens if we do not share God s love with our neighbors? 2) Who are our neighbors? Does it mean just those who live next to us? 3) Romans 2:4 says that it is the kindness of God that leads us to repentance. What does that tell us about the power of kindness? 4) How can we use kindness to change the atmosphere in our school or neighborhood? Awarded to for Passion for God award DiscipleTown Super Citizen Give a Super Citizen award to someone who gives preference to others over self. Let s Pray! Dear Jesus, thank You that You loved us so much that You gave Your life for us. You showed Your love to us by dying on the cross. Help us to die to ourselves and our selfishness each day and show You how much we love You by how well we care for and help others. May our hands rush to help and our hearts rush to love those around us, even those who hurt us. Help us to remember Your love for us when we are tempted to keep to ourselves or act selfishly. We pray You would change our neighborhood through Your love that flows through us. Thank You that we are never alone, and You are always there to help us. We love You. In Your holy name, amen. Cy s Challenge: Choose one neighbor who is hard for you to love. Think of something you can do to treat him or her as more important than yourself this week. Let s Review! Use these questions to review the lesson with the children: 1) Why is it important for God s love to flow out of our lives to others? 2) What are some things that make loving others difficult? 3) What are we telling God when we love our neighbor? 4) What are some ways we can love our neighbor? 13

For the Home DiscipleTown Table Talker: Give each child a copy of this week s DiscipleTown Table Talker. As you show them how to put it together, encourage the kids to ask their parents to lead family devotions three times this week. Parent E-mail: Copy and send the e-mail below to help your parents connect with their kids during the week. Send them early in the week, but not on Sunday. As a courtesy, be sure parents have opted to receive these e-mails. Review and edit as necessary to reflect the lesson elements you have used. You can also find this e-mail as a Microsoft Word document in your download bundle. Dear Mom and Dad, As we round out our month of learning How to Love God, we come full circle to the understanding that God s love for us is not ours to keep. Yes, we can personally show God how much we love Him by giving all of our heart and passion, our mind and choices, and our energy to Him; but if it ends there, then we have missed the most important part. If we love God, the truth is we will love others also. This time we explored what it means to show God how much we love Him by demonstrating His love to others. Kindness, support, compassion, and caring are all ways we communicate to God how much we truly love Him. This week, as a family, meet around the dinner table and use the DiscipleTown Table Talker to explore ways that you can show love to your neighbors. You could even go one step further and actually plan a random act of kindness or a meal this week for someone who is sick or shut in. Showing God s love is our greatest response to God, and it can be a very bonding experience for a family. If you want more ideas on things you can do with your family, or if there are families who need prayer, please don t hesitate to ask us to help. We are so pleased to be able to partner with you as you teach your child(ren) to love God by loving others. Building young disciples, [Your Name] 14

BONUS MATERIALS Use these options to extend your time or as substitutes for the ideas above. Chip s Snack Time! Supplies: assorted candies or assorted raisins, pretzel sticks, breakfast cereal, etc., disinfectant hand wipes, zippered plastic bags, stickers Give each child two plastic bags and some assorted stickers. Encourage them to decorate one of the bags with the stickers. Pass out a hand wipe to each child; ask them to wash their hands well and discard the wipe. Put out various snacks; ask the kids to put a handful of any combination of snacks into each bag. Explain that the bag with the stickers is for them to take home and to give away to a neighbor this week. They can enjoy the other bag now for their snack. Teachable point: The word share means to give to others something that WE have. In order to share, we cannot be selfish. We need to think of others and be willing to give what we have so they benefit. This is what it means to love God by loving our neighbors. Additional Ideas Random Acts of Kindness Plan a random act of kindness that you can do as a group for the area around your church then DO IT! Ideas: Give away free lemonade, wash cars for $1 (you give the CUSTOMERS the dollar), give away free popsicles or freezies on a hot day, rake leaves for seniors, help carry groceries at a local grocery store, and so on. Adopt a Block Using a city map, mark all the streets in the city that represent those students in your group. Commit to praying for those streets each week. Encourage families to adopt their block by praying every day for the people who live in that block. Do random acts of kindness and build relationships with those people. 15

Puppet Intro Sticky Situation DIRECTOR S NOTES The words in italics are notes for you and your puppeteers; they are not to be read aloud. PROPS: Sheet of Disciple stickers, sticker on back of Puppet* and on back of leader (on the shoulder when he/she can reach to peel it off). [Puppet comes out with a stack of stickers he made on the computer; the stickers all say DISCIPLE. ] Leader: Good morning, [puppet name], what s up with all those stickers? Puppet: Well, check this out! [Turns around so leader/kids can see sticker on his back.] Leader: [Pulls the sticker off Puppet s back and reads.] DISCIPLE. Puppet: I want the world to know that I am a disciple of Jesus. Leader: Well, that s nice, but what are all the other stickers for? Puppet: Look at your back! [Leader turns around and the audience sees one of the stickers on the leader s back! Leader takes it off.] Leader: What is this? Puppet: I got your back, Leader! Leader: [Laughs.] How did you get that on there? [Puppet laughs.] How long has that been there? [Puppet laughs.] More importantly, why did you put that there? Puppet: I am going to go to the mall and stick these on people without them knowing it. Pretty soon everyone at the mall will be a disciple! It might just start a new fad! Who knows, I might just come out with a whole new line of clothes hats and underwear and pajamas! Leader: Hold on a second! Underwear and pajamas? Puppet: Of course! We are supposed to be disciples of Jesus 24/7, night and day, so there needs to be full coverage! Leader: I think you are getting ahead of yourself here. Puppet: You re right. That s why I m starting with stickers. You ve got to start somewhere. Start small, and let it grow from there. But someday, people will be driving Disciple Cars and flying Disciple Airlines! Leader: What I meant was, you don t make disciples by sticking stickers on people or a shirt or a hat. They have to decide on their own to follow Jesus. Puppet: But that s hard work. Leader: I know. It takes time and patience and showing them what a Christian is, not a sticker. Puppet: Tell you what, how about I start out just making sure my friends and neighbors know who Jesus is and what He has done for me? Leader: Now you re getting the idea. Puppet: You never know it just might stick! [Puppet exits as leader shakes his head and laughs.] Leader: The truth is, [puppet name] was right, we do need to start small, but it s not just about telling people information about Jesus. When we love Jesus with our heart, mind, and strength, his love shows in everything we do. When we show God s love, our friends will begin to ask questions, and then we can share the information we know about Jesus. [If possible, share an example of a time when someone asked you why you said or did or didn t do a specific thing, and you were able to talk about God s love.] *PUPPET: Develop a puppet character to use regularly. The children will get to know the personality and enjoy these regular visits. Dee, Cy, and Paul puppets are available at DiscipleLand.com. How to Love God Lesson 4 2013, DiscipleLand. Permission granted to reproduce for volunteers.

Curriculum Map (DiscipleTown Units in no particular order) How to Worship God How to Use My Bible How to Show Respect How to Pray How to Be Faithful Workers How to Love God How to Memorize God s Word How to Be Global Christians How to Grow Spiritual Fruit How to Make Good Friends How to Walk in the Spirit How to Be Jesus Disciple How to Build Character How to Navigate the New Testament How to Explain My Faith How to Earn Eternal Rewards How to Follow God s Plan How to Make Good Choices How to Navigate the Old Testament How to Love God How to Know the Truth How to Discover Gifts and Talents How to Walk Victoriously How to Meet with God Each DiscipleTown Unit will teach your kids an essential how to skill to become victorious disciples of Jesus! TM.com