Children Ruminate upon What Makes Them Special

On Oct. 7, Sister Kim Willingham, taught a lesson about the sixth day of creation and the creation of man.

Being Serious about Offering
Before getting to the bible story, the children recited the Bethel chant as they marched to our offering basket.  During our march, we had a few giggles and little legs climbing on chairs rather than marching.  We took this as an opportunity to talk about why we don't take our offering time lightly.  Six-year-olds Joanell and Ella reminded us of how we should enter into giving.  Joanell shared that "we give our offering to show God how much we love Him," and Ella admonished that "we have to be serious for God!"

And God Created Adam!
After shaking our tambourines to a fun song we learned about creation, we reviewed what God created during each of the six days.  We discussed how God created everything, except for man, with His words.  God used His hands to create Adam and Eve and, in the words of one child, “His imagination.” We talked about what it means to be God's handiwork and how much time, patience, and thought goes into making a handiwork, or a unique masterpiece.

The children pretended to carefully shape dust into the shape of a man, giving him eyes, a nose, ears, and even belly buttons.  They finished their creations by blowing breath into the nostrils of the men they created, just as God created Adam.  We talked about how God took a part of Adam to make Eve and how God thought about just how he wanted to create her.  This all helped us to think about the care God puts into making each of us.  We looked around the room at each other to notice our similarities - we all have hair, eyes, legs, noses, skin, and attendee Alexander reminded us that we have the same things underneath our skin, too - blood and bones.  We're also very different.  Attendee Kamau noticed he has short hair like his mommy.  Attendee Caden said that he has puffy hair, while attendee Katyra had a ponytail.

“I am God’s masterpiece, and I am…”
For our activity, each child wrote down what makes them special.  They completed the sentence, "I am God's masterpiece, and I am _______________________."  Answers ranged from "I am a helper with my little brother" by attendee Sienna to "I am a great artist" by attendee Kayleena.

The children left with their sentences and the memory verse Ephesians 2:10, “For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”  We ask that parents read with their child daily the sentence their child wrote about what makes them special along with the memory verse.

Special thanks to Sister Kathy Krebs and youth volunteer Mikayla Willingham who helped with the class last week, and also to parent Kendra Thompson for donating snacks!