mustard seed
For families with little ones (preschool age), this could be a 3-5 minute talk! It doesn’t have to be much. For older children, you can opt in for more of these options to extend your study time together. I recommend doing this with (especially little) children over a meal – whichever meal is the least chaotic in your home (for my family right now, that’s lunch), or saving the questions for while you’re on a walk or playing outside together. Have fun!
1. Read the scripture together: Matthew 13: 31-33; 44-52. The important thing is that you’re reading scripture together! If you’re looking for different ways to engage your children while reading, here are some fun ways to read scripture as a family
Every Reader takes a verse
Ask each child to pick two words they don’t understand to talk about after you read it. (For longer scriptures and younger children, you may need to split up the reading in order to do this.)
Draw a picture of what you read
Act it out as a family (And please send documentation of this to children.sjumc@gmail.com because we could all use a laugh right now!)
Sing it!
Use Legos or dolls to tell the story
2. Tell your kids that our scripture is full of parables today. Parables are examples, stories, or metaphors Jesus used to teach us more about God. If you have younger children, you might want to stop in between parables to discuss or pick just one or two.
3. Discussion Questions (as always, pick and choose which questions you’d like to discuss!):
What do you think of when you hear “Kingdom of Heaven”?
Do you think we can have the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth? What does it mean for us as Jesus followers to build the Kingdom of Heaven? Is that hard or easy work?
Of the parables we just read, which one is your favorite? What do you like about it?
4. Close in Prayer: God, thank you for our story teller, Jesus! We love learning about You in new and different ways. Help us to build Your Kingdom on Earth! In Jesus’ Name, Amen.
~ Erynne DeVore, director of Children’s Ministry