This Sunday, November 13th, your 2-5 year old children learned how Ruth helped Naomi by gathering grain and how Boaz helped Ruth by sharing his grain (Ruth 2:1-23). God has given us many people whom we can help and who will help us, but we have to make the choice to help them and accept help from them like God tells us to in Ephesians 4:32, our memory verse for this month. This verse tells us to be kind and compassionate to one another. (See full verse in the right-hand column on this page.)
During DRIVE TIME this week, see how many helpers you and your pre-schooler can spot. When you see one yell out, "I SEE A HELPER!" Helpers can be anyone: police officers, grocery clerks, librarians, coaches, teachers, nurses, friends, family members. Help your child notice all the people God made who help others. You can continue this game at home by shouting out whenever you see someone at home helping someone else.
Your Land of Promise child (kindergarten through fifth grade) learned the importance of stopping periodically and taking time to adjust his attitude. The lesson centered around Matthew 20:1-15, where Jesus told a parable about a vineyard owner who hired workers at the beginning of the day and agreed to pay them a certain amount of money. Later in the day, he hired some more workers. When the day was over, the owner paid all of the workers the same amount of money, and this angered the people who had worked all day. "Why do the people hired last who only worked a few hours get paid the same as we do?" they wanted to know. The twist at the end of the story led right into a discussion about fairness. Sometimes we think we have a right to complain, but we're forgetting the bigger picture our Master has in mind.
The visuals this month center around the idea of race cars needing a pit stop every now and then to run their best race. Just like those race cars, we need to stop regularly and ask God to help show us what we do have to be grateful for instead of focusing on what we think we deserve.
Some people only say "Thank you" when they are happy or feeling really rewarded. But our memory verse says, "Give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus." First Thessalonians 5:18 Taking time to check our attitudes and adjusting them even when we are disappointed or when things feel unfair shows others around us that Basic Truth: I can trust God no matter what.
To reinforce this concept at home, take time once each day this week for every family member to tell something that he or she is thankful for. You may want to stretch this activity out for the rest of the month instead of stopping at the end of the week. At the beginning of this month, I accepted a challenge on Facebook to post one thing I am thankful each day. I had no trouble the first week and a half, but this week, our entire family had the flu, and I certainly have not been feeling thankful. It surprised me that when I forced myself to find something to be thankful about, I actually began feeling thankful again...and humbled... that all this goodness has been poured onto me! Hopefully, you may begin to see the same gratitude adjustment happening in your child's heart and in your own heart as the days go by.
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