God Grants Hannah's Request

This week we emphasized that our All-Powerful God is attentive to His children, as I taught the children what God did for Hannah in sending her a baby. Nothing is impossible for God, and He is the only hope for people in need. (And we are all in need of an "impossible" thing -- salvation!)

We opened our class with a letter-matching game for our verse Psalm 121:8, the final verse of the psalm. Each word of the verse was written on a notecard and included one large colorful letter. The children drew cards, then matched them to cards I had laid out earlier in the proper order. Each time they made a match, we sang the verse. They all did very well, even two of the children who had to look at the letters upside down because of where they were sitting (Mia and Emma)!

To introduce the story, we decorated paper plates with happy faces on one side, and sad faces on the other. I told the children that in today's story we hear about someone who was very sad, but then became VERY happy!

I went back to using the flannel board to tell the story -- this really seems to hold their attention -- and had the children take turns putting up the various characters in Hannah's story.

Then we divided into teams and used a "Four-In-A-Row" game to review the story. I asked questions and if the child got it right, they put a checker in the slot, trying to get four in a row. Our game was lots of fun, and we were all grateful for our class helper Leah who kept things moving along. Both sides did so well that we ended up with a tie!

We enjoyed goldfish crackers for our snacktime and discussed how God always hears our prayers, but He doesn't always answer them "Yes." Sometimes he says "No" or "Wait." We had an interesting discussion about when our parents tell us no or even spank us, and there was some confusion expressed by the children about this. I emphasized that parents say no when what we want is not what is best for us. They spank us when what we are doing will end up hurting us. They do these things because they love us and want what is the very best for us. And that is the same with God. I'm not sure if they grasped this, so it might be a good point to bring up at home.

We spent the rest of our classtime reviewing our memory verses by singing them and playing our musical chairs game. We are getting better and better at this game, which is a favorite and a great way to reinforce the verses. It was a bit hectic, but all in all, a very good night! We didn't get to color our pictures of Hannah and her baby this week, so we will try to do that next time. Looking forward to that!