Being Content In Our Lives

(Hebrews 13:5)

I came across a lesson not long ago regarding being content in our lives. I don't know about you, but life around our house can get fairly crazy at times. It is all too easy to get caught up in all the things we think we must have, must do, must achieve. Hebrews 13:5 is a good lesson to help refocus our sights.

My goal each week is to give kids a memory visual to tuck away in their memory banks for future reference. Today's craft is all about their memory visual. I hope from now on, whenever they see an owl, they will remember God's words, "I will never leave you; I will never run away from you." Be sure to point out to them the "Owl = I will" connection, just in case they don't immediately get it.

Yes, I originally saw the owl pillow box on - you guessed it - Pinterest! But, to be honest, I've seen it so many times, in a multitude of variations, that there is not one specific one for me to link back to... and I have never seen one that used it in connection with a bible verse, so I'll just give that little disclaimer and let that be that. :)

Materials:

Assorted decorative papers
heart punch
circle punch
glue or spray adhesive
black sharpie or black paper
toilet paper tube
gummy worms (shown above)
Preprinted bible verse (shown below)

Instructions:

1) Cut a decorative piece of paper to fit around the toilet paper roll.

2) Spray adhesive on the back and wrap around toilet paper roll. I prefer some form of spray adhesive, but any glue is fine.

3) To fold the tube into the owl shape, very gently press the tube so it just begins to flatten. Do not over-do-it here. The purpose is to make it easier to get the top and bottom folds aligned the same. Gently push in the center of the top edge on one side to get it to fold down. Do the same on the other side. Repeat on the bottom.

4) Punch two heart shapes out of decorative paper - one for the chest and one for the wings. Simply cut one heart in half to form the wings.

5) Glue chest heart and wings into place.

6) Punch a third heart for the beak. Use only the bottom point of the heart. Discard the upper portion of the heart.

7) Glue beak into place.

8) Punch two white circles for the eyes. I did not have a solid black piece of paper handy so we used a black sharpie to color in the black pupil of the eyes. Either way is fine.

9) Glue eyes into place.

10) Glue the preprinted verse along the back of the owl.

11) Fill with gummy worms. 
             (I don't usually do food treats since there are so many allergies 
             in our church, but I don't know of any issues with gummy worms, 
              and this is so cute that I gave in to it this time.)

NOTE:  All images, text and printables contained herein are copyright protected. This material is for your personal use only. I encourage you to print or pin from this site whenever you would like as long as it is credited and linked back to EasyBreezySundaySchool.blogspot.com. Failure to link back and credit my site constitutes a copyright violation.  Thanks so much!

Prayer Cross

During the summer of 2012, my daughter and I visited a restaurant at the beach that gave me an idea. The restaurant had something called a Wishing Wall. Ever seen one? The whole wall was filled with tiny cubbies. Everyone was invited to write a wish on a colored piece of paper, roll it up, and stick it inside a cubby.  The different colored papers made the most beautiful abstract artwork!

I decided to make a cross with cubbies and have the kids write a prayer on their paper on the first day of Sunday school with the instructions that we would read them on the last day of class and discuss their outcomes. It took several weeks to completely fill the cross because I wanted to make sure everyone had an opportunity to write at least one prayer. There was really only one rule: the prayer had to be for someone else. We actually began reading the prayers about a month before the last day because I didn’t want to miss anyone who may be leaving for an early vacation.

I was quite pleased with how it all turned out. For those whose prayers were answered—well, isn’t God wonderful! For those whose prayers were not answered, we talked about how God’s plans are not always our plans. It was a wonderful segue into having faith that God knows best. Two people who had prayers that were not answered shared stories of how the unanswered prayer turned out to be the best thing. Again, isn’t God wonderful! 

This exercise teaches children to focus on looking to God for help, strength and understanding not just for ourselves, but for others as well. We see through answered prayers that God hears us. It draws us closer to Him and strengthens our faith and trust in Him. 

It's important to talk about how not all prayers are answered. Sometimes we can see later how that was the best thing, but sometimes we still don't understand why our prayers were not answered. This is where trust is so important. We have to remember that God always does the right thing, and although we don't understand it right now, He loves us deeply and is doing what is best for us. 

This would also be a great learning tool to use at home with the whole family, or with homeschoolers, play groups, and youth groups of all ages.  

Materials needed:

            6 wooden boxes (I found mine at Michael’s for just a few
                  dollars)

            15 toilet paper rolls (cut in half) or as many as needed to fill
                  your boxes

            Hot glue gun & glue

            Yarn or cord for hanging

            Command hook for hanging

            Strips of colored paper

  

1.  Glue boxes together in a cross pattern.

     2. Glue toilet paper halves in place.
3. Glue cord to back for hanging.

I think it’s prettier with the paper rolled tighter, so next time I’ll probably add pieces of cardboard in an X shape inside the toilet paper compartments to divide them into 4 smaller spaces each. I only had 12 kids last year, so I kept them large and we each had at least two prayers.

We hung our cross on the classroom door for everyone to enjoy.

NOTE: All images, text and printables contained herein are copyright protected. This material is for your personal use only. I encourage you to print or pin from this site whenever you would like as long as it is credited and linked back to EasyBreezySundaySchool.blogspot.com. Failure to link back and credit my site constitutes a copyright violation. Thanks so much!