Bible Story Ruth and Naomi Ruth 1 Today s Takeaway Thank you, God, for my family and friends. Weekly Verse "Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble." Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (NLT) Theme Verse in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you. 1 Thessalonians 5:18 (NKJV) 2
Skit Skit Information The Thank you Notes to God skits will require two people. One person will play himself (the straight character), and the other person will play the character in the skits. It will work best if you can find a person willing to commit to being the character for the entire series. Character Bio The character s name is Suzie. (Could also be Bobby if you would like to make it a male character). Suzie is an overgrown 4-year-old with a huge appetite for adventure. She is always trying to do something nice for someone, but ends up making a huge mess. Consider putting your character in onesie PJs (the sillier the better), or in over-sized PJs. Have the character always dragging or carrying in a huge teddy bear or stuffed animal with her. 3
Leader: Hey kids! It's so great to be with you today, and I'm so excited for our new series in (name of kid's ministry), "Thank you Notes to God." Suzie: Wanders in dragging a large teddy bear behind her singing a little tune. Leader: Hello, little girl. Are you lost? Suzie: Hi. I'm not sure if I'm lost. Is this (name of kid's ministry)? Leader: Yes, actually, but are you sure you are supposed to be here? I didn't see your parents bring you in, and why are you still in your PJs? It's not PJ day in (name of kid's ministry). Suzie: Oh, I'm definitely supposed to be here! Do you know (name of Children's pastor)? Leader: Of course! Do you? Suzie: Yep! She is a really good friend of my parents! I came here to talk to her about something. Where is she? Leader: That's cool, but you never answered my questions... never mind. I'm not sure where (name of children's pastor) is, but you are welcome to talk to me about whatever it is. Suzie: I guess you'll do... Leader: Thanks, I guess... go ahead. Suzie: It's kind of a long story. Is that ok? Leader: Sure. Wait, how long is it... interrupted mid-sentence by Suzie beginning her story Suzie: Well, it all started really early this morning. I woke up at 4 am so my parents wouldn't be awake yet. They always sleep in, and like to go to second service, so I knew I would have plenty of time for my plan. Leader: What plan? This doesn't sound like a good idea... Suzie: Shhh. I'm telling a story. So anyways, my plan. I wanted to do something super special to show my parents how much I love and appreciate them for everything they do. First, I needed to make them the BEST thank you card ever! It was definitely going to need lots of glitter, paint, and color! I pulled out my mommy's crafting supplies, and accidentally spilled them all over the floor. We are talking glitter and paint everywhere! 4 Skit
Leader: Oh dear. That doesn't sound very good. Please tell me you cleaned it up and that was the end of your plan. Suzie: I'm not allowed to touch the cleaning supplies. Mommy says so! Leader: Well, you didn't do anything else, did you? Suzie: Of course I did! Did you think my plan was just to make a card? Leader: That probably would have been a good idea. Suzie: Nope! That's not enough! So, I finished up my amazing, glittery card, and moved on to phase 2 of my plan! Leader: Phase 2?! Suzie: Yes, phase 2: Make a yummy breakfast for my parents all by myself. Leader: So you made them a bowl of cereal, right? Suzie: A bowl of cereal is definitely not enough for a thank you breakfast! Leader: My bad. Suzie: Back to my story. I decided to make them their favorite breakfast in the entire world: waffles! Leader: Wait! Waffles?! Don't those require a waffle iron? You are definitely not old enough to be operating a waffle iron! Suzie: I'm four, so yes, of course I am! Leader: You seem like a really big four year-old... Suzie: Thanks! Well, don't worry, because I never even got to make them their thank you waffles. I went to pull down the waffle iron and it knocked over the flour and a bunch of other spices and it ended up all over the kitchen. At that point I decided it was probably just better for me to run away rather than face my parents when they saw all the paint, glitter, and flour everywhere. Leader: Suzie, you definitely made a huge mess, but the answer isn't to run away. You just need to go home, apologize to your parents, and explain what happened. I promise they will still love you. Suzie: I guess you're right! I will give that a try! runs off, dragging her teddy bear. 5 Skit
Game: Get to Know You Supplies Post-it Notes (multiple colors for different teams) Pencils, crayons, or pens Bulletin board, white board, or foam board Setup Place the board of your choice on a stand or somewhere that will be visible to all of the kids. How To Play 1. 5 kids from each team will play in the first part of this game. 2. Hand each kid two post-it notes and a pencil, crayon, or pen. Have them write their name on one post-it note and hand it back to the leader. Place the names randomly on the board. 3. Tell the kids they will have 1 minute to write 5 facts about themselves on the remaining post-it note. Tell them to keep them simple, and they can't use their own name anywhere on the post-it note. 4. When the minute is up, collect all of the post-it notes and place them randomly on the board. 5. Choose 2 more kids from each team to come up to the front. They will have 1 minute to match the kids on their team to the 5 facts they wrote about themselves. 6. The team with the most correct matches at the end of the minute wins! 7. Optional Variation: Play this game in your small groups, and allow everyone to play. 8. Variation for younger kids: If you have kids who do not read or write well, have them draw pictures instead of writing facts. 6
Supplies A Bible in your preferred version (New Living Translation is used in this message) Name tags 10 heavy books Bulletin board, white board, or foam board with post-it notes Setup Write names on the nametags: Elimelech, Naomi, Mahlon, Kilion, Ruth, Orpah. Have a big bulletin board, white board, or foam board set up on a wall or stand on which kids can put their thank you notes. We will do this at the end of the message each week. Introduction Have you ever written a thank you note before? Allow kids to respond. Why did you write it? Allow a few kids to respond. Sometimes we write thank you notes because we feel like we have to, or our parents tell us to do it. We should write them because we are truly thankful to that person for something they have done for us, or for a gift they have given to us. This month we will be talking about thank you notes we might write to God. There should be an endless list of things for us to thank God for, but we will be focusing on four really important ones during our series. This week we will be thanking God for our families and friends. Are all families and friends alike? Allow kids to respond. No! All of us have been blessed with unique families and friends. We may only have one parent or we may have several step parents. We might have one brother or sister or seven. We might have ten friends or just a couple of best friends. Whatever our families and friends may look like, we can be thankful that we have them in our lives. 7 Message
Bible Story In our Bible Story we will look at a family who became close through some unfortunate circumstances, but they were able to make it through them because of their commitment to each other. If you have your Bibles, we will be turning to the book of Ruth, chapter 1:1-18. I am going to need six volunteers for the beginning of our story. Choose three boys and three girls, put the name tags on them, and introduce them to the kids. There was a man named Elimelech point to kid wearing Elimelech nametag living in the land of Moab with his wife, Naomi point to kid wearing Naomi nametag and their two sons, Mahlon and Kilion. point to kids wearing Mahlon and Kilion nametags It sounds like a pretty normal, happy family to me. Unfortunately, Elimelech died. Have kid playing Elimelech pretend to die dramatically. That left Naomi all alone with just her two sons. Then the two sons, Mahlon and Kilion married Orpah and Ruth. Have kids playing sons and their wives stand next to each other and hum "Here comes the bride." Again, about 10 years later, both of the sons died too. Have both of the sons pretend to die dramatically. That left Naomi, Orpah, and Ruth all alone. How would you feel if you were one of them? Allow a few kids to respond. Their family was anything but "normal" at this point, and Ruth and Orpah weren't even technically related to Naomi anymore. Well, Naomi, Orpah and Ruth headed back to Naomi's hometown of Judah because they heard that there were good crops and plenty of food there. Have the three girls walk across the room. While they were on their way, Naomi told Ruth and Orpah that they could go back to their homes, and she prayed that God would bless them with new husbands. Ruth and Orpah cried and told Naomi, "No, we want to go with you to your people." Naomi insisted again that they go home to find new husbands. They all cried again. Have all the girls pretend to cry. This time Orpah decided to go home have Orpah find a seat, but the Bible tells us that Ruth clung tightly to Naomi. Naomi tried a third time to convince her to go back to her home, 8 Message
but this time Ruth said, read verses 16-17 directly from the Bible, " Don t ask me to leave you and turn back. Wherever you go, I will go; wherever you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God. Wherever you die, I will die, and there I will be buried. May the Lord punish me severely if I allow anything but death to separate us!" When Naomi heard this she realized that Ruth was determined to go with her and she said nothing more. Have remaining volunteers find a seat. Life Application/Object Lesson There are a few things we can learn about relationships from Ruth's relationship with her mother-in-law, Naomi. Ruth was loyal and committed to Naomi as a daughter and a friend. She wasn't going to let the death of her husband end her relationship with Naomi. She loved Naomi and stayed with her even after Naomi tried three times to convince her to go home. Ruth knew that she would be stronger and happier with Naomi than she would be alone. I need a volunteer who thinks they are really strong to come up here and help me with something. Choose a kid to come up to the front. Put your hands up in the air with your palms facing up to hold something. I am going to put one book on your hands, and you have to keep it up. Put the book on their hands and wait for awhile. How are you doing? Can I give you another book? Allow kid to respond and put another book in their hands. Keep going until they drop them or can't hold them up anymore. I know that got a little too heavy for you. Let's get you some help. Bring up another kid or two and have them all try to hold the books together. Was it easier to hold all of those books with some help? Allow kids to respond. There are a lot of things in life that are easier to do or go through with other people we love, like our family and friends. It's not always easy to love or even be around our families and friends. However, having people we love around is something we can always be thankful to God for. Before we pray, I want to give everyone the opportunity to write a thank you note to God today for your family and friends and place it on the big bulletin board. Allow kids to write thank you notes for a couple of minutes, with leaders helping younger kids. 9 Message
Game: Guess That Post-it Note! Lots of post-it notes Supplies Setup Make a pile of post-it notes for each team with words for the teams to guess. They can be any words you like, or you can try to stick to the theme. Options: post-it note, bulletin board, push pin, button, thank you, God, family, friends, Bible. How To Play 1. 2 kids from each team will play in each round. Choose one kid in each team to be the guesser. 2. The guesser will have a post-it note on their head with a word or phrase. The other kid will have to try to get the guesser to guess the word or phrase on their head correctly. They may use verbal cues, gestures, or objects, but cannot use any of the words on the post-it note. 3. The first team to get the word or phrase correct wins the round. 4. Choose new kids for each round. 10
1. What is our new series called? Answer: Thank you Notes to God Review Questions 2. What was the name of the woman who stayed with her mother-in-law in our Bible Story? Answer: Ruth 3. What was the name of the mother-in-law in our Bible Story? Answer: Naomi 4. What is Today's Takeaway? Answer: Thank you, God, for my family and friends. 5. In which book of the Bible is our theme verse found? Answer: 1 Thessalonians 11
Small Group Questions 1. What is something you want to thank God for? 2. Is it always easy to love your family? Why or why not? 3. What are some things that only two or more people can do? Why couldn't one person do it? 4. When should we tell God thank you? 5. What can you learn about relationships from Ruth and Naomi's example? 12