Brother jealousy (deeds of David day 21)

2 Samuel 13-15 recounts some of David's consequences from his sin with Bathsheba and Uriah. As Nathan had promised, violence became well known in David's house. In this case, one of David's sons Absolam plans and kills his brother Amnon. Amnon was in line to be King and Absolam was not content to simply be a prince.

We again stressed the importance of being thankful for what God has given to us, and not being greedy or jealous. For this activity we filled a plastic storage box with water. Then we balanced two peanut butter lids facing up in the water (can you tell we eat a lot of peanut butter in our house.) I got the change bowl out and assigned each of the kids one PB lid. I told them that they could place any coin and any number of coins in their lid. Whatever they got in their lid they would be able to keep. However, if the lid and coins sank, they would not receive the money. It definately proved to be a hard task- a battle between wanting more money and knowing when to stop. Von is older and so he knew money value and went for the big quarters. However, he over did it and the lid sank :( After seeing this, Alyse used smaller coins, and decided she had enough before it sank. It was a hard, yet applicable lesson.

the point? be content with what you have

Bathsheba (deeds of David day 20)

The Action Bible handles the story of Bathsheba, from 2 Samuel 11, very tastefully. It was not inappropriate for my 8 and 6 year old who are not yet ready for the details. It tells of how King David wanted Bathsheba to be his wife, so he arranges for her husband Uriah to be killed. It also goes into Nathan confronting David and David's tearful repentance. We discussed coveting, jealousy, stealing, greed, and basically wanting what someone else has to the point of sin. We also discussed David's repentance, God's forgiveness, and the long term consequences of David's sin.

Choosing an activity was also a bit difficult so we recounted the "story" that Nathan told David when confronting him. The story about a rich man taking a poor man's only sheep to feed his guests. We made a batch of "peanut butter kisses" together. You can use any treat but these are fast and we had the ingredients on hand.

By hand, mix together:
1 cup peanut butter
1/2 cup honey
2 cups nonfat dry milk powder
Form 1 inch balls and then roll the balls in powdered sugar... eat!

Then I told each child they could choose ONE to eat. However, before they actually got it in their mouth, I took it and ATE it! They were shocked. We talked about the poor man (and Uriah) who was left with nothing. After they seemed to feel the affects, I did let them eat another one :)

the point? God gives us everything we need and so many extra blessings, we should be thankful (not covetous or greedy.)

Through the sewers (deeds of David day 18)

Today's story is from 2 Samuel 5 and 1 Chronicles 11. I love the background The Action Bible gives about why David wanted to take over Jerusalem to be the capital city. I am sure I have heard this story before but I had never seen the context of it, it is so fun to learn more about God's story. Anyway, Jerusalem was a well-protected, walled city that did not belong to Israel. There was virtually no way to defeat them. So, David and his men enter the city through the outgoing sewer tunnels, ewww. Once inside the wall, they open the gates and let the rest of the Israelite army in to take over the city.

We constructed CLEAN tunnels to crawl through. We lined up the dining room chairs and hung a sheet over them so they were darkened. The kids enjoyed crawling through the tunnel and acting out the story.

The point? sometimes God wins by miraculous power, and sometimes he wins by giving brilliant ideas to his people

David crowned King of Israel (deeds of David day 17)

In 2 Samuel 3-5, The rest of the civil war between David and Ish-Bosheth (Saul's son,) is recounted. Some were skeptical when Abner, who at first defended Ish-Bosheth, changed his support to David. Joab, commander of David's army, had a personal vendetta against Abner. Joab tricked Abner and murdered him, which made David furious and nervous. However, since Ish-Bosheth no longer had military support, David is made King over all of Israel.

We played the classic card game "battle" for our activity. We tried it with different number of cards to start with. For example, we divided 12 cards between two players. Each player kept their cards face down. On 3, each player turned their top card face up. The player with the highest number kept both of the cards. Play continued until one player accumulated all the cards. Just as David reigned over all the tribes of Israel.

the point? God is the hero

King David (Expecting Christmas)

Ruth and Boaz gave birth to baby Obed. He grew up and had a son named Jesse. Jesse then had many sons, the youngest of whom was none other than King David. David was known as a man after God's heart. He loved and feared the Lord God. He had an amazing relationship with God that is so fun to read about. There is obviously too much to cover about King David so we just touched on his heart for God. God promised David that his descendants would continue to be King...and many years (28 generations) later Jesus was born, as King over all Kings!

David wrote many of the Psalms as songs of prayer and praise to God. So for our activity we tried to make up some new Christmas songs about Jesus. Then we sang some common Christmas songs. In the video Von is singing to the tune of "Feliz Navidad." He is shy in the video but all the kids enjoy dancing to this tune. The words are:

We've waited with hope
We've waited for joy
We've waited for love
for our savior to be born... repeat

The promised savior has finally come
The promised savior has finally come
The promised savior has finally come
To save us from our sins...repeat

I am sure you and your kiddos can come up with others. Just pick a favorite tune and think about how the people may have been feeling. Ring some bells and do a fun dance to celebrate.

The Good Shepherd (day 25)

Sally Lloyd-Jones tells a little about King David beginning on page 130. She talks about David having a loving heart like God, singing praises to God, and even murdering someone. She paraphrases Davids humble repentance and then tells Psalm 23 to give a feel for David's psalms. We made instruments to sing praises with. We wrapped rubber bands around a box lid to make a harp. We also clanged spoons together and attempted a wax-paper-comb-harmonica. We sang our memory verse (see day 21 to learn 1 Samuel 16:7) as well as some other psalm songs we knew like Psalm 100. I attempted to teach them David's repentant song "create in me a clean heart."

the point? the Lord looks at the heart

David and Goliath continued (day 24)

Another activity we did to emphasize the story was to make a ribbon as tall as Goliath. Since Goliath was about 9 feet tall we used a 1 foot ruler to mark off each foot (up to 9 of course.) This actually was also great exposure to some real life math/science skills. We then taped the ribbon to the wall and marked how tall each of us are in comparison. It is easy to see why the Israelites were afraid and why David needed God to win the battle.

the point? God is not afraid

The young hero and the horrible giant (day 23)

David and Goliath, from 1 Samuel 17, is retold on page 122 of the Jesus Storybook Bible. After reading the story we built "Goliath" out of empty cardboard boxes. Whoever was "David" would say "you come against me with sword and spear... but I come against you in the name of the LORD Almighty," (from 1 Samuel 17:45.) Then David would throw a ball and try to knock over the Goliath tower (rocks would be better to use but it was raining outside.) Alyse asked "how could just a little rock kill him?" This was a great way to talk about how big the miracle was.

the point? "...and God always wins his battles!" (page 125)

1 Samuel 16:7 (day 21)

The big kids are staying with their grandparents a few days so we aren't really having Bible time since Knox is only 14 months. Knox does enjoy singing though (he doesn't really sing so much :) so I thought I would share some ways we try to remember Bible verses. Our verse from Friday we put to the tune of "Mary had a little lamb."

Man looks at the outward appearance (Mary had a little lamb)
outward appearance (little lamb)
outward appearance (little lamb)
man looks at the outward appearance (Mary had a little lamb)
but the Lord looks at the heart (his fleece was white as snow)
1 Samuel 16:7 (repeat tune of "his fleece was white as snow)

The teeny, weenie...true king (day 20)

The story of David being chosen as King of Israel is on page 116 of the Jesus Storybook Bible. This account is found in 1 Samuel 16 The emphasis is really on God's words in 1 Samuel 16 :7 when he says "man looks at the outward appearance but the Lord looks at the heart." We found some bananas and agreed they didn't look too yummy to eat from the outside. But when we peeled them the story changed. We tried to talk about the type of heart that would be pleasing to the Lord. Kiwi's and watermelon would be other great examples of things that look very different on the inside. We also played duck duck goose but instead said no no yes to pretend we were going through Jesse's sons picking a king.

the point? the Lord looks at the heart