God is all-wise

Another slow day at MLFF, with only three families in attendance. There was a Special Olympics event going on, that is understandably, though disappointingly, a bigger draw than church for our unbelieving families. But we did go ahead with our regular program this time.

Our story was from I Kings 3:

Israel's most famous king was named David (crown one boy). But today we aren't going to talk about David. After he dies, his son Solomon became king (first boy sits, second boy crowned) Now, Solomon was still young, and concerned about whether or not he would be completely accepted as king. One night, when he was sleeping (lies down on mat), he has a dream. (angel with halo flies in, S. sits up) God says to him, whatever you ask Me, I will give you. S. says, please give me wisdom and understanding to be a good king for Your people. God says, you have asked well. You did not selfishly ask for riches or honor or long life or revenge on your enemies. So I will give you the wisdom you want, wisdom greater than any king before or after you, but I will also give you riches, honor, and long life. (angel leaves, S. gets up)

One day after this, Solomon was on his throne when two women came to see him. (S. sits on fancy chair, two girls come to him, one holding doll). Girl 1 (holding doll) says, the two of us live together. Recently we both had baby boys. Last night when we were sleeping, she rolled over on her boy and killed him. But then she took the dead baby and put him in bed with me, and took my baby to bed with her. So this morning I thought my baby was dead, but then when I looked more closely, I saw that the dead baby was hers. Girl 2 says, she's lying; her baby is dead! This baby is mine! (grabs doll) They continue yelling no, it's mine, (grab doll back and forth)

Solomon says, okay, okay, quit fighting! You say it's yours, she says it's hers…give the baby to me. (give doll to S.) S. calls a soldier over (boy with sword) and says, take this baby and cut it in two. Each woman can have half. (Soldier raises sword over head) Girl 2 kneels down and says don't kill the baby! Let her have it! But Girl 1 says, no, the king has the right idea; half for each of us. S. tells the soldier to stop & says, give the baby to girl #2. She is its real mother. (soldier puts down sword, gives baby to Girl 2)

***

Our Solomon did not quite get the idea of sitting up in bed; he wanted to either sit up or lie down. It took him three tries, but he finally got it right. Everything else went very well.

For a game, I had covered a large foam die with fabric on which I had written the characters for wisdom, understanding, riches, honor, revenge, and long life. Each child (or adult) would throw the die and read the character. For the "selfish requests", they would receive a piece of cereal from a small cup with the same label. But if they threw wisdom or understanding, they got a piece of cereal from each of the six cups. Very popular game!

For our craft, we had stickers of animals (made from computer clip art) which, unlike the baby, had been cut in half. The rear half of each animal was already stuck to a piece of paper, & the kids had to find the proper front ends to match & stick on. (I possibly could have left some sets completely "unstuck" for the kids to find the pairs, but I was afraid it would be too frustrating for some)

For Bible study, we looked at James 1:5-8 & 3:17. The verse from chapter three was to help us not doubt God's wisdom, by helping us recognize it through its characteristics.