Lesson 12: God wants us to...love and obey Him

During the summer, my husband has Fridays off (yay!) and I had a hair appointment today, so I let daddy teach the lesson today while I was gone!  I prepared everything for him (and instructed him about what pictures I needed him to take for the blog!) and let them roll!  I think they had fun, but he told me later that the glitter on the table was a big distraction and she was really anxious to get to the craft!  Oh well!

1. Verse - "You shall love the Lord your god with all your heart."  Mark 12:30

*As I was writing this post I also found this verse that may be a little better for this lesson..."This is love for God: to obey his commands." 1John 5:3   You may want to use that one instead!

2.  Lesson -

• Pray with your child about the lesson.
• Review all the Bible verses (if you want to!) and introduce the new verse.
• Review the story of Adam and Eve and the very first sin. 
• Before you learned that God made us, He loves us, He takes care of us, He sees us and He hears us.
• God wants us to love Him back and obey Him.
• God made Adam and Eve and he made them to love him back.
• They could choose to love God and obey Him.
• They made a mistake when they ate the fruit that God told them not to eat.  They made a mistake, but they still loved God and He still loved them.
• God loves us so, so much.  He takes care of us and he knows what's best for us!  So, he wants us to love him back and obey him.
• This is just like mommy and daddy.  We love you so, so much!  We work hard to keep you safe and we know what's best for you.  So, we want you to love us and obey us.

3.  Craft -  Glitter heart craft

materials - construction paper, marker, white glue (like Elmers), glitter

The night before, write/draw this on a piece of construction paper:

Then, let you child trace the heart with glue and shake glitter onto it!  Simple, yet fun!  (If you do the glitter on a cookie sheet, it's a little less messy!)

 So, this is what I intended the finished craft to look like and this is the picture my husband took of the "finished product":

But, let's be honest here...He works in elementary education and he doesn't do any craft half-way...this is what was actually on my kitchen table when I came home from my hair appointment:

Haha!  So, feel free to let loose and enjoy the glitter, friends! 


4.  Song:  You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart.

So, I learned this song many, many years ago when I helped with a kids camp in high school.  Unfortunately, I couldn't find it online!  But here are the words:
"You shall love the Lord your God, with all your heart, with all your heart.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and soul, and mind.
And you shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.
You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and soul, and mind."

It is such a sweet little song that I wanted to teach it to Jenna.  Since my husband was doing the lesson (and he didn't know the song) I actually recorded a video on his phone of me singing the song.  I'm sharing it with you in case you want to learn the song!  Please keep in mind, I am NOT a singer!!  But, hopefully it will give you the basic tune!

5.  End by reviewing the new verse one more time!