God Loves A Humble Heart

The next lesson in our bible curriculum was about the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector. The Pharisee's prayer was all "puffed up" but the Tax Collector's prayer was humble. Jesus said we should pray like the Tax Collector - humble prayers to our Father.

I always start the lesson by reading the story from the bible and having the kids color the sheet that came with the lesson. We talked about which person on the coloring sheet was the Pharisee (and what a Pharisee was) and the Tax Collector.

We talked about "puffed up" prayers and I gave them a balloon. They were to puff up their prayers and for each prayer, they added a puff of air to the balloon. When they said a prayer that was humble, they could let some of the air out of the balloon.

Kaleb had a hard time blowing up the balloon but he at least tried.

Then we talked about a simple way to pray - the JOY method. J - thank Jesus, O - pray for others, and Y - then pray for yourself.

Kaleb is thanking Jesus for his Mousey. Gotta love this :) I love the way he closes his eyes to pray.

One of the activities required plastic eggs which I was sure that I packed when we moved here but, after several days, I could not find them. So, I had to adjust the activity. I had them wait in their room while I hid milk jug lids (4 of each color - blue and red) around the house. Their "job" was to find the four lids and meet me at the table for their weekly pay.

I then payed them one candy for each milk jug lid they found. Kaleb was reluctant to give up his lids but then, when he saw the "payment" he relented. After they were paid, I told them they had to pay their taxes. I proceeded to keep asking for "money" until they had nothing left and I asked how they felt about me-the tax collector. Was it fair? Did they like it?

We made Pharisee and Tax Collector puppets.

Lastly, we discussed what God does for us. We wrote everything said onto papers to add to their notebooks and I had them draw pictures.

My favorite picture from this lesson - Kaleb was thankful that God gave him Mousey but he was frustrated that he couldn't draw Mousey. J offered to draw him. What a sweet thing to do! See, they sometimes do nice things for each other! I have proof.

Links

Mission Bible Class - has some addition ideas for teaching the parable of the Pharisee and the Tax Collector.

Homeschooling Hearts and Minds - has a cute craft idea of making an abacus from beads and popsicle sticks.

Luke the Book - has a video on youtube about the parable, haven't checked it out completely so please review before watching with your kids.