It's all in God's timing

Sometimes the stars align.

Sometimes things just happen to coincide at the same time.

Or maybe it was just all in God's timing.

In our church the grade schoolers and the preschoolers study completely different topics.

The grade schoolers theme this week was, "Wait on God's timing" and they studied the Israelites and how they made a golden calf instead of waiting for Moses to return.

In the preschool class they studied Hannah and how she prayed for a baby.

As I got home from church and was thinking about both lessons I realized that they both were about waiting on God's timing.

So this week I thought we would study Hannah for our family bible study.

On the first day we watched a short video from youtube.com

After discussing the story we sang one of my favorite songs from when I was a kid.  As an adult who is still making mistakes daily I think I like the song more now then when I was 5.  I find the song extremely encouraging.

I am so grateful that God is infinity more patient than I am.  It reminded me to look at others this way as well.  Just try walking around your day imagining people with signs on their chest saying:

  

It will completely change the way you treat people.

Our memory verse this week came from Seeds of Courage.

 

We learned Psalms 40:1-2  " I waited patiently for the Lord he looked at me and heard my cry.  He lifted me out of the slimy pit out of the mud and mire.  He set my feet on the rock, gave me a firm place to stand and here I am."

You can listen to tracks from the entire cd on their website here.  This song is track #4.

If you don't already own a Seeds Family Worship cd you need to buy it!  Right now!  We love them!

The next day the kids acted out the story of Hannah praying for a baby.  Samantha was Hannah and Matthew was Eli the priest.  I would whisper the lines to Samantha and then she would say them.  I believe dressing up and pretending to be a character really helps cement the story to your memory.

On Wednesday we made a craft. 

If you want to make your own Hannah craft you can get the free printable here. (make sure you scroll down to the bottom of the page.)

Samantha cut out her craft "all by my own self".
 She was very proud and I was too!

Even Kaitlyn enjoyed making this craft(she is just opposed to pictures) but I also found this worksheet here if coloring is not a good option for your child:

On Thursday, we discussed how Hannah is a palindrome.  We had never discussed palindromes before and this seemed liked a good time to start.  The kids enjoyed brainstorming a list of words and numbers that met the qualifications.

Afterwards we had a small lesson on prayer.  I took some of my ideas from this page here.

Using talk as an acronym we discussed a little bit of how and why it was important to pray:

T ake the time                      Make a time to pray

A hhh quiet                          Find a quiet place

L earn from God's word     Read the bible everyday even if it is just a verse

K eep a prayer plan             Know different ways you can pray and write it down

Next week we plan on working on developing a prayer plan.  I was thinking of reading different stories in the bible showing different ways people prayed or maybe we will study the Lord's prayer.  I also want to give the kids some fun, creative, and practical ways they can pray on their own.  If you have any great ideas please leave them in the comments below!

If you want to check out some more resources on Hannah or prayer I have some more resources pinned to my pinterest board called church lessons.

It's important to wait on God's timing but don't wait to share God's word with your kids.  Try something today.  Don't worry if it seems weird or awkward or doesn't seem to go the way you planned.  God is still working on you and through you.  

Deut 6:6   These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. 7 Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. 8 Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. 9 Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.