Nursery At Home

As we are now able to gather in person consistently, we are going to take a break in providing the Nursery At Home curriculum. We will leave the past lessons up, as an archive and we encourage you to look back through if you are needing some inspiration for sharing Jesus with your little one! Should the mandates change, we will pick this back up and provide lessons again.

July 25th Nursery At Home

The Bible is Alive

Ask your child, do you remember what we talked about last week? We talked about how the Bible is true, no matter how crazy it seems. We talked about how because it is true, we can trust God and obey Him.

Not only is the Bible true, but it is alive! Do you know what it means to be alive? It means to be living, like you and me, we are both alive. It may be silly to think about a book being alive, because there are no other books (or objects) that are alive, but the Bible is!

Share the verse with your child.

Hebrews 4:12

“For the word of God is living and active.”

Because God is alive and a part of our daily lives, His word lives on forever. Even the stories that seem to not make sense, they have a purpose in our lives today. We can pray to God to help us understand the parts that don’t make sense.

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Thank you God for giving us the Bible, help us to understand the parts that don’t make sense and learn from them.

Coloring Sheet: Just like flowers are alive, so is the Bible! Download the coloring sheet here.

Video: God’s Story: The Bible

July 18th Nursery At Home

The Bible Is True

Last week, we talked about the Bible being a letter from God. This means that not only is it inspired by God, but it is all true! No matter how crazy it may seem, it’s all true. Sometimes there may be things that seem hard to believe, like Jonah being swallowed by a whale or Jesus dying on the cross and rising from the dead, but because the Bible comes from God, it’s all true.

Ask your child, has it ever been hard for you to believe something? Maybe it could be something you’ve read in a story or something a friend told you. It may or may not be true depending on the person who told you. That is not like the Bible though, because of who God is, we can believe it all, even when it’s hard.

Because we can believe it all, that means we can use it to obey God and follow His plan for our life.

Share the verse with your child,

Psalm 119:16

I enjoy obeying your demands.
And I will not forget your word.

We need to remember what God says in the Bible to be able to obey Him and it will make up happy to obey Him! How cool is that?!

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Thank you God for giving us the Bible and for it being true. We love that we can trust you.

Scripture Memorization: This week, try working on memorizing this verse with your child(ren). You can just do one part or the other. Remind your child that when we remember God’s word, it is easier and more joyful to obey Him.

Song & Dance Video:

July 11th Nursery At Home

The Bible is a Letter from God

Share with verse with your child.

Verse: 2 Timothy 3:16 ICB

All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful for teaching and for showing people what is wrong in their lives. It is useful for correcting faults and teaching how to live right.

Ask your child, did you know that the bible is a letter directly from God? It can sometimes be confusing because it wasn’t physically written down by God, but it was inspired by Him. God inspired many people to write down the work that He was doing a long long time ago, so that we could have it to understand Him better! It’s like having some really old stories from grandma or grandpa (or whatever the equivalent is in your family) that tell us about all the cool or sometimes hard things that happened in their lives.

Not only is the Bible inspired by God, but it is meant to inspire us to follow Him on how to live. It is there to help us figure out how what the right way for us to live is! We can respond to this letter in many ways, through singing to God, or writing a letter back, or even praying! There are so many options!

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Thank you God for giving us a letter that helps us to live our life the best way and that we can respond to, we love you!

Coloring Sheet: We are having some technical difficulties this week, so instead of a download, I encourage you to draw an open book on a blank sheet for your child to use for this activity. Have your child color or draw whatever their response to the letter from God is! Encourage them to draw things they love or help them to write some words.

Video: God’s Story: The Bible

July 4th Nursery At Home

God of Grace

This week we are going to look over part of the story of Jonah, as referenced by Levi in the sermon, as a reminder to how much God loves us and cares for us. All it takes is one move towards God to experience His grace!

Share the story summary with your child. There was a guy named Jonah who God had asked to go to this town called Nineveh. In Nineveh, they were not very good listeners, they did a lot of bad things. God wanted Jonah to go there to remind them of how good it is to be friends with God. Jonah went there and shared that reminder and the people of the town changed their ways.

Verse: Jonah 3:10 ICB

God saw what the people did. He saw that they stopped doing evil things. So God changed his mind and did not do what he had warned. He did not punish them.

Ask your child, do you know how many times it takes of doing right to earn God’s forgiveness? Only one! God gives us grace (which means not giving us what we deserve based on our actions)! The people of Nineveh has been doing wrong for so long, but once they heard Jonah’s message, they decided to change their ways and do things for God. God responded by loving them, even though they have been doing wrong for so long. How awesome is our God!

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Dear God, thank you that you offer us grace, even when we have done wrong. We ask for more of your grace today.

Coloring Sheet: Download the coloring sheet here.

Video: What is grace

June 27th Nursery At Home

God Calls Us To Action

Politics is a difficult conversation for adults, so sharing it with children is no easy task. Given that most young children don’t have deep understanding (thankfully) of the politic system of our country or the debates that are so common, I think it best to approach this topic from a bird’s eye view.

• Johanna

Share with your child, when we choose to believe in Jesus, that means a lot of things! It means that we have a best friend forever, we always have a reason to be joyful, and we are asked to do some things, things that we may not always want to do.

Ask your child, what’s something you really don’t like to do (i.e. chores, sharing, etc)? There are a lot of things that adults don’t like doing either (share some of your own ideas). All of these things we shared are good and important. A lot of the things that you don’t like to do, you do them because we (mom/dad/guardian) ask you to. You want to be a good listener and I want to do that same too! There’s a verse that tells us a few things that God asks us to do.

Verse: 1 Colossians 4:5-6 ICB

“5 Be wise in the way you act with people who are not believers. Use your time in the best way you can. 6 When you talk, you should always be kind and wise.”

This verse tells us that we should be smart about how we interact with those around us, especially those that don’t know Jesus like we do. We should be kind, bring peace, and remind of Jesus’ love! We can do all of that through Jesus!

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Thank you God for giving us direction on how to live and for helping us to love those around us!

Coloring Sheet: Remind your child(ren) that we can use our time wisely and that Jesus gives us all the time we need! Download the sheet here.

Video Story: A reading of Be Kind (starts at 1:00)

June 20th Nursery At Home

God is Our (Heavenly) Father

As Father’s Day comes and goes, it is a great time to remind our little ones that God is our Heavenly Father! It is such an important part of our understanding of the character of God. This is so important, as a way to understand why and how God disciplines His children in love. I see and feel for all who have strained or no relationship with their fathers, as well as the little ones in your life who don’t. I encourage you to take this time to encourage yourself and your child(ren) in the perfect father we have in God.

Share the verse with your child.

Deuteronomy 1:31 ICB

“And in the desert you saw how the Lord your God carried you. He was like a man carrying his son. And he has brought you safely all the way to this place.”

Ask your child, what are you favorite qualities of your dad (or dad figure)? Did you know that God acts as our dad? Even better than that, He is perfect, so He will never mess up! Our dads here on earth (like you dad or father figure) have and will mess up because we are all only human, but God never will! We can always look to him to care for us in the most perfect way! How awesome is that! God has all the favorite qualities you listed and so many more!

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Thank you God for being my perfect dad and for always loving me just how I need to be loved!

Coloring Sheet: Download it here!

Video:

June 6th Nursery At Home

Our Prayers Are Heard in Heaven!

Ask your child, do you know where our prayers go? To Jesus? The God? To Heaven? All of those are correct! Because of Jesus coming to earth, we have access to speak directly to God in heaven! God and Jesus are in heaven and since Jesus was human, He can hear our prayers in a special way!

Verse: Hebrews 10:19-20 ICB

“We are completely free to enter the Most Holy Place…We can enter through a new way that Jesus opened for us. It is a living way.”

Share with your child, the most holy place is like heaven, on earth! This means that through prayer, we experience what heaven is like! The real heaven will be way better, but when we pray to Jesus, we get to experience something amazing! Our prayers make it all the way to heaven in an instant, it’s so fast!

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Thank you Jesus for coming to earth and allowing us to experience a little bit of heaven, through prayer!

Further Discussion Question: What do you think heaven is like? What are some of your favorite things (foods, games, toys, etc.)? Heaven is like all of those things and more!

Activity: Have a little heaven picnic: You and your child(ren) can collect your favorite things and find a space (indoor or outdoor) that is really peaceful, beautiful, calm, etc. and share in prayers and joy together!

Lyric Video: The Lord’s Prayer

May 30th Nursery At Home

God Hears Us, No Matter How We Act

Children are very motivated by fear and behavior, as they grow us being told how to behave and what type of behavior is appropriate. It can be challenging, as a child grows, to fully understand God’s grace for us, amidst a confusing and conflicting culture. It can also be confusing why God will still hear and answer our prayers, even when we aren’t acting our best. I grew up thoroughly confused by these ideas, so I encourage you to think through this concept and consider how it could be (or will be) confusing to your child.

• Johanna

Share with your child, how we have been talking about how we can pray to God and He hears us. He hears us all the time, no matter what. It doesn’t matter whether we have been a good listening that day or whether we ate all of our meal. God still hears us.

Ask your child, do you like to ask someone for something if you have hurt their feelings? Or haven’t been a good listener? It’s not typically something that humans do because we don’t want to ask a parent or friend for something, if we know that they are upset with us. This can be confusing because this is not how God works!

Verse: Hebrews 13:8 (ICB)

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever.

(Feel free to explain that God and Jesus are the same being, if you feel that will be confusing for your child).

God is not different from day to day, based on what is happening or how we have acted. He is consistent! Not only is He the same every day, but He always wants to hear our prayers, no matter how we have acted!

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Thank you God that you are the same every day and not effected by how I act. Please remind me to come to you with my prayers.

Coloring Sheet: Download it here!

Song: Ask, Seek, Knock by Hillsong Kids

May 23rd Nursery At Home

God Answers Our Prayers 

It can be challenging to understand why God doesn’t seem to answer our prayers and it can be even more challenging to explain to little hearts. It is part of the mystery of the trinity and I would encourage you to not be afraid to share with your child that we don’t understand all aspects of God. 

Share with your child, how last week we talked about how God hears our prayers because He wants to know us. One way He gets to know us is through us talking to Him. We also talked about how we can ask God for things. 

Ask your child, what do you think happens when we ask God for something? We don’t always get it. There is many reasons why, but one of the biggest reasons is that God knows what is best for us. He knows before we even tell him. 

Verse: Isaiah 65:24

I will provide for their needs before they ask.
I will help them while they are still asking for help.

God doesn’t need us to pray, He is always going to give us what we need because He knows. That means that we get to pray in order to become closer friends with God. It also means that we won’t always get what we prayed for. 

This is just like when you ask mom or dad for something (like candy before dinner or other relevant metaphor to your family) and we/they say no. It’s because we/they know it’s best to eat dinner before you have candy, so that you don’t get too full to eat the important parts of the meal that help you grow. 

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Thank you God that you know what we need before we even say it. Thank you also that you listen to our prayers even though you already know!

Activity: Revisit your prayer requests from last week and discuss how God answered them. This is a great opportunity to show your child(ren) that sometimes God says “not right now” to prayers. There is a variety of ways that God answers our prayers, so use their requests to discuss them.

Coloring Sheet/Activity: Download the prayer sheet here and help your child fill in their requests/give them some of your own!

May 16th Nursery At Home

God Hears Our Prayers

Share the recap with your child(ren): We’ve been talking about how God is so amazing and created everything; nature, animals, and all of us human beings, in special and unique ways. Not only did God create all of us special, but He wants to hear from us, He wants to know us! Isn’t that awesome?!

Ask your child, what kind of things do you thing God wants us to pray about? All of these things are right because God wants us to pray about whatever we want or think about it! There is nothing that makes God tired or bored of hearing. He loves and sees how unique He made us through our prayers.

Share the verse with your child(ren).

1 Thessalonians 5:17 ICB

“Never stop praying”

God invites us to pray, anytime, anywhere, about anything!

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Thank you God for creating us and for caring about our thoughts! Help us to come to you with more, so that we can know you better!

Activity: I would encourage you to write out 1or 2 prayer requests with your child(ren), so that they can see how God answers prayers. Don’t limit it to something you would view as achievable because if it doesn’t happen, it is a great lesson about how prayer works and how God interacts with us!

Video: On different ways to pray

May 9th Nursery At Home

God Made Girls and Boys Special

In light of Mother’s Day and Levi’s sermon, I thought it would be important to impress upon the children in our lives the special roles that not just women have, but men too. God not only made creation, knows us, but He always made each of us unique, and blessed man and woman with special features that should be celebrated!

Share the story of the creation of Adam and Eve with your child! Feel free to use the video version, as a visual aid to reinforce their understanding of the story. (Stop at 1:55 or continue on to the story of the first sin.)

Verses: Genesis 2:4-25 (ICB)

The First People

4 This is the story of the creation of the sky and the earth. When the Lord God made the earth and the sky, 5 there were no plants on the earth. Nothing was growing in the fields. The Lord God had not yet made it rain on the land. And there was no man to care for the ground. 6 But a mist often rose from the earth and watered all the ground.

7 Then the Lord God took dust from the ground and formed man from it. The Lord breathed the breath of life into the man’s nose. And the man became a living person. 8 Then the Lord God planted a garden in the East, in a place called Eden. He put the man he had formed in that garden. 9 The Lord God caused every beautiful tree and every tree that was good for food to grow out of the ground. In the middle of the garden, God put the tree that gives life. And he put there the tree that gives the knowledge of good and evil.

10 A river flowed through Eden and watered the garden. From that point the river was divided. It had four streams flowing into it. 11 The name of the first stream is Pishon. It flows around the whole land of Havilah, where there is gold. 12 That gold is good. Bdellium and onyx[a] are also there. 13 The name of the second river is Gihon. It flows around the whole land of Cush. 14 The name of the third river is Tigris. It flows out of Assyria toward the east. The fourth river is the Euphrates.

15 The Lord God put the man in the garden of Eden to care for it and work it. 16 The Lord God commanded him, “You may eat the fruit from any tree in the garden. 17 But you must not eat the fruit from the tree which gives the knowledge of good and evil. If you ever eat fruit from that tree, you will die!”

The First Woman

18 Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is right for him.”

19 From the ground God formed every wild animal and every bird in the sky. He brought them to the man so the man could name them. Whatever the man called each living thing, that became its name. 20 The man gave names to all the tame animals, to the birds in the sky and to all the wild animals. But Adam[b] did not find a helper that was right for him. 21 So the Lord God caused the man to sleep very deeply. While the man was asleep, God took one of the ribs from the man’s body. Then God closed the man’s skin at the place where he took the rib. 22 The Lord God used the rib from the man to make a woman. Then the Lord brought the woman to the man.

23 And the man said,

“Now, this is someone whose bones came from my bones.
    Her body came from my body.
I will call her ‘woman,’
    because she was taken out of man.”

24 So a man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife. And the two people will become one body.

25 The man and his wife were naked, but they were not ashamed.

Ask your child, where did the women come from? That’s right, God took part of Adam and used it to create the women! How cool is that? That means we are all connected and need each other. God did not intend for any of us to be alone, without friends or family, He knew we would need each other.

Why did Adam need Eve? Because he had so much work to do around the garden, that he needed a helper. Once God created Eve, Adam said that she was the most perfect helper for him! God never gets it wrong!

This is an explanation of how God made boys and girls unique and special in their own ways. More than that, God made each person, whether boy or girl, unique as well! We all can work together to do awesome things, like caring for a garden or loving our neighbors.

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Thank you God for making both girls and boys and for making us have our own special talents and gifts. We ask you to remind us to celebrate our uniqueness, even when it’s hard!

Extra discussion question: What are some activities that are way easier to do with the help of someone else?

Coloring sheet: Download the venn diagram here or draw your own at home! Help your child to compare and contrast ways that they are different and similar to one of their friends or family members. Remind them that the differences are so important and a part of God’s plan for us!

May 2nd Nursery At Home

God Knows Us

Ask your child, do you know what it means to know someone? Who would you say that you know? (Mom, dad, siblings, teachers, mail man?) What do all of those people have in common? You have spoken to them many times or spent time doing things together like eating or playing!

To know someone means that you have spent time with someone and created a relationship! Usually, the more time you spend with someone, the better you know them.

Verse: 1 Corinthians 8:3 (ICB)

“He who loves God is known by God.”

Share with your child, God is the ultimate knower of people! He has special superhuman powers that allow Him to know each and every one of us! As humans, we have limits. That means that we don’t always have enough time or energy to know everyone and we will always know some people better than others based on how much time we spend with them.

God is not limited by time or energy though and He gets to know each and every one of us, on a personal level. He knows what our favorite food is, what we like to play with, and who our best friends are, isn’t that awesome?

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Thank you God for taking the time to know each of us deeply and caring about the things that we care about!

Coloring Sheet: Help your child to draw a photo of themselves, either what they physically look like or a collage of all their favorite things and remind them that God knows all of these things! Download the coloring sheet here.

Song: Watch the lyric video below or download the song to listen with your child(ren) this week!

April 25th Nursery At Home

God Is Good, God Is Just

We’ve spent the last two weeks exploring creation and how amazing everything that God has made is! Speaking from experience, it can be really easy as a child to see only that side of God, but neglect to explore how He interacts with His creation. God created everything with an order, that sin has messed up and sin within each of us messes up. He is good, but He is also just.

• Johanna

Verse: Romans 1:18 (ICB)

God’s anger is shown from heaven against all the evil and wrong things that people do.

Share the verse with your child and remind them how God created all things, including humans. When God created us and all of nature He had a plan for us. Just like when we make a meal, we usually follow directions to help us create a delicious meal.

Ask your child, do the meals we make or crafts we try always work out how we think they should? Not always and most of the time, it’s because we didn’t follow the directions properly or have all the ingredients/supplies. This is how it is with God and His creation. He planned for things to go a certain way, but we don’t always follow His instructions because we have sin in us and that makes us not want to follow directions.

Like the verse says, God gets sad when we don’t follow his directions for us. He doesn’t like to see not doing things in the best way. One way we can try to follow His directions for us is through prayer. Another way, is by following the directions of people that are praying, like moms and dads.

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Thank you God for creating everything and having a grand plan for it. Please help us to hear and follow the directions you have for us today!

Coloring Sheet: Download the following directions coloring sheet here

Activity: Play a game such as Red Light, Green Light or Simon Says to understand and practice the importance of following directions. If you enjoy baking/cooking with your child(ren), then find a recipe to follow and walk through the steps with them!

Video: A Lesson about Obeying (best for the older kiddos, as it is a bit longer)

April 18th Nursery At Home

Creation Continued

If you didn’t share the creation story with your child from last week, read below to get them caught up, as we discuss what it means that God created all of this for us!

Verse: Psalm 19:1 (ICB)

The heavens tell the glory of God.
And the skies announce what his hands have made.

Share the verse with your child. Remind them of the creation story that we talked about last time and how God created the whole Earth in 7 days. We talked last week about our favorite parts of creation and how God has created things that we each respond to differently.

This verse is talking about how all of creation around us, shows us how amazing God is! When we see a big mountain, we can be reminded about how BIG our God is! When we see flowers blooming in spring, we can be reminded that our God is always bringing some BEAUTIFUL, out of something hard.

Ask your child, what do you think God’s favorite creation is? We know the answer, based on what the Bible tells us, it’s us! Not only does nature show us more about God, all of us humans show God’s love to each other. That is how God created us and we are his most favorite creations!

We should always remember this when we wanting to not be nice to ourselves or others because we are all God’s favorite! God wants us to be kind to His favorite creations, even those that are different than us because God made us special in our own ways!

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Thank you God for creating each of us, different and special! Remind us to be kind to ourselves and to others.

Activity/Coloring Sheet: Share with your child, how one way we can know that we are all unique is through our fingerprints. If you have a magnifying glass, use it to look at each other’s fingers and see the different patterns. This is one way we can know that God made us each special and we He put so much care into our creation because we are His most favorite!

Download the coloring sheet here!

Video: God Made People Story

April 11th Nursery At Home

Levi talks about creation and science in this week’s sermon, so I thought it would be fun to share in the biblical story of how God created the earth. I would encourage you to consider how you’d like to explain the relationship between science and God to your child. God created everything, including science, so I encourage you to use it to your advantage to explain how the world works to your kiddos, as evidence that God is the creator and not controlled by anything, but the controller of all things!

• Johanna

Share the creation story with your child.

Below is a rewritten version (by Sharla Guenther) of Genesis 1, it reads like a story and I would encourage you to share it, with animation, with your child.

In the beginning there was no earth or sky or sea or animals.  And then God spoke in the darkness:  "Let there be light!"  And right away there was light, scattering the darkness and showing the infinite space.  "That's good!" said God.  "From now on, when it's dark it will be 'night' and when it's light, it will be 'day'."

The evening came and the night passed and then the light returned.  That was the first day.

On the second day, God made the earth and over it He carefully hung a vast blue sky.  He stood back and admired His creation.  "That's good too!" said God and the second day was over.

The next morning God looked around and thought, "The earth needs to be a bit more organized."  So, He put all the water in one place and all the dry land in another.  When He had finished that, God made plants to cover the land.  Dandelions and daffodils appeared.  All sorts of trees and grasses began to grow.  "It's looking great," said God and that was the end of the third day.

On the fourth day, God looked around and thought, "The daylight still needs a bit more work and the night is just too dark."  So, He made the sun to light the sky during the day and the moon and stars to add a bit of sparkle to the night.  He hung them in the sky and stepped back to look at his work.  "This is coming along very well,"  said God. 

The next day, God turned his attention to the water he had collected in the oceans.  "I want these waters teeming with life!"  As soon as He said it, it was so.  In no time, there were millions of small fish darting through the shallow water and huge fish swimming in the ocean.  God made birds, too.  He sent them soaring through the air.  "Ahh, that IS good!" said God.  The dusk fell over the water and the sky grew dark and that was the end of the fifth day.

On the sixth day, God added creatures to the land.  He made lions and tigers and bears.  He made rabbits and sheep and cows.  He added everything from ants to zebras to the land.  But He still felt something was missing.  So God added Mankind to enjoy and take care of all that He had created.  God looked around and was happy with all He had made.

After six days, the whole universe was completed.  On the seventh day God had a nice long rest and enjoyed looking at all He had made.

Ask your child, what’s your favorite thing that God created in the first 6 days? (You should share yours too!) Isn’t it so awesome that we each have a different answer! We each respond to creation differently. Some of us really like cats and some of us really like dogs. That is because not only did God create creation and all of the animals, but He created each of us, uniquely, with our own likes and dislikes. How cool is that?!

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Thank you God for creating everything and for making us all different. Thank you for giving us nature to enjoy and appreciate!

Activity: Go on a nature walk with your child and have them point out different parts of creation that they like (and maybe don’t like) and you do the same! Continually remind them that God created us all differently and that is so cool!

Coloring Sheet: Download the creation coloring sheet here!

Creation Story Video:

April 4th Nursery At Home

Easter: Part 2

HE IS RISEN! I would encourage you to review the Easter Story Part 1 from below before sharing the below story with your child. It is important to see the full picture. I am going to keep today’s lesson short and share the Resurrection story from the children’s bible and encourage you to scroll for the full Easter story video from from last week!

• Johanna

Mark 16

Jesus Rises from Death

16 The day after the Sabbath day, Mary Magdalene, Mary the mother of James, and Salome bought some sweet-smelling spices to put on Jesus’ body. 2 Very early on that day, the first day of the week, the women were on their way to the tomb. It was soon after sunrise. 3 They said to each other, “There is a large stone covering the entrance of the tomb. Who will move the stone for us?”

4 Then the women looked and saw that the stone was already moved. The stone was very large, but it was moved away from the entrance. 5 The women entered the tomb and saw a young man wearing a white robe. He was sitting on the right side, and the women were afraid.

6 But the man said, “Don’t be afraid. You are looking for Jesus from Nazareth, the one who was killed on a cross. He has risen from death. He is not here. Look, here is the place they laid him. 7 Now go and tell his followers and Peter, ‘Jesus is going into Galilee. He will be there before you. You will see him there as he told you before.’”

8 The women were confused and shaking with fear. They left the tomb and ran away. They did not tell anyone about what happened, because they were afraid.[a]

Some Followers See Jesus

9 Jesus rose from death early on the first day of the week. He showed himself first to Mary Magdalene. One time in the past, he had forced seven demons to leave Mary. 10 After Mary saw Jesus, she went and told his followers. They were very sad and were crying. 11 But Mary told them that Jesus was alive. She said that she had seen him, but the followers did not believe her.

12 Later, Jesus showed himself to two of his followers while they were walking in the country. But Jesus did not look the same as before. 13 These followers went back to the others and told them what had happened. Again, the followers did not believe them.

Jesus Talks to the Apostles

14 Later Jesus showed himself to the 11 followers while they were eating. He criticized them because they had little faith. They were stubborn and refused to believe those who had seen him after he had risen from death.

15 Jesus said to the followers, “Go everywhere in the world. Tell the Good News to everyone. 16 Anyone who believes and is baptized will be saved. But he who does not believe will be judged guilty. 17 And those who believe will be able to do these things as proof: They will use my name to force demons out of people. They will speak in languages they never learned. 18 They will pick up snakes without being hurt. And they will drink poison without being hurt. They will touch the sick, and the sick will be healed.”

19 After the Lord Jesus said these things to the followers, he was carried up into heaven. There, Jesus sat at the right side of God. 20 The followers went everywhere in the world and told the Good News to people. And the Lord helped them. The Lord proved that the Good News they told was true by giving them power to work miracles.

March 28th Nursery At Home

Easter: Part 1

The Easter Story is a big one, the most important to the Christian faith and the bedrock of the Gospel. I think it is best to share it over 2 weeks for the young ears and hearts to be able to fully digest. Levi began the story by referencing Jesus as God and how He came down and died for us, so let’s get excited for the good news that we get to share with the little ones in our lives!

• Johanna

Verse: 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (NLT)

“Christ died for our sins, just as the scriptures said. He was buried, and he was raised from the dead on the third day” 

Ask your child, do you know why we celebrate Easter? It is actually about something that happened over a few days and right now we are going to learn about the sadness that comes before Easter Sunday. 

Share with your child, we have been talking about how God is Jesus and that He sent part of himself to earth, so that we could have a friend. Jesus came down to be more than our friend, He came down to save us or be our savior! God sent Jesus down to fix all the bad things we have ever done or will ever do! Isn’t that amazing?

It is like if you did something wrong like didn’t share a toy or hit a friend/sibling, but then Jesus came and took the punishment for you, Jesus took the time outs for us all! He is pretty awesome! What the punishment looked like for Jesus was that He died a very painful death in front of a lot of people, even though He didn’t do anything wrong. 

Next week we are going to talk about what happened after Jesus died because He has the power of God in Him, so something miraculous was about to happen! 

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Thank you God for sending Jesus to die for all of our sins! We are so grateful for you!

Coloring Sheet: Download the coloring sheet here

Easter Story Videos: A 3 Part Series from Saddleback that tells the full story of Easter! 

March 21st Nursery At Home

God Is On Our Side

What is greater than instilling in the younger generation, that when we have God on our side, we cannot fail! This can sometimes be a challenging topic, as it is not a guarantee that we will not go through hard things in life, but that when we do go through hard things, we can trust that God has won the ultimate battle. 

• Johanna

Verse: Romans 8:31 

If God is for us, who can be against us?

Share with your child, we’ve talked the past few weeks about how Jesus is God and He had God’s authority on earth. This means that God is so powerful, that He was able to send a part of himself to earth to help us. That’s pretty crazy and no one else has ever been able to do this!

Ask your child, wouldn’t it be so cool to have a friend that can do awesome things like healing people? Just like in the story we talked about last week. Would you want to have that person as a friend, when something bad happened? We all would!

That is what it’s like to have God and Jesus on our side! This doesn’t mean that we won’t go through bad things, just like the man who was paralyzed, or couldn’t walk. That man had to go through a lot of years of not walking before he was healed by Jesus! 

We can have hope in God because we know that He will always win, even when there are bad things happening around us! 

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: God thank you for being our friend and for always winning the fight for us! We are grateful for your strength, even when we are weak. 

Coloring Sheet: Download it here!

Video: God Loves Us - reminders throughout the Bible

Song: He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands (with motions)

March 14th Nursery At Home

Jesus is God - Cont. 

Levi talked last week about why we should believe Jesus is God and he continues that story this week by showing how Jesus is God because he has God-given authority. It is so important (for all ages) to back up what we say and ask others to believe with biblical facts and stories. That is what we will do today, we will expand on the fact that Jesus is God, by telling a story of Jesus healing and forgiving sins with the authority of God. 

• Johanna

Verses: Matthew 9:1-8 ICB (International Children’s Bible)

“Jesus got into a boat and went back across the lake to his own town. Some people brought to Jesus a man who was paralyzed (do you know what paralyzed means? It means the person cannot walk or potentially move very much of their body). The man was lying on his mat. Jesus saw that these people had great faith, so he said to the paralyzed man, “Be happy, young man. Your sins are forgiven.”

Some of the teachers of the law (these teachers are people who have learned all about what is right and wrong during Jesus’ time) heard this. They said to themselves, “This man speaks as if he were God—that is blasphemy!”(do you know what blasphemy is? It sounds like a silly word, but it means crazy or lie)

Jesus knew what they were thinking. So he said, “Why are you thinking evil thoughts? Which is easier: to tell this paralyzed man, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to tell him, ‘Stand up and walk’? But I will prove to you that the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins.” Then Jesus said to the paralyzed man, “Stand up. Take your mat and go home.” And the man stood up and went home. The people saw this and were amazed (the people were amazed because Jesus made the man walk!). They praised God for giving power like this to men.”

Summarize & Share The Story with your child, you can do this throughout the story with the questions in parentheses or go over it at the end. Jesus goes to a town and finds a man who has been unable to walk for a while. Jesus went up to him and said his sins were forgiven. Many people around Jesus were confused why Jesus was able to do this, but like we talked about last week, Jesus is God on earth. He is God in human form! 

Ask your child, what happens after Jesus tells the man He has forgiven his sins? He is able to walk! This was pretty amazing! Jesus healed the man on the inside of his body and we saw the change on the outside of his body! 

 The reason that Jesus was able to do this is because He was given the power from God in heaven when He was sent to earth! He was not only given the power to do amazing things like making a man walk, but to also heal our hearts! 

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Thank you God for giving Jesus the power to heal our insides and outsides, we love you! 

Coloring Sheet: Remind your child that Jesus doesn’t just want to help our outside troubles, He wants to help our heart troubles, just like with the paralyzed man in the story. Download here!

Video Story: From the telling of the same story in Luke

March 7th Nursery at Home

Jesus Is God!

We haven’t done a lesson on this topic and I would argue that this is foundational to all the other lessons. There have been glimpses of the reality that Jesus is God in human form, but never an explanation for the preschooler mind and heart. I would encourage you to take some time mulling over this concept and how to best share this with your child(ren). 

• Johanna 

Verse: Colossians 1:15 NLT

“Jesus is the visible image of the invisible God” 

Ask your child, do you know where God lives? Is that on earth, like could we drive or fly there? Right! That’s because God is not a human like us. He is a special type of unique being or person. 

Share with your child, because God doesn’t live on earth with us, He wanted to send us someone that we could connect with. He did that through Jesus. Do you know where Jesus lived?

Jesus was born and lived on earth and God sent him to earth. Because God is a special type of being, He is able to do things that we can’t do or sometimes even understand! It’s really awesome, but also sometimes confusing. God sent Jesus to us from heaven, so that we could have a friend on earth that is human! At the end of Jesus’ life on earth, God brought him back up to heaven, so they could be together and Jesus could be a reminder of what it’s like for humans on earth. 

ACTIVITIES

Prayer: Dear God, thank you so much for sending your son to be with us! We love you so much!

Coloring Sheet: Jesus came to earth and as a baby and was born to a mom and a dad just like you! Download it here.

Activity: Tell your child you’re going to play a game of Simon Says, where they have to follow the commands you give. Have your child close their eyes while you hide somewhere close by. Then start giving them commands by saying “Do This” and “Do That.” In your child’s confusion, explain to them that God sent Jesus to be with us, so that we could better understand. Then come out and give them the same command, but with an action that they can see.

Video: God’s Story: Jesus

February 28th Nursery At Home

The Power of Prayer

It’s never too early to teach our children the power of prayer and what power they have access to because of Jesus. I only wish I understood this reality sooner in my life, so let’s start early and share often about that constant access we have to God because of prayer. It’s so important that we not only share the knowledge with our children, but also demonstrate to them how to pray and the power that it brings. 

• Johanna

Mark 11:24 

“I tell you, you can pray for anything, and if you believe that you’ve received it, it will be yours.”

Share the verse with your child. This is Jesus talking to his best friends about having something called faith and how important it is to have faith when you are praying.  

Ask your child, do you know what faith is? It is complete trust in something or someone. Can you think of someone you have faith in? (It’d be good for you to share some examples as well).

The best person we can have faith in is Jesus! He is the perfect person, so he will never hurt us or lie to us. Because of that, we can pray to him!

What are some things that we can pray for? (Let them share anything!) Those are all great, because we can pray for anything! What Jesus is saying in this verse, is that if we have faith, or completely trust in Him, we can ask for anything in prayer and we will receive it!

Optional caveat: This doesn’t mean that we can pray for candy and receive it right away because having faith means we trust that Jesus will give us what is best for us, which may not be candy, at that moment. 

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Thank you Jesus for allowing us to ask you for anything. Please help us to grow in our faith with you!

Coloring Page: Having faith that Jesus will grow us, like flowers in the sun! Download here!

Activity: Print out the blank person coloring sheet and have your child ‘fill themselves up with faith.’ Give them ideas of how they can grow in faith: praying, sharing, reading the bible, talking with others who love Jesus, being in nature, etc. 

Faith Video Story: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pk1Zo_w_EuU

February 21st Nursery At Home

The Healing at the Pool - John 5:1-15

Share with your child, back in Jesus’ day there was a pool that people who were disabled, or hurt, would hang out because they thought the water would make them better. The story we are going to read today is about a man who wasn’t able to walk for 38 years! Can you imagine not being able to walk for 38 years? 

Let’s try something before we read the story, let’s try racing across one side of the room to the other. How fast are we? Now let’s try it without using our legs. Were we slower this time? Was it a lot harder? That is how this man felt for his whole life, so he was really sad and hopeless. 

Share the story: 

Feel free to read from a bible at home, read from below, or use this video to share the story with your child. 

Some time later, Jesus went up to Jerusalem for one of the Jewish festivals. Now there is in Jerusalem near the Sheep Gate a pool, which in Aramaic is called Bethesda and which is surrounded by five covered colonnades. Here a great number of disabled people used to lie—the blind, the lame, the paralyzed. One who was there had been an invalid for thirty-eight years. When Jesus saw him lying there and learned that he had been in this condition for a long time, he asked him, “Do you want to get well?”

 “Sir,” the invalid replied, “I have no one to help me into the pool when the water is stirred. While I am trying to get in, someone else goes down ahead of me.”

Then Jesus said to him, “Get up! Pick up your mat and walk.” At once the man was cured; he picked up his mat and walked.

The day on which this took place was a Sabbath, and so the Jewish leaders said to the man who had been healed, “It is the Sabbath; the law forbids you to carry your mat.”

But he replied, “The man who made me well said to me, ‘Pick up your mat and walk.’ ”

So they asked him, “Who is this fellow who told you to pick it up and walk?”

The man who was healed had no idea who it was, for Jesus had slipped away into the crowd that was there.

Later Jesus found him at the temple and said to him, “See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” The man went away and told the Jewish leaders that it was Jesus who had made him well.

Ask your child, who healed the man? How amazing it would have been to be healed after 38 years! 38 years is 13,870 days!! All he had to do was listen to Jesus and he was healed!

Jesus loves us all so much that he invites us into amazing things! He helps us when we are hurt, sad, or having a hard day. 

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Thank you Jesus for healing the man at the pool and thanks for caring for us too! We love you!

Coloring pages: download story sheet or download world in his hands sheet

Song: He’s Got The Whole World In His Hands (with motions)

This week, Levi talks about the Rich Young Man from Mark. It is a great reminder to focus on the good giver of our gifts and blessings, rather than the gifts themselves. We all need this reminder, especially as our children emulate our attitude and character, we want to be the example to them. I would also encourage you to take a look at the other passage Levi mentioned (Mark 2:23-27) regarding the Sabbath. Instituting a Sabbath time/day in your family could be a great addition for family time and worship in your household. 

-Johanna

Share with your child, the entire story that gives context to this verse. You can use the verses below, use the story summary below, or watch the video story. 

17 As he went out into the street, a man came running up, greeted him with great reverence, and asked, “Good Teacher, what must I do to get eternal life?”

18-19 Jesus said, “Why are you calling me good? No one is good, only God. You know the commandments: Don’t murder, don’t commit adultery, don’t steal, don’t lie, don’t cheat, honor your father and mother.”

20 He said, “Teacher, I have—from my youth—kept them all!”

21 Jesus looked him hard in the eye—and loved him! He said, “There’s one thing left: Go sell whatever you own and give it to the poor. All your wealth will then be heavenly wealth. And come follow me.”

In this story, someone comes up to Jesus and asks him how he can get into heaven. Have you ever thought about how someone gets into heaven (allow your child to answer/give ideas)? Jesus then shares some commandments or rules with the man. At the end of the conversation, Jesus gives him a final rule, he tells him to sell everything he has and to follow Jesus. This was super crazy to say, just like it would be right now, if someone told you had to get rid of everything (toys, clothes, house) in order to receive something. 

Ask your child, do you ever get distracted by something that is so fun, that you forget to listen to me or be kind to someone? It is super easy to do, because we like to have fun and play. Can you think of a time where you didn’t want to share a toy with someone because you were just having so much with it?

This is what Jesus is talking about in this story. That sometimes, when we have too many things (good or bad), we can get distracted from how good Jesus is to us! Jesus is reminding us that He gives us all good things and we shouldn’t get distracted by His gifts, we need to look to the gift giver!

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Thank you Jesus that you give us awesome things! We ask that you keep our eyes on you and remember to thank you for these blessings. 

Coloring Activity: (Download Here) Use the magnifying coloring sheet and help your child to come up with some gifts/blessings that Jesus has given them to draw around the outside. Then, on the inside of the magnifying glass, have them draw a picture of Jesus. Remind them that Jesus gives us all these good gifts, but we can’t forget to focus on Him!

Video Story: (longer, cartoon version) & (shorter version)

Levi talks about being a good listener this week, which I don’t think there has been a more relevant topic to the preschoolers of Awaken than this one! He talks not only about being a good listener, but being obedient, as Jesus doesn’t want people to listen, and not bring them to action. How much we should desire our children that we know and love, to listen because they have a desire in their heart to be obedient!

-Johanna

Share with your child, how Jesus is telling the story to an important religious teacher, in order to show people the importance of loving our neighbors. The story is about a man who is hurt on the side of the road and many people walk by, not helping him. Finally, a man does stop to help him, a man that was very different then the hurt man. That was surprising because people don’t usually stop to help those that are so different then them. 

Ask your child, can you name any of our neighbors? Neighbors usually refers to people who live in the houses closest to us (like those that they likely named), but that is not what Jesus means here. Jesus is saying (refer to the verse) that because of our love for God, we see everyone as our neighbors, even those that are different then us. 

God’s love is so incredibly strong, that it changes our hearts and allows us to love people, of all types! How amazing is that! 

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Thank you God that you allow us to love all of our neighbors, please give us listening ears to hear who else you want us to love.

Coloring Sheet (Download here): A reminder that loving God leads to loving others!

Service Activity: Spend some time talking with your child about their ideas of who you could love as neighbors. This could be as simple as coloring them a note, making them a treat, or signing up to bring them a Valentine’s bag that we are offering at the church. 

Good Samaritan Video Story:

This week Levi talked about how our God is truly Emmanuel, “God With Us” and what peace that can bring us in times of strife or trials. I know this topic, like many others, may seem challenging to define to a preschooler, but what we share with them now, will set the basis for how they handle trials later in life. What a blessing it is to prepare little hearts to rely on God in times of struggle, even if their biggest struggle right now is not wanting to eat their vegetables or share their favorite toys. Those struggles still seem big to them, as the size of our struggle are so closely tied to the scope of our lives. 

— Johanna

Share with your child the verse and explain how it is Jesus talking to us. Do you know what being weary means? It means to be really tired or exhausted, like after a long day of work or playing really hard outside. A burden is something that tires you out and usually lasts a long time, like having a hard time at school or being sick. 

Ask your child, when do you feel the most tired? When you feel super tired, you usually don’t want to keep running or playing or helping right? This is because we, as humans, only have a limited amount of energy to do things. This is why we have to sleep each night and take naps during the day. 

Sometimes when we are really tired, we need help to “carry our burdens” like when you are really tired sometimes I help you clean up your toys or when I am really sick sometimes you help me with chores around the house. It is so great that we have each other to help carry our burdens, but what is even better is that we have Jesus! He is so much stronger than we are and he never gets tired! He is always willing to help us, with big and little things. 

Just like I like to help you with things, Jesus loves to help us even more! All we have to do is ask for His help and he comes right away!

What are some things we could ask Jesus for help for today?

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Thank you Jesus that you never get tired of helping us to carry our burdens. Please remind us this week to ask you for help when we are weary, 

Visual Activity: Find something heavy (ideally something your child cannot lift on their own) in your house and ask your child to try to lift it. When they are unable, explain to them how sometimes we have things in life that we can’t or shouldn’t carry on our own, like guilt from doing something wrong or a sickness. That is why Jesus gave us each other and Himself, when things are too hard He comes to help us, sometimes He comes in the form of a friend or family member (at the same time, help them lift the object and move it across the room). 

Coloring Sheet (Download Here): Remind your child how (even if He isn’t visible), Jesus helps to carry our heavy burdens!

This week Levi started off his sermon by admitting that his life has become to be defined by COVID, as opposed to being defined by Jesus. I found this very relatable, as I am sure it was to many others. As I was thinking through how this sermon can be shared with little ones, I was reminded of how resilient kids are; how so many young kids don’t seem to be letting this season of COVID define their lives. What an encouragement to us “adults”, that get caught up in the world around us, yet another way God uses children, as an example to us. - Johanna

Last week we talked about how God wants to be our friend, by drawing close to Him (spending time with him), He draws close to us. 

Ask your child, do you know what the opposite of a friend is? Before we answer that, let’s practice what some other opposites are, an opposite is something that is completely different then it. The opposite of big is small. What about the opposite of tall? Up? Stop?

Share with your child, the opposite of a friend is an enemy. An enemy could be someone that is mean to us. Jesus tells us in Luke that we are supposed to love our enemies! How crazy is that? This seems crazy to us because it is not what we want to do, but like the game of opposites we played, we have to do the opposite of what we want to do. 

Some examples of what it looks like the love our enemies are:

• When someone yells at you, you respond kindly and softly to them.

• When someone takes a toy from you, you let them have it without taking something else from them. 

• Sometimes a friend can do something mean to us, which may make them seem like an enemy for a short time, so we need to respond in love to them! Because of Jesus we are able to do this! He gave his life to us, even though we are mean sometimes, which is the best show of love and kindness ever!

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Thank you Jesus for loving me even when I am mean, help me to love those that are mean to me. 

Coloring Sheet (download here): Share with your child how cats are usually dogs enemies and cats are enemies of the mouse.

Game: Set up 3 buckets/baskets in your house and find something your child can toss into them. Label the buckets (verbally or physically) Family, Friends, and Enemies. Family being the closest bucket and Enemies being the furthest. Have your child try and make the item into each bucket. As they struggle to make it to the farthest bucket, share with them how it is easiest to love our family and friends, just like it’s easier to put it into the bucket. It’s harder to love our enemies/make it into the farthest bucket, but we can still do it because of Jesus!

Levi’s sermon got controversial in ways that I don’t see fit to translate to the preschoolers of Awaken, so I am going to take the end of Levi’s sermon, where he shares from James and expand on that!

If you feel like you can share the topics from Levi’s sermon with your little ones, please do so! I do not feel confident that I’m able to do so in an age appropriate way, that is also engaging to little ears and eyes. 

- Johanna 

Ask your child: who is your best friend? (allow them time to work through their list) and then ask, why is ______ your best friend? (allow them to share) Do you think that _____ could be your best friend if you never say them or played with them? Probably not.

Share with your child: that we feel closest to those we spend time with and generally those we spend time with feel closest to us too. The same is true about God, we need to spend time with him if we want him to become a close/best friend. When we choose to spend time with them, we experience him more often, which means we feel he is close to us!

Can you think of some ways we can spend time with God? (encourage them to think through ways they spend time with their friends or with you)

• Talking to God, which is often called prayer 

• Singing to God, which is often called worship 

• Creating for God, which can be another form of worship 

There are so many ways that we can spend time with God! He is a part of each and every person because He created us, so by spending time with his creation, we spend time with him, how awesome! 

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Thank you God that you want to be my best friend! You are awesome and I am so thankful to have a friend like you. 

Outdoor activity: 

Take a nature walk and help your child to point out creation while reminding them that they are connecting with God. 

Coloring Sheet:

(download here) We can show our friends God by showing them love!

This week Levi talked about repentance and how we all need to repent because there is no hiding our sin. He talks about how pride can get in the way of our repenting spirit, but because of Jesus, we are able to lay down our pride and repent. 

Ask your child, can you think of a time where you did something wrong and tried to hide it from me (or someone else)? That is something that everyone experiences, even adults like me. We try to hide things that are bad from others, just like we try to hide our sin from God. 

Share with your child, just like how I usually find out when you do something wrong, so does God. God is not someone you can hide from. He knows everything we do, good or bad. That may seem a little scary, but just like I forgive you when you do something wrong, so does God. He forgives even faster than anyone else can! 

It is important to admit to me when you do something wrong? Just like it is important to do that with me, it is alway important to do that with God, that is called repentance! There’s a kind of magic that happens when we repent, to others and to God!

God sent Jesus to forgive us of all our sins when we repent to him, how awesome! 

ACTIVITIES

Prayer: Dear God, please forgive me for the sins I have done today and help me to do better. Thank you for sending Jesus to forgive me!

Coloring Sheet: (download here) Because of Jesus forgiving our sins, we are able to forgive others!

Video: On Repentance 

Hi there and Happy New Year!

We took a short break in creating the Nursery at Home curriculum, but we’re back and excited for the New Year. This week, Levi starts a series on Ezra and discusses giving our anxieties to God. - Johanna

Share with your child about how every day we face hard things, things that make us sad, scared, or tired. It is easy to sometimes wonder where God is in those times, when things are hard. God is watching over us, no matter what is going on. No matter how we feel, God is in control. 

Ask your child, have you ever felt like you get tired of doing something that is challenging (chores, sharing, obeying, etc.)? 

Do you ever think about God in those moments? It is super easy to forget about Him during those moments, but God never forgets about us in those times! Let’s create something to remind us of God, when we are doing hard things!

ACTIVITIES

Prayer: Thank you God that you are always watching over us! Help us to remember to look to you, especially when we are doing hard things. 

Craft/Activity: Feel free to use the attached coloring sheet (click here to download) to hang up somewhere where your child will easily see it, especially amidst hard moments (time-outs, meal time, etc.). Feel free to  let your child choose where they think is best. You could also ask your child to find something around the house that reminds them of God (could be anything!) and they can place that item intentionally, to use it as a reminder. 

Song: He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands 

(cartoon music video) 

(if you’d like to incorporate the motions)

Since this week is Christmas,

I wanted to go off course from the sermon slightly and share some thoughts on how to share the meaning of the Christmas story with your child. There are so many versions and varieties of Christmas stories, so I would encourage you to tailor the story to fit the needs of your child(ren). Feel free to use this as a baseline, to add and edit, as you see fit! Merry Christmas!

Ask your child, do you know why we celebrate Christmas? Because it is Jesus’ Birthday! Just like we celebrate your birthday, we celebrate the day Jesus was born, as Christmas. There’s a really cool story about Jesus’ birth that we can talk about.

Share with your child the nativity story. (Use the script/story below and included the interaction sounds/actions and questions to help your child stay engaged)

The Nativity Story (adapted from blog, Lucy at Home)

A long time ago, there was a lady called Mary.

One day, while Mary was doing the washing up, she saw a bright light.

She had to cover her eyes because it was so bright – let the children cover their eyes.

The bright light was an angel. Angels are very beautiful creatures who live in Heaven and work for God.

The angel gave Mary a message from God – he said she was going to have a baby.

Soon Mary’s tummy started to get bigger as the baby in her tummy started to grow – can you point to your tummy?

Just a few weeks before her baby was ready to be born, the king told all the people in the country that they had to travel to the place where their family was from.

Mary had to travel a long way to a town called Bethlehem.

She had to walk very slowly because she had a baby in her tummy – have a go at walking slowly.

When Mary got to Bethlehem, all the hotels were full, so she had to sleep in a barn, where the animals sleep – what animals might live in a barn? Can you make their noises?

That night, Mary’s baby was born. She called him ‘Jesus’.

Mary didn’t have a cot to put baby Jesus in so she laid him in the animal’s food bowl!

Jesus was a special baby – he was God’s baby – and God wanted everyone to know that Jesus had been born.

Most of the people in Bethlehem were asleep – can you make a snoring sound?

But there were some shepherds in the fields, looking after their sheep – what noise does a sheep make?

God sent some angels to sing to the shepherds and tell them all about baby Jesus.

The shepherds were so excited that they ran to the barn to see Jesus. 

God also put a giant star in the sky like a big birthday candle for baby Jesus.

Some clever men were looking at the sky and they saw the special star.

They followed the star all the way to baby Jesus.

When they saw him, they bowed down to tell Jesus that they thought he was special – can you bow?

Share with your child that the reason we celebrate Jesus’ birth with such a big party every year is because, like we have talked about the past few weeks, Jesus came to save us all from our sins, so that we have a chance to be holy and spend forever with him! How awesome!

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Thank you God for sending your son Jesus to earth, so that we can be holy! We are excited to celebrate his birth this Christmas!

Coloring sheets: download here and here

Animated Storytime: Come to Bethlehem and See

This week Levi continued in 1st Peter and talked about how we are called to be holy, as Christ is holy. He brought up how because of Jesus we are able to become holy, without him there is no chance. 

Share with your child that because Jesus lived a life where he did nothing bad, He was able to give himself as a sacrifice for each of us. The reason we needed Jesus to die, is because when we are all born (even Mom, Dad, ect.) we have sin in our hearts. There is nothing we can do to become holy on our own, but Jesus came so that we could become holy! 

Ask your child, do you know what it means to be holy? 

It means to be set apart for the service of God. This means that Jesus has set us apart, and not in a way that means we will be left behind, but where we are included in the best possible thing, eternal life! This means that we get to live forever with Jesus in heaven (reference learning about heaven last week), if we choose to! How awesome! 

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: Thank you Jesus for coming to earth and living a perfect life, so that we could be holy and be with you forever in heaven!  

Snowman Coloring Sheet: download here (Remind your child of the verse.) Even though our hearts are bad, Jesus makes us holy!

Animated Story Video: “When Jesus Was Born”

Share with your child how at Christmas we celebrate Jesus being born and beginning his perfect life on earth, so that our sins could be washed away and we can be holy! 

Dec 6th Nursery At Home

This week Levi talked about what it looks like to be joyful amidst hard times because we have the hope of knowing that this is not our permanent home. This can be a challenging topic to explain to young children, but I encourage you to not underestimate your child’s ability to comprehend this concept. 

Share with your child that as followers of Jesus, we have a hope that we can be excited about when we are going through hard times. This is because one day we will get to be with Jesus in His home. Jesus loves us so very much that he is preparing this special place for us to be with him, called Heaven! In Heaven, we will not experience any of the hard things (anger over not sharing a toy, disobeying mom and dad, hitting a friend or sibling), because in Heaven all things are perfect because of Jesus!

Ask your child, what kind of things do you think will be in Heaven? 

Let’s look at some photos of things that won’t be in heaven (see below for photo sheets). Let’s also look at some photos of things that will be in heaven. (Free to create your own photo sheets or have your child find examples around your house!). The reason that all of these good things will be there is because of Jesus and how much He loves us! He takes away the hard things and replaces them with good things! 

ACTIVITIES:

Use the attached photo sheet (download here) to show your child examples of things that will and won’t be in heaven.

Prayer: Thank you so much Jesus for creating a special place for us with all of your goodness! Help us to remember how much you love us when we are having a hard day. 

Coloring page: Linked here. And here.

Song: He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands 

Nov. 29th Nursery At Home

This week Levi finished his two part series on generosity. He jumps back into 2 Corinthians, so a great way to start this chat with your little is to remind them of what we talked about last week. Remind them of the focus verse and what it means to live generously. 

Share with your child that God is trying to remind us that not only should we give with a cheerful heart, but that when we do share with those in need, He will take care of us when we are in need. God always takes care of generous givers! He cares for us in every way and loves to see us share when we have extra. 

Ask your child, is there anything that we have a lot of? Can you think of something we have extra of? (food, toys, clothes, craft supplies, etc.) Let’s work together to think of someone else that might need these things. Do you have any ideas? 

(Note for parents: It is important not to force a generous spirit onto your child, but to allow them to give generously on their own. This will reinforce a cheerful spirit, so if they aren’t in the mood to give right now, try again another time or use a time when they are already being generous on their own as a time to praise them for their joyful spirit of generosity!)

God asks us to share out of our plenty, so that among all our friends and family, we are all taken care of! How amazing is that! God uses us as a part of His amazing plan to care for each of His children. 

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer: 

Thank you God that you let us be a part of your plan of caring for everyone! Please show us areas that we have plenty, to share with those in need. 

Coloring Page download linked here.

Activity: The Gratitude Game 

Share with your little that sometimes when I am having a hard time giving with a cheerful spirit, it is helpful to remember all the blessings I have. One way we can do that is by playing the gratitude game! 

Here’s how it works: 

Have your child collect 5 different items around the house. Or 5 items of different colors. Each item/color will represent an area of gratitude.

1. A person you are thankful for 

2. A place you are thankful for 

3. A food you are thankful for 

4. A thing you are thankful for 

5. Anything you are thankful for

Have your child pick an item and then share with them the prompt. You should answer it with them too!

Nov. 22th Nursery At Home

Amidst Thanksgiving week, Levi spoke on generosity and what it looks like to be generous when you have little, a lot, or are in a challenging situation. 

In the sermon, Jesus is telling the story of how a poor woman, who didn’t have much to give at all, gave all the money she had as an offering. She was being generous! She gave everything she had with a happy heart! 

Explain generosity to your child: Generosity is giving when you have a lot or a little. It can mean giving a lot (if that is what we have) or giving a little (if we have a little). The reason we are able to be generous is because of the blessings from Jesus, from Him dying for us and being with us in our daily lives. What are some of our blessings? 

Children are able to give generously too, not just adults. You can give a toy to someone that is in need, you can color a picture to encourage a friend, or you can pray for someone. You can do all of that with a happy heart because of Jesus! Because of all of our blessings, we are all able to give to others! Let’s think of some ways we can give to someone today, so we can share the love and blessings of Jesus! 

ACTIVITIES: 

Activity: Find a way to bless someone around you. That may look different for each family, but it can be as simple as calling a friend or family member and checking in. Or having your child color a picture/note for a neighbor. You can bake with your child and do a drop off. 

Prayer: Thank you God for all of our blessings. Help to show up ways to give to someone today!

Visual Poem: Watch this fun, animated poem about being a cheerful giver! 

Coloring pages: click here to download the coloring page!

Nov. 15th Nursery At Home

On Sunday, Levi spoke on the story of Esther, in regards to her faithful character and what it looks like to trust God, even when it appears that things are going all wrong.

An activity is a great way to explain biblical concepts to your little. A great way to explain the timing of God to your child is to get a large photo of something (perhaps from a calendar, magazine or book that your child will recognize) and get another piece of paper and cut a small hole in it (determine size of hole based on child’s age). Cover the image with the paper and ask your child if they know what the image is. After each guess, tear the hole a little bigger until they guess it.

Explain to your child that we can only ever see a small part of the picture, but God is able to see it all! This is for all people, those who are doing good or bad. Even when it seems like something is bad, God knows the full picture and is able to use it for something good! He is that amazing!

God is able to us, even in our hard times, for something good! We don’t have to be perfect or do everything right for him to use us, just like he used Esther! She was just an ordinary girl who did BIG things because she followed God’s lead.

Esther was willing to lose her life, to save the lives of others. This is like how Jesus died for us, to save us from our sins.

ACTIVITIES:

Prayer:

Thank you God for always having perfect timing and seeing the full picture. Help us to find ways to serve and love you today.

Song:

Strong and Courageous (with motions):

Activity:

Time Across the Room - a game to help your child understand God’s timing 

Have your child walk across the room in x number of seconds. You can count for them or have them count aloud if they are able. The ideal is that if you say 10 seconds, they will arrive to the other side when you say 10 (not 9 or 11, etc.). Speak about how God’s timing is always right at 10! Just like with Esther (refer back to verse). 

Coloring pages: E is for Esther & Esther Coloring Scene

Nov. 8th Nursery At Home

We have recently started curriculum in our nursery area for preschool kiddos! Now that we are meeting virtually, we would love to be able to offer some resources for you to bring the Sunday sermon to a level your littles will understand and enjoy! 

Read along for some helpful talking points and activities to do with your preschooler. 

On Sunday, Levi preached from Hebrews 12 in regards to what it looks like to completely trust God with our lives, to endure through trying times. 

A question for discussion with your little, do you remember a time when you were really tired from doing something? Like moving a heavy toy, helping with a chore, or hiking up a trail. That is what it is like to follow Jesus sometimes. Because Jesus is the only thing we need to fix our sins, or wrong things we’ve done, we are free, but that doesn’t mean our lives will always be easy. We will still face hard things. 

The Bible tells us that we can persevere (or endure), which means to do something hard without giving up, because we have the power of Jesus in us! How special! We can worship Jesus because of His great power in us! We can do that in many different ways.

ACTIVITIES

Possible prayer:

Thank you Jesus for giving me the power to do hard things, help me to endure even when I want to give up. 

Possible song:

When the Saints Go Marching In 

Possible activity:

Set up a mini obstacle course in your house for your child to complete. You can encourage them when/if they get stuck that they can do hard things because of Jesus! 

Another idea is to encourage your child to do a task/play with a toy that they previously have not been able to figure out and remind them of the same thing. Also, encourage them to do the same when they see their siblings/friends struggling with a task. 

Coloring page: download the coloring page here!

Nov. 1st Nursery At Home

We have recently started curriculum in our nursery area for preschool kiddos! Now that we are meeting virtually, we would love to be able to offer some resources for you to bring the Sunday sermon to a level your littles will understand and enjoy! 

Read along for some helpful talking points and activities to do with your preschooler. 

On Sunday, Levi preached from Hebrews and one of his big ideas was that Jesus is the only sacrifice we need to cover the consequences of our sins. 

• Verse: Hebrews 10:18 MSG “Once sins are taken care of for good, there’s no longer any need to offer sacrifices to them”

A question for discussion with your little, do you remember a time when you’ve done something wrong (not spoken kindly to a sibling or friend, not shared a toy, etc.)? You’re not the only one. Mom and Dad (brother and sister, etc.) all do things wrong sometimes. 

The Bible tells us that we have all done bad things. The only person who has ever lived perfectly is Jesus! Because Jesus never did anything wrong, He is able to take away our sin, wrong things we’ve done. There is nothing more we need to do besides believe Jesus to cover our sins. How awesome! Thank you, Jesus! It’s great to show Jesus thankfulness for all He has done, we can do that by worshipping him. 

We can worship with a prayer, song, or even a craft. 

Activity Suggestions

Possible prayer: Thank you Jesus for dying for all my sins. Help me to remember to forgive others that do wrong around me and offer them the love of Jesus. 

Possible song: He’s Got the Whole World in His Hands 

The kids have been doing this song (and motions) in the nursery the past few weeks!

Possible craft/coloring pages:

Use the attached coloring pages (or find your own) to have your child color as a reminder to themselves that Jesus covers their sins. An extra step is to have them make a card to give/send to a friend or family member to remind them that Jesus died for their sins too. You could even use one of the coloring sheets! 

1. Coloring Page A Download Link

2. Coloring Page B Download Link