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Lesson 7: God's Commandments: StealingDig Into the Bible Read: Exodus 20:15; John 12:1-8 In This Passage: God commands his people not to steal. Judas, one ofJesus’ disciples, is the treasurer for the group. Instead of beingresponsible with the money, he secretly steals some for himself and thencriticizes a woman who gives generously to Jesus, saying she’s beingwasteful. Bible Point: We don’t steal. Summary Verse: “Jesus replied, ‘You must love the Lord your Godwith all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind’ ” (Matthew 22:37).Dig DeeperYou’ll Be Teaching: We don’t steal. Stealing is a fairly black and whitetopic to kids. They don’t perceive a lot of gray area; they know it’swrong. However, they have a strong temptation to take a small item justbecause they want it. Help kids see why stealing is wrong and replace adesire to steal with a desire to give generously.Think About: What are you tempted to steal? How can you change thattemptation to generosity? Dig Into Prayer Ask God to help your kids have a stronger desire to give than to get.Quick Tip When talking about God’s Commandments, remember to keep yourenvironment a judgment-free zone. That means if a child confesses, hehas stolen, make sure it’s a safe place to share that without immediatecondemnation. Instead, talk to the child separately about how Godmight want him or her to rectify the situation.
Kids make handprint reminders to not steal.SUPPLIES “Praying Hands” handout printed on both sides of colorful card stock (1 per child) child-safe scissors markers large craft sticks (2 per child) Glue Dots (4 per child) adhesive hook-and-loop dots (2 sets per child) feltEASY PREP Cut felt into 2-inch squares, 1 per child. Make a sample craft to show kids.Talk About Our HandsSay: God made our hands. When we pray, sometimes we put our handstogether like this. Put your hands together as if praying, and have kids do it,too. That keeps our hands from wanting to play. Instead, we pray! We can doso many other wonderful things with our hands, too.
Share your favorite thing to do with your hands. It may be shaking handswhen meeting a new friend, making chocolate chip cookies, or shooting abasketball.Ask: Tell about your favorite thing to do with your hands. Kids may say givea high-five, color a picture, or build with blocks.Say: Those are some fun things we can do with our hands. But sometimes wecan do things with our hands that aren’t good, like stealing. God commandsus, “We don’t steal.” Stealing hurts others. Let’s make something to help usremember to use our hands for good things, like talking to God, instead.Make Praying HandsGive each child a copy of the “Praying Hands” handout and a pair ofscissors. Help kids cut apart the two hands along the cut line. Encourage kids to color the hands on both sides.Help kids use two Glue Dots to attach a craft stick to each hand. Then helpthem add two hook-and-loop dots to each stick so the hands will sticktogether. After kids finish, place a felt square in front of each child, and say: Let’spretend these squares are things that don’t belong to us. We might thinkabout using our hands to take them anyway, like Judas did with Jesus’friends’ money. Show kids how to pick up the felt square with the handsthey’ve made.Say: But we can remember that we don’t steal with this rhyme:If we stop and pray, we don’t take things away.Have kids say the rhyme while they remove the felt from the hands.Say: We don’t steal. Let’s use our hands to pray instead. Encourage kids tostick the hands together. Lead kids to pray and ask God to help them not takesomething that doesn’t belong to them. Remind kids to take home their craftsand share them with their families.
God’s Commandments: StealingExodus 20:15; John 12:1-8Here’s what happens God commands his people not tosteal. Judas, one of Jesus’disciples, is the treasurer for thegroup. But he secretly steals somefor himself and then criticizes awoman who gives generously toJesus, saying she’s being wasteful.Bible Point:We don’t steal “Jesus replied, ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all yoursoul, and all your mind’ ” (Matthew 22:37)THROUGH THE WEEKReplace greed with generosity inyour family this week. Set a goal of how many thingsyou think you can find todonate to charity. Collect the items you can give,then see if you hit your goal. Drop the items off at ahomeless shelter, women’sshelter, or other charity.Talk About This Talk about ways you can be more generous.Digging Into Epic Teachings of the Bible. Copyright Group Publishing, Inc. Permission to reproduce granted for local church use.Image Credit: Fertnig/iStock/Getty Images Plus
can do things with our hands that aren't good, like stealing. God commands us, "We don't steal." Stealing hurts others. Let's make something to help us remember to use our hands for good things, like talking to God, instead. Make Praying Hands Give each child a copy of the "Praying Hands" handout and a pair of scissors.
