Handy Words of Life

Today's Activity:

An Bible bookmark or mobile to help children know the Bible so that they can understand, memorise and obey God's Word and commands.

Materials Needed:

For each child:
A4 sheet of coloured thin cardboard.
Pencil.
Scissors.
Koki pens.

Making the Hand:

The children should place their hand on the cardboard and then lightly trace around their fingers. They can then cut out the image (for younger children draw a simple outline around their hand for them to cut out). Starting with the thumb, let the children write the words: "Read", "Hear", "Study", "Meditate" (or "Think About"), and "Memorise" on each finger respectively. To hang up the hand as a mobile, punch a hole in the wrist and tie a length of string or ribbon to it.

Introduction:

How do we know how to please God and treat Him as holy? We need to know and obey the Bible, God's Word. The Bible teaches us about God, and if we obey Him, we will come to know Jesus as our Best Friend, Lord and Saviour, and then please God in all we do and say.

Let's think about the hands that you have made. The thumb says that we must "Read" the Bible or have someone read it to us. The first finger says that we must "Hear" what the Bible says. Hearing means that we obey it by doing what it says!

To do this our middle finger says that we need to "Study" the Bible so that we can understand it or have someone explain it to us. And our ring finger says that we need to "Meditate" on what we have read or heard. This means that we need to "Think About" it so that we can work out what the passage means to us and what we need to do or change in our lives.

Lastly, our first finger says that we need to "Memorise" verses so that the Holy Spirit can apply them to our lives and bring them to our attention in the future.

I hope you will use the cardboard hands that you have made. Keep it in your Bible as a book mark or hang it up in your bedroom. And as Peter said to Jesus, "You have the words of eternal life" (John 6:68), so I've called your hands, "Handy Words of Life". For if you do what your hand says, you will come to love the Bible, and God will bless your life, and welcome you into Heaven when you die!

God bless.