Preschool (2yrs-PreK)

God Loves Me

This week your preschooler will be encouraged to make the right choice.  They will continue to “Learn to do what is right” (Isaiah 1:17).   Making the right choice usually involves motivation.  How do you attempt to motivate your preschooler?  Do you use consequences or positive reinforcement?

While consequences are definitely a part of life they aren’t always enough to make us make the right choice.  We all know the consequences of eating too much and not getting enough exercise.  Does that stop you at the buffet or get you into the gym?  But how do you feel when you lose a few pounds and someone comments on how great you look?  Motivated to make more of the right choices concerning your health?

Daniel was motivated to make the right choice in Babylon (Daniel 1:1-16) by God’s love for him, probably the most powerful positive reinforcement in the world.   We want your preschooler to be motivated to make the right choice by that same love.  At this age, the most tangible form of God’s love to them is your love.

Fight for the Heart this week by putting forth extra effort to motivate positively rather than with threats of consequences.  Spend extra time talking about your expectations and letting your preschooler know how much you love them and believe in them.  See them make the right choice because they want to please you.  Over time, watch that translate into a desire to please the heart of the Father.

Elementary (K-3^rd Grade)

Responsibility – showing you can be trusted with what’s expected of you

The story of the “Good Samaritan” is typically one that most people know.  This week we will be looking at that account with your students and challenging them to be responsible, take action, do something, and go beyond what they are expected to do and do what God would do.

 

In the story of the Samaritan, he helps a guy when no one else would.  He doesn’t care what anyone is going to say about it.  He doesn’t care what anyone else thinks.  He doesn’t even care that the guy he helped was most likely Jewish and thought the Samaritans were kind of the scum of the earth back then.  He does the right thing because it was the right thing to do.

Talk with your student about being a friend to people who need a friend.  Not just the cool kids.  Not just the kids they are always friends with.  Not just the kids who are easy to be friends with.  Help them Imagine the End by talking through examples of people they can be kind to.  Ways they can be responsible and show God they can be trusted with what’s expected of them.

 Club 45 (4-5^th grade)

Anger

Your student is at a point in life where emotions start raging and everyone is learning how to deal with them…including you!  For the next few weeks we are going to be looking at four different emotions and helping your student understand their purpose and what to do with them.

The book of Psalms is full of songs and poems that describe various emotions.  God made us emotional beings.  He expects us to experience emotions…even anger.  Being angry is not a sin.  What we do with that anger is what is important.

Talk with your student this week about the truth that their battle is not with flesh and blood.  There will be many things in life that will cause them to be angry.  Fight for the Heart by discussing ways to harness that anger and redirect it into energy that creates good.  That’s what God did.  He was not happy with Adam in the garden…so He set in motion a plan that would reproduce His ultimate plan for good in the earth…Jesus.  He redirected His anger and continued to create goodness in the earth.