Lesso 8 91 Joseph Forgives His Brothers Geesis 42 45 Beig wroged ad beig agry are thigs childre uderstad. Whe a toy is grabbed away or aother offese is committed, the atural reactio is to feel hurt ad ager. Helpig childre lear to forgive wrogs takes example, patiece, ad perseverace. Use this lesso to remid childre that forgiveess allows us to feel good i the ed, ad we forgive because God forgives us for our sis, too. LESSON WHAT CHILDREN DO SUPPLIES EASY PREP 1 Gettig Started about 5 mi. Welcome ad Celebrate Welcome each other, ad praise God through music. CD player Teacher Pack: CD Bible Poit God wats us to forgive. Key Verse Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as workig for the Lord, ot for me (Colossias 3:23). 2 Key Verse Activity about 10 mi. Sig It Out! Lear a ew actio sog, ad pray. Bible Weavig Faith Ito Life Childre will forgive others. Puppy Poiters Help Theo lear about forgiveess. CD player, Theo puppet, measurig cup, strig Teacher Pack: CD Tie the measurig cup to Theo s paw. 3 Bible Exploratio about 15 mi. Bible Time: Overflowig Forgiveess Preted to go o a jourey to buy grai durig the famie. Bible; 1 resealable plastic bag per child; measurig cup; cotaier of rice, eough for 1 cup per child; empty cotaier; sturdy chair Teacher Pack: Facy Meals page Separate the pictures o the Facy Meals page. Bold text withi the lesso is spoke text. Preschool/Ages 3 & 4 Lesso 8
92 LESSON WHAT CHILDREN DO SUPPLIES EASY PREP Ceter 1: Forgive ad Fill Cout the scoops eeded to fill a bag of rice. My Bible Hugs, plastic spoos, glue sticks, large bowl, resealable bags of rice from the Bible Time activity Remove the Lesso 8 pages from each My Bible Hugs studet book, ad write childre s ames o them. 4 Weavig Faith Ito Life about 20 mi. (Choose 2 ceters.) Ceter 2: Happy-Face Sack Make a forgive face o rice cakes. Ceter 3: Forgive Respod to forgiveess situatios. 1 rice cake per child, softeed cream cheese, raisis, plastic kives, atibacterial gel (optioal) CD player Teacher Pack: CD Cut large raisis i half so they do t pose a chokig hazard. Ceter 4: Plate Pictures Make paper-plate pictures. 2 small paper plates per child, costructio paper, glue sticks, markers Holdig the paper horizotally, use a marker to draw a vertical lie dow the ceter. Make 1 for each child. Daily Challeges Commit to a challege for the week ahead. My Bible Hugs 5 Lastig Impressios about 10 mi. Actio Prayer Say a forgiveess prayer. Weavig Faith at Home Talk about how to share what they leared with their families. Bold text withi the lesso is spoke text. Lesso 8 Preschool/Ages 3 & 4
93 Joseph Forgives His Brothers Geesis 42 45 BIBLe BACKGROUND FOR LEADERS Famie Opes the Door to Recociliatio Joseph s iterpretatio of Pharaoh s dreams was correct, ad the seve years of abudace i Egypt were followed by seve years of famie. The famie was widespread, affectig all the other lads i the regio. But because of God s wisdom relayed through Joseph, Egypt had plety of food. Ad people from may coutries came to Egypt to buy grai. Jacob s questio i Geesis 42:1 demostrates the desperatio of his family s situatio. Without food from Egypt, Jacob ad his family would starve. So 10 sos wet to Egypt. However, Bejami, the yougest, stayed home. With Joseph goe, Bejami was the oly tie Jacob still had to his beloved Rachel, who had died at Bejami s birth (Geesis 35:16-18). Joseph Tests His Brothers Oe might thik that the brothers would have recogized Joseph whe they first saw him. However, it had bee more tha 20 years sice they had see him, ad Joseph was a youg ma whe he was sold ito slavery. Ad eve if the brothers had oticed a resemblace, they would quickly have rejected ay otio that the slave they had sold to the Midiaites could have become a ruler i Egypt. Joseph Forgives His Brothers Whe Joseph revealed his idetity to his brothers, their terror was justified. They remembered all too vividly what they had doe to their brother. They kew what Joseph had put them through already. They saw the power Joseph wielded throughout Egypt. I spite of the difficulties Joseph had udergoe, he realized that God had set him to Egypt for a purpose. Joseph kew that his dreams were comig true as his brothers bowed to him, but istead of lordig his power over them, he saved their lives from the famie that would have killed them. Not oly did Joseph sed food, but Pharaoh also set carts ad provisios so that all of Joseph s family could come to Egypt. The Jesus Coectio As Christias growig i relatioship with Jesus, we ejoy the protectio ad promises of our forgivig God. Therefore, it s ecessary ad atural that we forgive those who hurt or offed us. As servats i God s kigdom, it s importat that we forgive those who wrog us. Cosider the trials that Joseph edured. Reread his accout, ad ask God for the same stregth ad wisdom he gave Joseph. You ca write your prayer o the lies below. Why did Joseph put his brothers through all the testig ad struggle? Revege would have bee out of character for the Joseph described elsewhere i Scripture. Istead, it was likely to help the brothers come to terms with their guilt for what they had doe to him. He may also have wated to see if they had chaged their way of treatig others. Whe Judah offered himself i Bejami s place to protect Bejami ad save his father from further grief, Joseph apparetly saw that he had accomplished his purpose. Preschool/Ages 3 & 4 Lesso 8
94 GETTING STARTED Welcome ad Celebrate CD player Teacher Pack CD: Come O I (track 11), Forgive (track 19) Welcome ad Celebrate Tip Cosistetly use the same sigal to aouce a trasitio to the ext activity. You could flip the lights off ad o, use a trai whistle, have a puppet rustlig iside a bag, or sig cleaup sogs. Keep it simple, cosistet, ad fu. As the childre arrive, greet each oe with a smile. Whe it s time to begi, use your sigal to gather the childre together i a circle o the floor. Play Come O I (track 11 o the CD). Lead childre i sigig ad greetig oe aother. Come o i (clap) ad shake a had. Come o i (clap) ad shake a had. Come o i (clap) ad shake a had. We re so glad you ve joied us today! (Repeat 2x.) Say: Now that we ve welcomed each other, let s sig a sog about our Bible Poit for today, GOD WANTS US TO FORGIVE. Play Forgive (track 19 o the CD). Lead childre i sigig ad doig the motios i paretheses. Forgive as God forgave you, (poit up) Ad agai I say, Forgive. (put had o someoe else s shoulder) Forgive as God forgave you, (poit up) Ad agai I say, Forgive. (put had o someoe else s shoulder) Forgive, forgive, (hug someoe) Ad agai I say, Forgive. Forgive, forgive, (hug someoe) Ad agai I say, Forgive. Forgive as God forgave you, (poit up) Ad agai I say, Forgive. (put had o someoe else s shoulder) Forgive as God forgave you, (poit up) Ad agai I say, Forgive. (put had o someoe else s shoulder) (Repeat.) Say: GOD WANTS US TO FORGIVE, just as we sag today. Today we ll hear about a ma amed Joseph who forgave his brothers after they did some really terrible thigs to him. Ad we ll lear how we ca forgive, too. Lesso 8 Preschool/Ages 3 & 4
95 2 KEY VERSE ACTIVITY Sig It Out! Have childre form a circle ad sit dow. Ope your Bible to Colossias 3:23, ad show childre the words. Tell kids the Bible is God s special book. Sig It Out! Bible Say: Our Key Verse from the Bible says, Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as workig for the Lord, ot for me (Colossias 3:23). This meas do everythig for God. Let s say our Key Verse together. Lead the childre i sayig the simplified Key Verse with you: Do everythig for God (Colossias 3:23). Oe of the thigs we ca do for God is forgive other people. That s ot always easy, but God helps us. Let s lear a sog to remid us of that! Teach childre Do Everythig to the tue of Skip to My Lou (ot o the CD). For extra fu, lead childre i the accompayig actios. Do, do, do everythig; (wave arms above head) Do, do, do everythig; (wave arms above head) Do, do, do everythig; (wave arms above head) Do everythig for God. (poit upward) For-give everyoe. (exted arms i frot, ad the cross arms over chest) For-give everyoe. (exted arms i frot, ad the cross arms over chest) For-give everyoe. (exted arms i frot, ad the cross arms over chest) Forgive everyoe for God. (poit upward) (Repeat.) After the sog, lead childre i a roud of applause for themselves. The have everyoe sit i a circle o the floor with you. Say: Thaks for that sigig! Today s Key Verse teaches us to do everythig for God. Lead childre i this discussio. Ask: Tell about a time someoe hurt your feeligs. Explai whether you forgave that perso. Oe of the thigs we ca do for God is forgive others. Tell about someoe you ca forgive this week. Say: This week let s try to remember that everythig we do, we ca do for God. Preschool/Ages 3 & 4 Lesso 8
96 Whe someoe does somethig to hurt us, GOD WANTS US TO FORGIVE ad we ca forgive for him. Let s ask God to help us this week. Lead childre i a prayer askig God to help them do everythig for him this week, especially forgivig others. 3 BIBLE EXPLORATION Puppy Poiters CD player Theo puppet measurig cup strig Teacher Pack CD: Here, Theo (track 4) Puppy Poiters Easy Prep Tie the measurig cup to Theo s paw. Puppy Poiters Say: Liste, everyoe, Theo s comig! He has somethig to show us. Let s fid out what it is. Play Here, Theo (track 4 o the CD), ad brig out Theophilus the FaithRetriever. Theo: Hi, everybody! Teacher: Hello, Theo! It s ice of you to come to church with us today. What s that i your paw? Theo: It s a measurig cup. Teacher: Why did you brig a measurig cup? Are you goig to cook somethig for us? Theo: Yep. I was goig to cook rice. I really like rice ad meat all mixed together. Teacher: Theo, that remids me of what we ll be readig about i the Bible today. We re readig about how a ma amed Joseph shared some rice ad food with his brothers. Theo: Really? I do t thik I m ever goig to share with my brother agai because he was really mea to me. Teacher: I m sorry that happeed to you, Theo, but do you thik you could forgive him? Theo: Oh, I do t kow. He really hurt me. Teacher: That s too bad. I uderstad how you feel, Theo. But it might make you feel better to forgive him. Ca we share our Bible Poit for today with you? Theo: Sure. Teacher: Frieds, let s tell Theo our Bible Poit for today. (Lead childre i sayig the Bible Poit for Theo: GOD WANTS US TO FORGIVE.) Theo: Hmm, I guess I better ru home ad tell my brother I ll share my rice with him ow because I forgive him. Teacher: That s a very good choice. Frieds, let s say goodbye to Theo. Ecourage the childre to wave or say goodbye to Theo. The put Theo away i a safe place for ext week s use. Lead childre i this discussio. Ask: Tell about a time you did t wat to forgive like Theo did t wat to. What s it like whe you do decide to forgive? Say: Sometimes it s really hard to forgive others whe they hurt us like it was for Theo. But it s really importat that we do because GOD WANTS US TO Lesso 8 Preschool/Ages 3 & 4
97 FORGIVE. He kows that whe we forgive, it makes us feel better. Today we ll hear about a ma who was treated very badly by his brothers, but whe he forgave them, it helped their family a lot. Bible Time: Overflowig Forgiveess Ope your Bible to Geesis 42, ad show childre the words. Tell childre that the Bible is God s special book. Say: Today we re learig that GOD WANTS US TO FORGIVE. I Geesis, it tells about a ma amed Joseph who helped Pharaoh uderstad his dreams. The dreams helped Pharaoh prepare his people for seve years with o food because his dreams helped him kow that he should save food for the seve years before that. Pharaoh was so happy for Joseph s help that he put Joseph i charge of the plaig. Whe there was o food, may people came to Egypt to buy food from Pharaoh. Oe of those families that came was Joseph s family. Let s preted that we re part of Joseph s family ad that we have to travel far away to buy food for our family to eat. Say i a deep voice: Our father, Jacob, said we must go buy food from Egypt. Come, my brothers. Give each child a resealable plastic bag. Motio for the childre to stad ad follow you. Lead the childre aroud the room, weavig i ad out of tables ad chairs, to show that it was a log jourey to Egypt. Whe you get ear the cotaier of rice, stop ad choose someoe to be Joseph. Have him or her stad o a sturdy chair at the rice cotaier. Have the other childre bow toward Joseph with you. Say i a deep voice: We have come to buy grai. May we please have grai? Bible Time: Overflowig Forgiveess Bible 1 resealable plastic bag per child measurig cup cotaier of rice, eough for 1 cup per child empty cotaier sturdy chair Teacher Pack Facy Meals page Bible Time: Overflowig Forgiveess Easy Prep Separate the pictures o the Facy Meals page. Say: Now Joseph kew his brothers right away, but they did t kow it was him. Joseph asked his brothers about their family because he wated to kow about his youger brother ad his father. The brothers said, Our youger brother is home with our father. Ad Joseph said, You must leave oe brother with me ad brig your other brother here. Have each child use the measurig cup to put 1 cup of rice from the cotaier ito his or her resealable plastic bag. Choose oe child to stay with Joseph. Lead childre back the same way you came, through the tables ad chairs. Say i a deep voice: Father, we re home with plety of food. Have the childre pour their rice ito a empty cotaier ad hold o to their empty bags. But we must retur to Egypt with our little brother, Bejami. Choose a smaller child to preted to be Bejami. Say: Jacob did t wat his sos to take Bejami because he was afraid of what might happe. But soo the family ra out of food agai. So Jacob had to sed his sos back to Egypt, this time with Bejami. Have childre hold their bags, ad agai lead the group alog the path to Egypt. Take the cotaier of rice with you. Preschool/Ages 3 & 4 Lesso 8
98 Say i a deep voice: We have retured to buy more food. We have brought our brother Bejami, like you asked. Have Bejami stad i frot of Joseph. Say: Joseph was so happy to see his youger brother Bejami that he gave a big facy dier! Give each child a picture from the Facy Meals page. Have all the childre sit briefly ad preted to eat. The have them use the measurig cup to put rice i their bags. Say: Before all this happeed, Joseph s brothers did some really bad thigs to Joseph. But that did t stop him from forgivig his brothers. Joseph told his brothers who he was, ad he forgave them ad eve had a big dier i their hoor. Joseph s father, Jacob, was so happy to kow his so was still alive that he wet to Egypt to see him. The all of Joseph s family moved to Egypt to live with Joseph. Joseph s family was together agai! Have the childre jump up ad dow, clap their hads, ad hug oe aother to show their happiess. Lead childre i this discussio. Ask: What do you thik of Joseph forgivig his brothers after all the bad thigs they did to him? Why do you thik it s importat that we forgive? Ceter 1: Forgive ad Fill My Bible Hugs plastic spoos glue sticks large bowl resealable bags of rice from the Bible Time activity Ceter 1: Forgive ad Fill Easy Prep Remove the Lesso 8 pages from My Bible Hugs, ad write childre s ames o them. Say: Joseph forgave his brothers, eve after they were very mea to him. He kew God wated him to forgive, ad he uderstood what it meat to be forgive. God forgives us whe we do a bad thig. Because God forgives us, GOD WANTS US TO FORGIVE others. Let s do our best to forgive others this week. Collect the bags of rice. 4 WEAVING FAITH INTO LIFE Choose at least two of the learig ceters to help reiforce today s Bible lesso. Gather the eeded materials, ad put the supplies i a out-of-sight area util you re ready for them. Allow the childre to choose which ceter they d like to explore first. The circulate amog the childre as they create ad explore. Ecourage them to make coectios betwee their activities ad the Bible by askig them the questios icluded with each ceter s descriptio. CENTER 1: Forgive ad Fill Give each child a Lesso 8 page from My Bible Hugs. Say: Joseph s brothers Lesso 8 Preschool/Ages 3 & 4
99 treated him really badly, but he forgave them. I our lives, GOD WANTS US TO FORGIVE. But we do t forgive oly oce. We have to forgive all kids of people for differet thigs. Let s do a activity to show what I mea. Give the childre the resealable plastic bags from the Bible Time activity. Poit out the picture of the bag o the My Bible Hugs page. The have childre double-check that the bags are fully closed, ad have them lay the bags o top of the pictures. Say: Spread out the rice so it covers all the pictures show o the bag o the page. Allow time, ad help kids spread the rice by pushig o the plastic bags. Say: Let s cout how may spoofuls of rice it takes to empty the bags so we ca see the pictures udereath. Lead kids i opeig the bags ad removig the rice with the spoos. They ll cout each spooful of rice they remove from the bag ad put ito the large bowl. Have them lay the bags back dow periodically, checkig to see if the rice would still cover the pictures. Cotiue util all the rice is i the bowl. Say: It took a lot of spoofuls to get all the rice out of the way so we could see the pictures udereath. Forgiveess is kid of like that; sometimes we have to keep forgivig ad forgivig so we ca keep our view clear of the great sights. Let s glue our bags to our pages as a remider. Help childre glue the plastic bags oto the activity pages. Lead childre i this discussio. Ask: What was it like to remove all the rice from your bag? How is forgiveess like or ulike that? Why are you thakful that God forgives like that? Say: God plaed for Joseph ad his family to fid oe aother agai, ad God helped Joseph forgive his brothers. Eve whe it ca be really hard to forgive, or maybe it seems like we have to forgive over ad over, GOD WANTS US TO FORGIVE others. Whe we re havig trouble forgivig, we ca remember how much God forgives us whe we do wrog thigs. Set aside the rice for the church to use later for a meal or to doate to a family. CENTER 2: Happy-Face Sack Have childre clea their hads ad the sit dow. Say: Joseph forgave his brothers, ad that made them very happy. Let s make happy faces o these rice cakes to remid us that whe we forgive others, we re happy ad so is God. GOD WANTS US TO FORGIVE. Ceter 2: Happy-Face Sack 1 rice cake per child softeed cream cheese raisis plastic kives atibacterial gel (optioal)! ALLERGY ALERT Ceter 2: Happy-Face Sack Easy Prep Cut large raisis i half so they do t pose a chokig hazard. Preschool/Ages 3 & 4 Lesso 8
100 Give each child a rice cake. Provide plastic kives, ad allow childre to spread softeed cream cheese o their cakes. The let them create happy faces with raisis. Say: Just as God forgives us, GOD WANTS US TO FORGIVE. We ca follow Joseph s example, ad whe others are mea to us, we ca forgive. Whe we do, it makes God happy, just like we showed o our happy-face sacks. Ceter 3: Forgive CD player Teacher Pack CD: Forgiveess Scearios (track 18) CENTER 3: Forgive Say: God has show us forgiveess through Jesus. God expects us to show forgiveess to others. Let s liste to our CD to hear about times we might eed to forgive. Form two groups of childre. Liste to the first sceario o Forgiveess Scearios (track 18 o the CD) about the dish breakig, ad the pause the CD after the questio to allow each group to respod. Have oe group say, I m sorry I broke your dish. Will you forgive me? The have the other group respod by sayig, I forgive you. Say: GOD WANTS US TO FORGIVE. Start the CD agai, ad liste to the ext sceario about the agry child. Pause the CD after the questio. Ecourage oe group to say, I m sorry I took your toy. Will you forgive me? The ecourage the other group to respod by sayig, I forgive you. Say: GOD WANTS US TO FORGIVE. Start the CD agai, ad liste to the sceario about the hurt girl. Pause the CD after the questio. Ecourage oe group to say, I m sorry I hit you, Jessica. Will you forgive me? The ecourage the other group to respod by sayig, I forgive you. Say: GOD WANTS US TO FORGIVE. Forgivig others makes God happy. Start the CD agai, ad liste to the sceario about the fallig blocks. Pause the CD after the questio. Ecourage oe group to say, I m sorry I kocked dow your tower. Will you forgive me? Ecourage the other group to say, I forgive you. Lead childre i this discussio. Ask: What did you thik about these scearios we just heard? What ca help you forgive others? Lesso 8 Preschool/Ages 3 & 4
101 Say: God always forgives us. Because he forgives us, GOD WANTS US TO FORGIVE others. Tell your eighbor about a time you had to forgive someoe else. Pause ad allow childre to share. Our woderful God is always willig to forgive us. This week let s forgive like Joseph forgave. CENTER 4: Plate Pictures Say: We leared about a family that did t have ay food to eat. Give each child the costructio paper you prepared ad a paper plate, ad have each child glue the empty paper plate o oe side of the lie. Say: But the family wet to Egypt, ad Joseph gave them food to eat. Give each child a secod paper plate. Have each child draw a picture of his or her favorite meal o that paper plate ad glue it to the other side of his or her sheet of costructio paper. Say: These pictures ca remid us of what happeed to Joseph ad his family. The empty paper plate ca remid us that Joseph s family did t have eough to eat. They had to go to Egypt to buy food from Joseph. The full paper plate ca remid us that Joseph forgave his brothers ad made sure they had plety to eat. Say: It s ot always easy, but GOD WANTS US TO FORGIVE. Joseph could ve stayed mad at his brothers, but he did t. He forgave them. Take your pictures home with you to remid you to forgive, just like Joseph did. Ceter 4: Plate Pictures 2 small paper plates per child costructio paper glue sticks markers Ceter 4: Plate Pictures Easy Prep Holdig the paper horizotally, use a marker to draw a vertical lie dow the ceter. Make 1 for each child. 5 LASTING IMPRESSIONS Daily Challeges After the childre have cleaed up their ceters, brig everyoe back to a circle area o the floor. Review the lesso activities ad the Bible Poit, ad the ecourage the childre to share what they remember about what they leared from the Bible today. Daily Challeges My Bible Hugs Also use this time to challege kids i their faith. Ecourage them to choose a Daily Challege for applyig today s lesso to their lives this week. Use this challege for ecouragig your childre s growig relatioships with Jesus. Preschool/Ages 3 & 4 Lesso 8
102 Say: Today we leared that GOD WANTS US TO FORGIVE. I would like each of you to choose a way to forgive this week. Give kids these two challeges to choose from: Draw a special picture for someoe who hurt you. Say I forgive you to someoe before he or she apologizes. Say: If you wat to draw a picture, circle the choice with oe dot. If you wat to say I forgive you circle the choice with two dots. Check that each child circled a choice o his or her My Bible Hugs page. Make sure you tell kids the challege you choose. Your commitmet will ispire childre ad will give them a opportuity to see God at work i your life as well as i theirs! Actio Prayer Have the childre stad i a circle. Say: We ca forgive others aytime. Thik about someoe you kow you eed to forgive. Allow time. The let the childre share if they wat to. After everyoe has had a chace to share, say: Now say, God, help me forgive. Allow time. Pray: God, thak you for helpig us forgive others whe they hurt us. We love you. I Jesus ame, ame. Weavig Faith at Home Have childre take home their My Bible Hugs pages whether they worked o them or ot. Have the childre tell their parets the challege they committed to i the Daily Challeges activity. Ecourage the parets to help their kids fulfill this commitmet durig the week. By workig together ad focusig o the same goals, you ad parets ca help childre weave faith ito their lives! Talk to your Director about emailig the FREE FamilyCoect to all your church s families. Available at group.com/digital. Lesso 8 Preschool/Ages 3 & 4