Dear parents,
Welcome to Sharpened Words for Little Ones. In Proverbs chapter 4 we get a glimpse of a father, sitting his children down before him, and giving them good doctrine. We know the whole of the book of Proverbs was used to instruct schoolboys, and the old Jewish fathers used it to train their sons.
It is a very practical book. Please note, this book, which is very practical, is filled with analogies, object lessons, and illustrations to help the students learn more quickly. These teaching methods also help the students to remember what they learned. We know that the greatest teacher that ever lived used these same methods to teach the people when He was here on earth. These methods were tried and proven by the Master Himself. I think it is right to say God inspired these methods of teaching. This is the same God who told us to train our children. We give you these ideas with a hope that you will use them and find more like them on your own. When you come across a good one, let us know. We would love to print it for others to use.
--The Editors
God bless you as you teach!
Ye are the Light of the World
This devotional should be done at night, as we will be dealing with light and its effect in the darkness. Bring several candles with you to your family time. After you have finished singing, turn out all the lights for a few moments. Then turn them on and read the verses that pertain to this lesson. Talk about being the light for a short time, and then turn the lights out again. Just keep on teaching the concept to them as you all sit in the dark. They will love the change in environment and they will be listening. Then get one candle out and light it with a match. Make sure you all note what just one candle does to the darkness. You can also get some kind of a bushel and put the light under it so the children can see how much this affects the darkness. After discussing light and darkness for a while relating this to the lost world around us, pass out all the candles. As you light them one by one you will see how much more the darkness is affected by more candles. Family testimony can be brought in here. You should tell them how important it is to be in unity with each other, and how this makes the light shine more brightly. This is also a good time to talk about your church. How many more lights you have and how much brighter the light is when the church stands together. Finish your time in the dark, with all the candles lit, singing that little children’s song, “This little light of mine, I’m going to let it shine.”
Hating Sin
This is a very important concept in a child’s life. We know that our Lord Jesus loved righteousness and hated iniquity, and we want to learn to respond in the same way. Your children will never forget this lesson. We will be looking at Ezra Chapter 9. You want to wear an old shirt the morning that you plan to teach on this. Start by giving them a little background for what happens in this text, Ezra’s burden for God’s glory, and how they traveled back to Jerusalem to establish the destroyed city. The testimony of God is an important one. Then explain what the people did. When Ezra came to the city and heard about the evil they had done, he rent his garment. At this point in the story stand up and act the whole thing out. Ripe your shirt open with your hands like he did. The buttons on the shirt will go flying everywhere. You will even have the attention of your wife if you don’t warn her ahead of time. There is much in this chapter that Ezra did because of his grief over their sin. Spend some time on all of it, and then spend some time on the holiness of God and why it is so grievous to sin and compromise.
Jesus is Coming
The Bible clearly teaches us that Jesus is coming again and we don’t know exactly when. We are warned many times that we should be watching for His return. We are to be expecting Him to come, and be prepared at all times. Faithfulness to God and His word is our responsibility while we wait for His coming. Here is the object lesson. As you start your time with the family, get up in the middle of the first song and walk over to the window and look out as if you are watching for someone to come. This always stirs interest because we all like visitors. Do the same thing during the second song, maybe even twice during this one. As you sing the third song, do it again two times. They will probably be asking you why you are doing this by now but just put them off. There are many portions of scripture where this principle is taught, so choose one and begin teaching. Somewhere at the beginning of the teaching, get up again and go look out the window. They should understand by now, why you were doing this all through the singing. Now you can teach on what it means to be watching, waiting, and being prepared.
Bad Habits
Here is a good way to teach the children how strong bad habits can be if you don’t deal with them. An appropriate verse for this lesson is found in Ro. 6:16, where it talks about becoming a slave to sin. Bring a spool of thread to family devotions and start by showing the children how easily you can bread one strand of the thread. You can usually get one of the boys to break it also. Then get a volunteer to help you teach the lesson. You need to set him in a chair and start winding the thread around and around, many times. Make sure it is enough that they will not be able to break loose. It is best to tell a story about a boy or girl who started out doing something wrong one time. Explain to them that this child should have dealt with their wrong action right away, but they didn’t. This might even be a story out of your own life. As the story goes on, you should be wrapping the thread around them many times. Tell the children how it becomes easier and easier to do the wrong again and again, the longer you put off dealing with it. Eventually you can not stop. Try, as you will, as hard as you can, you are not able to stop. When you get to this point in the story, you have a child sitting there who is all wrapped up in thread. Have them try to break loose of the binding. He will not be able to do it. Give them a little pep talk and let them try again. They are bound and they know it and all the rest of the children also know. Now you can read the verse from the Bible and explain that this is a principle in the Word. He that committeth sin is the servant of sin. There are many ways that you can go from this point. You can take another family devotion time and teach them how Jesus Christ is the only way to get loose once they are bound. You could take another time and teach them the whole lesson on the positive side. Good habits are also gained the same way one at a time. The same verse explains this. It also speaks to us about becoming a servant to righteousness. Any action done sincerely twenty-one times in a row will become a habit. This has tremendous potential for children who want to develop character in their lives. So there you have three ideas for teaching times which all come from the one illustration of using thread to bind them. You can encourage them to open up and tell you about areas of their lives where they see the threads getting stronger. You can also stimulate them to choose some good habit that they need to bind into their lives, and offer to help them do it.
