Opening Activity

• Recap the 2 commandments the children learnt yesterday.
• “Mother/Father Says” Game:
  Have some volunteers follow your commands. To have them follow a command, begin it with, “Mother (father) says….” Include some commands that you do not wish for them to follow. For these, simply give the command without saying, “mother/father says” first.
  Volunteers will be out if they make a mistake. You could also have them respond to the commands they are supposed to do by saying, “Yes, Mom/Dad!” before they complete the action.
  Some examples of silly actions to include are: hop on one foot, rub your tummy, sing “I’m a C-H-R-I-S-T-I-A-N,” or high five a neighbor.

Bible Story

• You all did a great job obeying the commands in our game! I can tell that you are learning the importance of obedience. We have been learning about the Ten Commandments and how it is important to obey God’s good rules. Can anyone remind me why we have rules?(Allow children to answer.)
• Rules help keep us safe and healthy, and to help us get along nicely with others. The first four commandments are about how we relate to God. They tell us how to keep our relationship with God happy and good. The last six commandments are about our relationship with people.
• The fifth commandment is about a very special relationship. Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the Lord your God is giving you.” Exodus 20:12
• Honor means to respect, to show that someone is important to you. The first commandment that helps us get along with other people shows us how to have a good relationship with our parents. That tells us that our parents are very important people in our lives!
• When we obey our parents, things will go well for us. Parents know how to take care of you and provide what you need to have a safe, happy, and healthy life. When you listen to your parents and do what they tell you to do, you will live a long life. That’s a promise from God!”( Ephesians 6:1-2)
• Not everyone lives with their mom and dad for a lot of different reasons. Sometimes children may live with an aunt or uncle or a grandparent. God still expects children living with adults who are not their parents to honor those adults. For example in the book of Esther, it says that Esther was raised by her older cousin, Mordecai, and his wife. Esther obeyed and respected Mordecai.
• The fifth commandment tells us to honor our father and mother. As we have just seen, this can mean more than just our parents. Romans 13:1 tells us, “Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God” There are other adults, other authorities in your life that you are expected to obey. Can you name a few?(Allow the children to answer)
• Honoring our parents also helps us to honor our heavenly Father.
• The 6th commandment says “Do not murder”. It is about valuing, honoring, and respecting life.
• In Matthew 5:21-22 ,Jesus tells us that murder is not just something we do to someone’s body, but murder can be something we feel in our hearts or say with our mouths. Jesus is saying that any action or any thought that hurts another person is just as bad as murder. Can you guess why?
• All life is important to God because God created all life. It does not make God happy when we do things to hurt or destroy his beautiful creations. Just imagine how you would feel if you worked hard on a beautiful drawing, only to have someone come and tear it in half! You would feel bad. Just think how much worse it is if we hurt a person.
• Genesis 1:27 says that God created people in his own image. We are made to be like God. We are made to be kind and creative and loving. When we hurt others, we are not being kind or loving. We are not creating good things, we are destroying good things.
• If we let hatred and unkind words live in our hearts, they will grow like weeds, and turn into unkind actions. God knows what we think. And even the secret thoughts in our hearts are not a secret to God. He sees the good and the bad, and the bad thoughts about others in our hearts is sin. (Jeremiah 17:10a)
• 1 John 3:15 says, “Anyone who hates another brother or sister is really a murderer at heart. And you know that murderers don’t have eternal life within them.” If you really hate someone, Jesus does not live in your heart. God’s love is so big and so strong and so amazing, that it can’t even be in the same place as hatred. If there is hatred in your heart, God’s love for other people is not there. It’s like two people trying to sit in the same chair. It just doesn’t work.
• Everyone gets angry sometimes.It is when we stay angry or act mean or say unkind things that we are letting our anger take over, and that is when it becomes a problem. When we start to feel like we are getting angry and feel mean thoughts coming into our hearts, that is when we need to stop and pray and ask God to forgive us and give us kind thoughts about others.
• So, we know that sixth commandment tells us to not murder. We learned that murder is not only hurting someone’s body, but it is also hurting their heart and God’s heart with the unkind things we think and say. That is because each and every one of us is created special by God and he loves us all very much.

Questions

1. The first four commandments are about what?
2. What is the fifth commandment / rule?
3. What is honour?
4. I should only obey my parents. (True or False)
5. What is the sixth commandment / rule?
6. Murder is just something we do to someone’s body.( True or False)
7. What are some ways you might be unkind with your words or actions?