When Abraham travelled to the land of Canaan, he took with him all his servants and everything that he owned.  He had lots of stuff, because he was very rich and had lots of tents, lots of silver and gold, herds of sheep, and herds of cattle!  Abraham's nephew, Lot had travelled with Abraham and the problem was that he also had lots of servants and lost of animals.

Between all their sheep there was hardly enough grass and water to go around.  And before long, they realised that there just wasn't enough for Lot and Abraham to stay in the same place.  Even worse, their shepherds and herdsmen began to quarrel and fight over the best pastures.

It's not good for boys and girls to quarrel and fight is it? (Let the children respond).  No, so Abraham and Lot decided that they would have to separate and stay in different places.

Since Abraham was older, he had the right to choose first where he wanted to live.  But he didn't want to argue over land, so Abraham allowed Lot to choose first where he wanted to stay.  Lot looked around and saw the beautiful Jordan valley towards the East.  "Hah!" he thought, "That's the best land and now I will get rich!"

Poor Abraham was left with the rugged hills and not much water.  But, it was decided and Abraham would stay in Canaan while Lot would move near to the city of Sodom.  Lot couldn't wait to grab all the rich fertile plains near Sodom!  But, he didn't realise that the men there were very wicked.  Do you think Lot made a good choice? (Let the children respond).

Before too long a war broke out between the kings that lived near Lot and he and his family were taken prisoners and all of their possessions were stolen!  When Abraham heard the terrible news he knew he had to do something about it, because he was Lot's uncle!

So he called together 318 of his trained servants and set out to rescue Lot and his family.  Do you think your Mom and Dad would like to have so many servants? (Let the children respond).  Anyway, with God's help, Abraham defeated those kings and rescued Lot, his family and all their possessions.

Lot didn't realise that he had made a very bad choice in choosing the Jordan plains near Sodom.  Because of all the wicked people there, God destroyed the city with fire and all the bad people died.  Even Lot's wife was turned into a pillar of salt and died when she turned back to the city, and poor Lot lost all his possessions!

Abraham had made a good choice and God said to Abraham after Lot had moved away, "Look to the north and south, east and west.  All the land that you see I will give to you and your offspring forever.  I will make your offspring as numerous as the dust of the earth.  Go and walk through the length and breadth of the land, for I am giving it to you."

God wants us to make good choices.  If you choose to disobey your parents, or be naughty, or shout and scream, those are bad choices.  If we ask God, He will help us make good choices.

God can help you to decide to be good and listen to your parents and obey them.  You can choose be helpful, to be kind to other people and to be polite. If you make good decisions and choices like this, then they will please God.

Think about the choices and decisions you made this past week.  Were they good?  Or were they bad?  Let's ask Jesus to help each one of you make some good choices today.

God bless!