Father's Day
Today in Calvary Kids, we celebrated Father's day and talked about what a father's love looks like for his children. We went through the story of the prodigal son and saw how just like a father has love for his son, God has that same love for us! Our heavenly father rejoices when we come to him because He loves us so so much.
Read Luke 15:11-31
In the story of the Prodigal Son, the father had some money to give has an inheritance, but usually kids don’t get that until later in their lives. An inheritance is when your parents pass everything onto you once they have passed away. In this story, one of the sons asked for his inheritance from his father and the father decided to divide his wealth between his sons.
The son immediately packed his belongings and went off to a distant land and spent all his money on foolish things. After he spent everything he had, there was nothing left and then a famine struck the land. A famine is when all the food runs out and the price of food goes up because there is not as much to go around in the land. Because the son had spent every last dime of his money, he had nothing to buy food and was so hungry that he began eating pigs food. Just remember that in the Jewish culture pigs were unclean (forbidden) to them so this really shows how much the son was truly at his lowest point.
The son finally realized his mistake and truly thought his father’s house was a good place
and that he should have been thankful for what he had before. Now he wants to go back home and have that again! How to do you think the father is going to react? Do you think the dad is going to be mad at his son for leaving with the money, or happy to see him?
Here is the most beautiful part...as the son returned him, his father saw him from a long way off. Instead of being mad at him, he instead was filled with compassion and love for his son and ran to him and kissed and embraced him. He was so happy to have his son back home, even after he had done everything he had done!
This story is how God feels about us!! Every time we come back to Him, He has open arms to welcome us back. It doesn’t matter how many times you mess up, God will always take us back. We shouldn’t think of God as some mean God who is waiting to punish us, but as God who is loving and kind and is waiting to embrace us with open arms when we repent and turn to Him. The Bible says in Romans 2:4 that the goodness of God leads you to repentance. The son repents and asks for forgiveness and the father is so happy that he throws his son a party. He says, "My son was lost but now he is found, he was dead but is now alive." That is just like us; we are dead in our sins but when we come to God, Jesus makes us alive because of what He did on the cross for us.
Remember this story also has a second son in it as well. The son who never left was mad because his brother got a party and he didn’t. He was behaving the whole time and saw his brother seemingly get rewarded for doing the wrong thing. But here’s the important thing to notice: At the end of verse 31 the father says ‘everything I have is yours’…
Sometimes it might seem like other kids get to do whatever they want while you have to follow the rules. The reality is, when we don’t follow the rules, there are consequences just like the son who had to eat pig food. We have to remember that when we follow God everything He offers is available to us. There is true peace, joy and blessing that only comes from staying close to God and in our Father’s house. So let’s be happy when someone comes back and turns away from their sin. We can rejoice with God because people who are lost can be found in Jesus.
No Discussion Questions This Week.
Memory Verse:
“Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise:" Ephesians 6:2
Read Luke 15:11-31
In the story of the Prodigal Son, the father had some money to give has an inheritance, but usually kids don’t get that until later in their lives. An inheritance is when your parents pass everything onto you once they have passed away. In this story, one of the sons asked for his inheritance from his father and the father decided to divide his wealth between his sons.
The son immediately packed his belongings and went off to a distant land and spent all his money on foolish things. After he spent everything he had, there was nothing left and then a famine struck the land. A famine is when all the food runs out and the price of food goes up because there is not as much to go around in the land. Because the son had spent every last dime of his money, he had nothing to buy food and was so hungry that he began eating pigs food. Just remember that in the Jewish culture pigs were unclean (forbidden) to them so this really shows how much the son was truly at his lowest point.
The son finally realized his mistake and truly thought his father’s house was a good place
and that he should have been thankful for what he had before. Now he wants to go back home and have that again! How to do you think the father is going to react? Do you think the dad is going to be mad at his son for leaving with the money, or happy to see him?
Here is the most beautiful part...as the son returned him, his father saw him from a long way off. Instead of being mad at him, he instead was filled with compassion and love for his son and ran to him and kissed and embraced him. He was so happy to have his son back home, even after he had done everything he had done!
This story is how God feels about us!! Every time we come back to Him, He has open arms to welcome us back. It doesn’t matter how many times you mess up, God will always take us back. We shouldn’t think of God as some mean God who is waiting to punish us, but as God who is loving and kind and is waiting to embrace us with open arms when we repent and turn to Him. The Bible says in Romans 2:4 that the goodness of God leads you to repentance. The son repents and asks for forgiveness and the father is so happy that he throws his son a party. He says, "My son was lost but now he is found, he was dead but is now alive." That is just like us; we are dead in our sins but when we come to God, Jesus makes us alive because of what He did on the cross for us.
Remember this story also has a second son in it as well. The son who never left was mad because his brother got a party and he didn’t. He was behaving the whole time and saw his brother seemingly get rewarded for doing the wrong thing. But here’s the important thing to notice: At the end of verse 31 the father says ‘everything I have is yours’…
Sometimes it might seem like other kids get to do whatever they want while you have to follow the rules. The reality is, when we don’t follow the rules, there are consequences just like the son who had to eat pig food. We have to remember that when we follow God everything He offers is available to us. There is true peace, joy and blessing that only comes from staying close to God and in our Father’s house. So let’s be happy when someone comes back and turns away from their sin. We can rejoice with God because people who are lost can be found in Jesus.
No Discussion Questions This Week.
Memory Verse:
“Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise:" Ephesians 6:2
Posted in Calvary Kids