Josiah’s Cleansing of Judah

Last weekend when we talked to your kids about how to live a life of honesty alot of them said that they would work on being honest.  Take a moment to ask them how it is going!  The Small Group Shepherds did such a great job this weekend of sharing personal stories about choosing the difficult road of honesty and the outcome of their choice.  Your stories have an even bigger impact on your children.  During dinner this week share a “honesty” story with your family.

This weekend we will be learning about perseverance. Most kids probably don’t know what perseverance even means. The definition of perseverance is: a steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.  Josiah had to use persistance through his devotion to God to do the things that he did in our Bible Story (2 Kings 22 & 23.)   Josiah was only 8 when he became king. Can you even imagine? 8?!  As he grew up, Josiah kept his heart fixed on the Lord.  When he saw the temple in disrepair he took all the false idols and articles out of the temple and burned them!  He traveled from place to place, and city to city, and took their false idols and articles out and burned them.  He destroyed their altars and even got rid of false priests.

2 Kings 23:25, struck me when I was reading this story.  I’ve read this story multiple times and this verse always makes me stop and think about how Josiah was such a cool guy. “Neither before nor after Josiah was there a king like him who turned to the LORD as he did- with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his heart and with all his soul and with all his strenght, in accordance with all the Law of Moses.”

What things in your life or your children’s lives do you do with all of your heart, soul, mind, and strength?  Is relationship with God important enough that you make time to see hime with all of your heart?

Family Activity:

King Josiah had a job to do and didn’t give up until it was finished. He had perseverance. God wants you to have perseverance too. Make a chart of the days of the week for each family member. On the chart, write down four things you want to do each day of the week. Choose at least two items from this list: pray for friends, read the Bible, exercise. Each time you spend time doing the three things you chose, mark an X on that day. At the end of the week, discuss with your children how good it felt to check off the things they said they would do. Encourage your children to continue having perseverance each and every day.

Live Out Love – Ridge Kids Style

Last week we learned about David’s Mighty Men and how we can be faithful!  I (Megan) challenged your kids to help a little bit more around the house to show you how much they love you.  How ithat going?  (You can leave a comment!)

This weekend your children are going to learn about a couple of the Partnerships that Ridge Pointsupports.  We will be having an interactive small group experience. We will be teaching them about Zambia, the Dominican Republic, Pullman, and  Mosaic. This is going to give them a better insider look at some things that they have already done to Live Out Love!

A week ago while searching for other resources we stumbled on this great online blog/family lessons for parent’s to teach their children outside of our church walls. It’s through Focus on the Family Canada and it’s a great tool to have in your arsenal. The activity’s that went home on the Take Home papers from the classrooms are all adapted from this website. Here is the .pdf of the generosity lesson. Read it, live it, let it grow your faith as well as your childrens! Click here to read!

David’s Mighty Men

In the Elementary area of Ridge Kids last weekend we learned about being humble through the story of King Uzziah from 2nd Chronicles. Ok, be honest how many of you have ever heard about this Bible Story before? It’s an uncommon Bible Story but it’s a good lesson to rememeber to not let your pride take over.

This weekend the Elementary kids are going to be learning about what it means to be loyal through the Bible Story of David’s mighty men from 2nd Samuel 23:8-17.

Now, this particular story might not be very exciting for your kids.  (Lots and lots of names!)  It is still a valuable story because David and his mighty men did some amazing things through the power of God. These warriors would do anything for David and this story fully illustrates their loyality to him. David asked “The Three” to go get him some water from the well that was by the gate of Bethlehem.  During the trip they fought the Philistines and broke their lines, got David his water and returned. David didn’t drink the water, he gave it as a offering to God saying, ” The LORD forbids that I should drink this! This water is as precious as the blood of these men who risked their lives to bring it to me.” He poured the water on the ground to show how much he loved them.

Normally being loyal doesn’t mean fighting warriors to get a drink of water!  Think about some of the battles that you face in a day.  Who stays by your side no matter what? Is it a friend, your spouse, co-worker, family member?  Whomever thank God for their loyalty!  It is an amazing gift.

 Family Activity

Loyalty Plants

David’s men who helped him and followed him were loyal to him. They didn’t stop doing what they said they would do or give up when things seemed hard. This week, buy some plants or flowers at your local store and plant them in pots as a family. Have one pot of flowers for each family member and write his or her name on the pot. Read the instructions for caring for the plants out loud. Each family member should be faithful to take care of his or her own potted plant throughout the week. Encourage your family to faithfully follow the instructions and make sure that the plants are well taken care of. Just like David’s men were loyal, God wants us to be loyal also.

King Uzziah enters the Temple

Last week we learned about Salvation and Repentance through the story of Jesus dying on the cross for our sins. We are so excited to share with you that 36 kids asked God to be their Rescuer for the first time last weekend! PRAISE GOD!

This weekend your children are going to learn about King Uzziah and his very bad decision from 2 Chronicles 26.  He allowed pride to take root in his life.

Pride is unique in that it attacks us at the best times of our lives.  Pride shows up after the big win. Pride comes gift wrapped in sucess. But if we let pride take hold, it can lead us to the worst times of our lives. Pride removes our ability to listen to advice. It lessens our natural warnings about consequences. It makes us see ourselves as different from others, deserving of special treatment and able to make our own rules. Once that happens, it is only a matter of time before we fall. And the more proud we become, the more destructive and dangerous the fall will be..

King Uzziah’s fall was devastating. He was a famous and powerful King, who destroyed enemy armies and towns, and had success in everything he touched. Because of pride he became an infected outcast, quarantined and living in isolation, unable to continue ruling the nation. All these consequences were caused by pride. Uzziah thought he could ignore the rules. He did not listen to advice. He thought he was above that.

Our only defense from pride is humility. But, not the false humility that we see so often in people who use self-depricating remarks as a way of begging a compliment from others. Behavior like this gives humility a bad reputation. We think of it as downplaying our skills. Or, we see it as passing up credit that we deserve. But, true humility is actually about truth. If we are honest about our abilities and about God, who gives them to us, we will not become proud, but thankful. It is when we start to claim ownership of our skills and celebrate our victories as coming from our own cleverness and power that we start to become victims of pride. Don’t falsely downplay or insult yourself to seem humble. Do and be your best. Give thanks to God. And, remember that you are never above listening to warnings and advice from others. Especially if those giving the warnings are people who follow God. (Taken from Elevate, Power Up Lesson 5 Teacher Devotional)

 Family Acitivity:

Humble Cookies

King Uzziah was very proud of himself and his abilities and he thought he didn’t have to obey God’s rules. He thought too much of himself and his abilities. God wants us to be humble and realize our abilities come from Him and we should use them to help others. Bake cookies together as a family. On the bottom side of each cookie, use icing to write one ability or strength you can think of that God has given you. Then, squish the icing side of two cookies together to make a Humble Cookie Sandwich. Place each family member’s cookies into a separate plastic sandwich bag. We could have written our abilities on the top of the cookies to brag about them, but God does not want us to brag about our abilities. Instead, we should use our abilities to worship Him and bless others. These cookies will be twice as delicious because they are stuck together with the icing we used on the bottom of the cookies. Have each family member share his or her cookies with another family member or a friend by giving his or her bag of cookies away.