Opening

• Before class, write the titles “How Others Have Comforted Me” and “How I Have Comforted Others” on the whiteboard. As children arrive, allow them to list ways in which they have either received or given comfort under the corresponding titles. HELP AND COMFORT God’s Word tells us to remember to do good, to share what we have, and to look after the needs of others

• MATERIALS:
  Activity page for each child
• Pencils or markers

WHAT YOU WILL DO:
Give each child a pencil or a marker and a copy of the activity. Have the children read all three scenarios, circling the answer that they feel best describes how to help or comfort the afflicted person in each setting. As time permits, have the children share their answers with the class and explain why they chose the answers they did.

Discussion Questions:
1. Are words always the best way to comfort someone in need? (Words can be comforting, but many times a hug, sitting and listening quietly, or providing for someone’s physical needs can bring more relief.)
2. Can you recall stories in the Bible when people helped each other? (Allow for discussion.)
3. How has someone helped you in the past? (Allow for discussion.)

Bible Story

➢ Hearing of the calamities that struck Job, three of his friends came to comfort Him. The friends sat with Job for seven days, silently mourning with him over the loss of his livestock, servants, and ten children. To make matters worse Satan had also afflicted Job with painful sores all over his body. After seven days, Job opened his mouth to curse the day he was born, which opened a long dialog between his friends and himself. The friends mistakenly argued that Job’s sufferings were due to some wickedness or unconfessed sin in his life, while Job maintained his innocence.
➢ When Job’s three friends, Eliphaz the Temanite, Bildad the Shuhite and Zophar the Naamathite, heard about all the troubles that had come upon Job, they set out from their homes and came and sat on the ground with him for seven days and seven nights. No one said a word to him because they saw how very sad he was.
➢ Job was so sad about everything that had happened – about all of his animals being stolen and all his children dying and all the painful sores all
over his body – that, he suddenly cried out to God and to his friends, “I wish I was never born! Then all this bad stuff couldn’t have happened to me.” ➢ Job’s friends were also very sad and they said, “Job, you must have done something very bad for God to do all of this to you. He is punishing you for your sin.”
➢ Was God punishing Job? (No. Remember that the story said that Job always did the right things. God was not punishing Job.)
➢ So Job said, “Good things happen to everyone and bad things happen to everyone. Just because something bad is happening to me, does not mean that God is punishing me.”

Questions

1. Why did Job’s friends come to visit him? (They came to comfort him during his time of need.)
2. Were Job’s friends able to comfort him? (No, Job stated that they were miserable comforters.)
3. Why weren’t the words of Job’s friends able to comfort him? (Their words lacked substance and were groundlessly judgmental.)
4. If the roles were reversed, how would Job comfort his friends? (He would empathize with them, putting himself in their place, and use encouraging words to bring them relief.)
5. What is the best way to comfort others who are going through difficult times? (We should treat others in the same way in which we would want to be treated if we were going through a similar problem. See Matthew 7:12.)

Game: Up and Down
● Give the students blankets, sheets, or beach towels to hold between them. You can break the students into teams or have them complete the following challenges together.
● Bounce an object 5, 10, and 20 times without dropping it.
● See how high they can bounce an object.
● Bounce more than one object for 30 seconds without dropping any ofthem.
● Bounce an object while spinning their blanket, sheet, or towel. (Everyone in the circle moves one step between bounces.)

● Bounce an object while hopping. (Everyone takes one hop between bounces.)
● You can add more complicated challenges if your group is doing well. As you finish, point out that we all have ups and downs in life. Sometimes, things are going well for us, and, sometimes, they’re not.