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How is your summer going? What have you been getting up to?
Whether you are home with your family or have been able to do some travelling we're so glad that right now you are here with us! Let's begin our time together with some songs, push play and let's get started! Music Video: Fairest Lord Jesus from DIG IN on Vimeo.
This is week 4 of learning about the commandments God gave to Moses, and to us. They are things God tells us we must do to keep us safe and healthy. This week we are learning about the Sabbath.
Today we are going to add another sign to this road of ours... 
Click on the image to print off this sign for your road 
This street sign has a picture of a resting person. Today we'll be learning that it keeps us healthy to have a special day to rest with God, and this sign reminds us to have a special time with God.
Our weeks can get busy, especially at this time of year with vacations or days spent outside playing. That’s why it’s important that we have a special day for God.
How does your family keep track of everything that’s going on? Does your family keep a calendar, or a whiteboard of everyone's activities in the kitchen? Let’s take a look at a busy family and see what their week looks like.
Which day of the week seemed like the best day to you in this video?
What’s the busiest day of the week for your family? What’s your favorite thing to with your family? This family knew that we have a special day for God. Every Sunday, they paused their busy schedule and spent time together and with God. It seemed like they had a lot more fun being together on Sunday! That’s how great it can be when we have a special day for God. Game/Activity
Be Busy
Sometimes our lives get really, really busy. For example, maybe you have soccer practice and you have to run laps. While you’re running laps, don’t forget about your math homework! Do these math problems in your head and shout out the answers.
Okay, you’ve finished your laps, but you need to practice spelling. And while you’re at it, do jumping jacks! Now spell these words aloud.
Keep those jumping jacks going! You’ve finished with spelling, but you need to keep doing jumping jacks while pretending to make your bed. (Pause and let them do that for a while.)
Hurry up! You’re going to miss the bus! Take off your shoes, put them back on, and run to the door. (Pause. Just as kids are arriving at the door but before they get a chance to breathe, say:)When you get home from school, don’t forget that you need to practice your trumpet! Make trumpet noises while running in place. (As kids are running in place, say:) Oh no! You forgot to do your chores! You need to vacuum right now! Pretend to push a vacuum while hopping on one foot. (Allow about a minute for kids to vacuum on one foot, and then say:) Well, there’s just one thing left to do: Look around and make sure we didn’t forget anything. But do it quickly by spinning in a circle five times. Then you can sit down. BIBLE LESSON
How did it feel to be so busy doing so much?
How does it feel to sit and rest after all that activity? Our lives can be crazy, like the experience you just went through. But you know what? God gave us an awesome gift. One of his big commandments is this.
“You must remember to keep the Sabbath a special day. You may work six days a week to do your job. But the seventh day is a day of rest in honor of the Lord your God. So on that day no one should work—not you, your sons and daughters, or your men and women slaves. Even your animals and the foreigners living in your cities must not work! That is because the Lord worked six days and made the sky, the earth, the sea, and everything in them. And on the seventh day, he rested. In this way the Lord blessed the Sabbath—the day of rest. He made that a very special day."
This commandment means we have a special day for God. Resting doesn’t mean we have to sit around bored and do nothing. Instead, we can look at this day as a special gift from God. Just like getting a chance to sit down was nice after all our busy activity, our special day for God is a nice break from the busyness of the rest of our week.
You can think about it like a holiday. The word holiday started out as the words holy day! What’s your favorite holiday? Why? How do you celebrate that holiday? When we have a special day for God every week, it’s like having a holiday every week! God calls this holiday the Sabbath, and it’s a chance to celebrate what God has done through you that week. And it’s a chance to remember that God is the one who takes care of you—it’s not on you to meet all your needs. In fact, this gift was so important to God that he showed us how to do it! He created the world in six days, and then…
"So the earth, the sky, and everything in them were finished. 2 God finished the work he was doing, so on the seventh day he rested from his work. 3 God blessed the seventh day and made it a holy day. He made it special because on that day he rested from all the work he did while creating the world."
Wow! This Sabbath day is really important to God. And it’s such a great gift for us.
But if having a special day for God doesn’t mean sitting around bored, what does it mean? Let me read part of the commandment again. "But the seventh day is a Sabbath day of rest dedicated to the Lord your God” We have a special day for God that’s dedicated to him. That could include anything that helps us learn more about God and stay connected to him. The other thing to notice about this commandment is that the commandment doesn't specifically say that the Sabbath has to be Sunday. In fact, the Israelites who originally got this commandment observed the Sabbath on Saturday. Today most people think of God’s day as Sunday because that’s the day Jesus came back to life, but others continue to observe Sabbath on Saturday. So you can pick any day of the week that works best for you to be your Sabbath day. But most of the time, church meets on Sunday. How important is it to go to church? Hebrews 10:25 says "We must not quit meeting together, as some are doing. No, we need to keep on encouraging each other." Why is going to church important? God says not to neglect meeting together with other Christians, because we need to encourage each other. So it’s important to go to church. But sometimes we have to make a choice: soccer or hockey game or church? 1 John 5:21 can help us think through that choice "Dear children, keep yourselves from idols." How would you know if a sport or other activity has taken God’s place in your heart? Let’s think about this for a minute. Think of something you spend a lot of time doing that might interfere with going to church or spending time with God. We’ll take one quiet minute to ask God to show you whether that activity has taken God’s place in your heart. God isn't saying that you cannot do those activities, nor is He saying that you can't do those activities the odd time on a Sunday when perhaps we should be in church. He IS saying to be careful not to let those activities become idols in our lives, to become more important than spending time with Him! Here’s the bottom line: The Sabbath is important. Church is important. And God should be first in our hearts. My Sabbath might not look like your Sabbath, but we all need time to rest and refocus on God. If you're looking for some ideas about how to connect with God here are a few you could try out :) Perhaps you could draw a picture that helps you think about who God is. You could keep a journal about what you've learnt about God, or how you've seen him help you through something. You can sing along with worship music, maybe you can dance along with worship music, or you can simple go out touch and feel nature items and spend time thanking God for his creation. CRAFT / Colouring
Since we've been learning that we have a special day for God and that this day is to be used to take a break from other things we do, we're going to make something that can help us be comfortable while we rest and enjoy time with him.
Where is your favorite place to rest? Directions:
God knows we sometimes need to rest and take a break. He gave us a special day to spend time with him and rest. When we use our pillows, we can remember that we have a special day for God. Click on the image below to print off the colouring sheets for this week.
PRAYER
Dear God,
Please help us to remember to take some time out of our week to spend some time with you, whatever that looks like for us. Also help us to remember that it is SO important that even you took time to rest, and that it is also important for us to spend time not just with you, but with other christians so that we can encourage one another. Amen. Comments are closed.
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