Aim to understand how happy God feels when a person stops doing wrong and returns to God
Aim
to understand how happy God feels when a person stops doing wrong and returns to God
Materials
Visual aids – a picture of the parable
Story – The Parable of the Lost Coin (from Luke 15: 8.10)
worksheets
scissors, glue
Lesson Outline
1. Introduction
2. Story
3. Discussion
4. Activities – find the coins games, sing a song, worksheets
5. Review the aims
6. Prayer
1) Introduction
Hide ten coins for the children to find. Hide nine of them in fairly easy places. Hide the tenth in a more difficult place. When the tenth is found how does everyone feel? What places did you search?
2) Story
The Parable of the Lost Coin – Luke 15: 8.10
Suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it?
And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’
In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.
3) Discussion
1. How many silver coins did the woman have altogether? – 10
2. What did she do to find the missing one? – lit the lamp, swept the house and searched carefully
3. What did she do when she found the coin? She called her friends and rejoiced with them.
4. How did you feel when you found all the coins?
5. Have you lost something special to you and after a long time found it? How did you feel?
6. How do your parents feel when you do something wrong, but later say sorry?
7. How does God feel when a person stops doing wrong and returns to God?
* This story teaches us how happy God feels when this happens. This makes God even happier than when good people do good things. It also shows how much God loves each person, including
people who do wrong things.
* It is also important to say sorry when you do wrong. God wants to give us a big hug, but first we have feel sorry for what we did.
4) Activities
Find the Coins Games
*Give each child three coins. Have them roll one on the ground. Then ask them if they would like to find the one they lost. They’ll answer yes. Then ask. “Don’t you like the ones you have?” “Yes,” they’ll answer, “but we want the other one, too.” Explain that God feels the same way about us. He loves everyone, but He misses those who go away from him, and will give a lot to find them.
*Bury one coin for each child in a jar of sand. Children reach in and feel around until they find one.
*Play Hide and Seek with chocolate coins – Let your children take turns hiding a coin and having the other children try to find it. The child who finds the coin gets to keep it. Keep playing until all the children have found a coin.
Sing a Song
* Sing “Ten Little Coins” to the tune of “Mary Had a Little Lamb”
Worksheets
* Colour the picture. Cut out coins and stick them under the rug.
* Help the woman find her lost coin. Color the spaces that have stars.
* Help the woman find her coin in the maze
5) Review the aims
to understand how happy God feels when a person stops doing wrong and returns to God
6) Prayer
* Say a prayer to thank God for loving us even when we do wrong
