Sunday 19 April 2020 - Hope!
Hope!
worship
My Hope is in the Lord’ by Cave Quest with Lifetree Kids
My Lighthouse’ by Rend Collective - you know the actions so show your parents how it’s done!!!
Word
What does it mean to put our hope in the Lord?
Read Psalm 25 v 5 together:
Guide me in your truth and teach me, for you are God my Saviour, and my hope is in you all day long. (NIV)
What does the word ‘hope’ make you think about? / Define the word ‘hope’.
Chat about some times when you have heard yourself or your children use the word ‘hope’ for eg; ‘what do you hope you will get for your birthday?’ ‘I hope we’ll be having pizza at my friends’ etc
Explain that hope is believing that something good will come true. We especially hope for things when someone has made a promise to us. Hoping is better than wishing because we have good reason to trust that our hope will come true. God made many promises to his people, but the greatest promise he made was that he would send someone to save us from sin and death. God kept his promise when he sent his one and only Son, Jesus! As we remembered and celebrated last week during Easter week.
The verse from Psalm 25 shows that when we stay close to God and seek to know more of Him and His truths from God’s Word, we can be confident that God is our hope.
Explore together:
There are lots of different names given to God. See how many you can come up with together. Here are two to get you started; “Creator God” and “The Good Shepherd”. Talk about the different character aspects revealed of God in His different names and how all these amazing promises of who God is, give us hope.
Watch this fun video - ‘Rainbow of Snow: Finding hope in the names of God’
Activity suggestions:
Under 5’s:
Tell your child you are going to play a game of hide-and-seek with a toy. Ask them to choose a special toy, and reassure your child that they can trust you to hide the toy in a safe place. Choose a hiding place that is unlikely to be discovered without your help. When your child has searched for a while and seems ready to give up the hunt, offer to help. With verbal clues, lead your child to find their hidden toy.
As you celebrate together, thank your child for trusting you during the game. Explain that when he/she believed you would keep their toy safe, they were showing hope. They didn’t worry about their toy because they had hope they would get it back safely. Just as your child trusted you to take care of a favourite toy, so we can trust God to take care of us.
(Idea taken from ‘Focus on the Family’ by Alicia Bruxvoort)
5-7’s:
Using books or pieces of cardboard, create a “steppingstone” path from one side of your living room to the other. Add small challenges along the way, perhaps a chair to climb over or narrow “balance beams” made of masking tape. As you work, talk about the obstacles we face in life: moving to a different school, making new friends, being sick.
Now place a blindfold over your child’s eyes. Explain that often we can’t see how to get through the obstacles in our lives. We may say that we “hope” to find our way through, but what are our chances? Take your child’s hand and guide them along each step of the path, explaining that we can face the challenges of life because we know that God is with us. Even if we can’t always see where we’re headed, our hope comes from knowing that God directs our steps.
(Idea taken from ‘Focus on the Family’ by Heather Shaw)
7-11’s:
Create a ‘wordle’ (word art / word cloud) using all the names of God you came up with as a family. You could make this really colourful and use stencils / bubble writing or you might be able to create one on the computer. Display this at home to remind you of the amazing hope we have in God.
Reflection:
Make a gift of praise for God! Having spent time realising what amazing hope we have in God and how we can trust in Him for everything; even when things are difficult, because of all the promises He makes and especially in thanks for the gift of Jesus.
You might want to wrap a little cardboard box up and decorate it with ribbons or stickers. You might want to find a treasure from the garden and offer that as a gift to God. You might even want to draw a special picture as a thankful offering to God.
Say or sing or shout some prayers of praise, thanking God for His glorious names, all that you are thankful for and all the hope that bubbles up inside of you!