As I Pray in Faith, I Can Receive Strength and Courage
Deuteronomy 31:6
“Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”
LESSON LIFESAVER Activity
I CAN DO MANY THINGS! David and Goliath poster or coloring page
OBJECTIVE: Children can know that no matter how small they are, as they pray and have faith, God and Jesus can help them do difficult things. Like when David killed the giant Goliath with a small stone.
TO MAKE Print or copy the activity poster to color.
THOUGHT TREAT Spirit-and-body cookies! Give the children an unfrosted sugar or gingerbread cookie in the shape of a body and explain that our bodies are capable of amazing things with the help of God. Then, pipe a frosting dot on the cookie’s forehead (to represent their mind) and a heart on the chest. Encourage them to remember that God loves us and has given us our minds and hearts to help us understand how to do things. Like David, we can trust in God to guide us. When we pray, the Holy Spirit provides us with ideas and feelings to help us make the right choices.
ACTIVITY:
THE POSTER READS: I Can Do Many Things! 1 Samuel 17. Even though David was only a small boy and Goliath was so big, Heavenly Father helped David do a very difficult thing. Heavenly Father will help me too.
HOME ACTIVITY READS: Help me know the many things I can do. Help me realize that Heavenly Father and Jesus will help me do difficult things.
• Talk about the poster, saying, “I can do so many things!” (1 Samuel 17). Tell the story of David and Goliath (below). David prayed daily to God, and trusted He would help him do hard things. Even though David was only a small boy and Goliath was so big, God helped David do a very difficult thing. God will help us too.”
• Talk about hard things to do, for example: not knowing how to do things, not tall enough to reach things, or not knowing how to make friends.
• Talk about things the children can do – help my family, be kind to a friend, make my bed, pick up my toys, hang up my clothes, fix my food, clean up after I eat or play, fasten my seat belt, tie my shoe laces, smile, give a hug, take a bath, wash my hair, get dressed, say my prayers.
• Your parents can help and teach you how to do things. They can help you understand that God and Jesus will help you do things too; even difficult things. We can ask God every day to help us do these things, and even ask Him what to do, or how to do something as David did.
DISCUSSION POINTS (Courage, Scriptures, Jesus Christ)
• Part of God’s plan for each of us is to come to earth and receive a body. He wants us to learn ways to use our bodies the right way.
• What can you do with your feet? What can you do with your eyes? What can you do with your voice? What can you do with your hands?
• Can a small baby walk? Talk? Feed itself? Ride a bike? Play the piano? As you grow you learn how to do these and many other things. What do your parents do that you can’t do yet? Can you work at a job, drive a car, cook dinner, play an instrument well, make a quilt, plant a garden?
• What do you want to learn to do as you grow? What are you learning to do now?
• Some things are hard to do. What have you tried to do that was hard?
• Your family is always there to help you do hard things.
• Who else is there to help you do hard things? Teachers and God the Father (Heavenly Father) and His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit.
• Courage is doing hard things. Courage is doing right – when others may be doing wrong.
Story of David and Goliath: (1 Samuel 17)
King Saul and the men of Israel gathered to fight the Philistines in the valley of Elah. The Philistines had a great champion, a giant named Goliath, who was going to fight for them. He was covered in heavy armor. He had a helmet of brass on his head. He carried a large spear.
Goliath cried out, “Choose you a man… and let him come down to me. If he be able to fight with me, and to kill me, then will we be your servants: but if I prevail against him, and kill him, then shall ye be our servants, and serve us.” Goliath taunted (mocked, ridiculed, teased, tormented) the army of King Saul for forty days. King Saul and his army were afraid.
David’s elder brothers were in Saul’s army. David’s father wanted him to carry food to his brothers. As he did as his father asked, he saw what was happening. David asked, “Who is this…Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?”
David then went to King Saul and said, “Thy servant [I] will go and fight with this Philistine.” King Saul told him how great a warrior Goliath was from his youth. David then told King Saul about his experience tending his father’s sheep and a lion came, a bear came and took a lamb out of the flock, and how he killed the lion and the bear. David said he could kill this Philistine who defies the armies of the living God. He said, “The Lord that delivered me out of the paw of the lion, and out of the paw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.” And Saul said unto David, “Go, and the Lord be with thee.”
All David had to fight Goliath was his staff, five smooth stones, and his sling. David said to Goliath, “Thou comest to me with a sword, and with a spear, and with a shield: but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom thou hast defied. This day will the Lord deliver thee into mine hand; and I will smite thee…that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel…for the battle is the Lord’s, and he will give you into our hands.” David took a stone and slang it, and smote the Philistine in his forehead, that the stone sunk into his forehead; and he fell upon his face to the earth.
Questions:
• Who helped David fight Goliath?
• Who can we ask to help us when we have hard things to do?
• How can we thank God for the help He gives us?
“You’re braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think,” A.A. Milne / Christopher Robin
BIBLE SCRIPTURES TO UNDERLINE:
• Joshua 1:9
“Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the Lord thy God is with thee whithersoever thou goest.”
• Deuteronomy 20:1
“Be not afraid… for the Lord thy God is with thee.”
• Deuteronomy 31:6
“Be strong and of a good courage, fear not, nor be afraid of them: for the Lord thy God, he it is that doth go with thee; he will not fail thee, nor forsake thee.”
• 2 Samuel 2:7
“Be ye valiant.”
• 2 Timothy 1:7
“God hath not given us the spirit of fear.”
• Acts 28:15
“He thanked God and took courage.”
• Galatians 1:10
“For do I now persuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ.”