God is to be obeyed

Going into the second week of the New Year, I was desperate for new ideas. I know I mentioned earlier on this blog that we were going to move into a unit on the "I am" sayings of Jesus. But as I tried to plan for that I ended up scrapping the idea. But what instead? Especially in light of the fast-approaching Chinese New Year, when at least one Sunday, if not two, will interrupt our "regular programming." Better to not start a longer unit right away.

So…since we've learned a lot about what God is like, what should be our response to Him? An obvious answer: we should obey Him. One of our favorite "worship songs" includes the lines: "When I hear God's commands, I must say, 'Yes, Sir!'"

As an example of obedience, we did the story of the boy Samuel in the temple. Mr. Lei led it (and did a great job), so here it is in Chinese.

撒母耳的媽媽叫哈拿。她很切求神給她個兒子。	介紹女子﹔她跪低禱告
結果就是﹕生撒母耳	介紹男子﹐撒母耳
哈拿開心到想把她最保貴的物業獻給神。就是甚麼﹖	(問大家)
是撒母耳﹗哈拿把她送給祭司以利﹐後來撒母耳和以利一齊住神的聖殿。	介紹第二哥男子﹐以利
一天晚上﹐兩個已經睡了。	以利在啡色椅﹔撒母耳在地
撒母耳聽人呼叫他的名	叫另外一個小朋友呼叫他名
他跑到以利道﹐問﹐你要甚麼﹖	跑到以利道
以利說﹐我沒有呼叫你﹔你回去啦﹗	以利叫他走﹐他回來再睡
他再聽人呼叫﹕撒母耳﹐撒母耳	又呼叫
今次肯定是以利﹗他就跑到以利道問﹐你要甚麼﹖	跑到以利道
以利說他聽錯了﹐叫他回去	又回去睡覺
又有第三次﹐聽人呼叫他的名﹗	再呼叫
以利是不是哈他﹖	(問大家)
撒母耳不想再見以利﹐但太過聽話﹐要去	又跑到以利道
今次以利想想下說﹐可能是神呼叫你﹗你若再次聽他呼叫﹐不要起身﹐只要說﹐[主﹐請說話﹐我聽]	以利教他說那一句。撒母耳練習﹐就回去睡覺
今次神顯然﹐又呼叫﹕撒母耳﹐撒母耳。撒母耳照以利所教他來答﹕主﹐請說﹐我聽。	那叫了三次的人戴光環﹐到撒母耳道再呼叫。撒母以回答。
神對他說﹕撒母耳﹐我是一個很聽話的兒子﹐我喜悅。因為我說話﹐你肯聽﹐所以我要使你作我的使者。很多人只聽自己的思想﹐所以不聽我話。但因為你聽以利話﹐又聽我話﹐將來大家都會聽你話﹗恭喜你﹐撒母耳﹗	神說了這話﹐撒母耳起身﹐與神握手

For our game, the kids were mixed & matched into sets of two (we only had three kids). One child had to read a command written on a slip of paper (fun things like, "get a glass of water for Mr. Lei" or "comb Pastor Damon's hair") and the other had to obey. Oh that they would always be so obedient—ha! Although to be honest, they usually are, if they are paying attention to a direct command. It's when they're on their own that anything goes! Guess that's the same with all kinds of kids! Smile.

For craft time, we covered small notebooks with pretty paper, labeled them with the kids' names, and then each child copied a sentence describing one way their parent wanted them to be obedient in the coming week. Then we would find out the following week who earned gold stars for their books. (Note from the following week: Ka Hei got TWO gold stars! Congratulations!)

Bruce led Bible study for the adults on I Samuel 15:22, "to obey is better than sacrifice."