Nothing's Too Hard for God

      Okay. I am going to try this again. I just typed this whole lesson plan, which took me two hours to do, and lost it all. if anyone can tell me a simpler way to fix this problem other than copying and pasting it to another program then trying to save it on here... please let me know cause this makes me very irritated:). thank you.

      First of all, we did this as a curriculum, not just a one day thing so hopefully the kids will remember it. I know I will because we had sooo much fun doing this!

      We drew body outlines of each kid onto somekind of elmers roll paper we found in the craft section, for the ones too wide to draw on the paper (the paper is quite slim but we didnt see a different size) we used unused wrapping paper left over from Christmas. It wasn't as durable as the roll paper but aside from a few tears I think it worked fine :) For each piece of armor we learned about, we put the piece on our "self-portraits"

      Week one we talked about Jonah. Jonah was told to go to Ninevah, but instead he went to a boat, hence he got eaten by a big fish. Now what could Jonah have done to avoid the "big nasty fish" situation?? He could have obeyed and went to Ninevah. Thats the approach we took to teaching about the armor of God, we told stories of people who could have used the armor but didn't.

      Week two we learned about the belt of truth. We learned about Ananias and Sapphira. Ananias and Sapphira could have saved thier life and been blessed if they would have just been honest. It wasn't about how much they gave, it was the condition of thier heart when they gave it and the fact that they lied which costed them thier life. So for the armor part we took some silver papertype ribbon that I found at walmart for $4 at walmart and taped it where the waist line is and put a sticky, glittery piece of foam cut out into a "T" shape in the center for the belt of truth.

      Week three we learned about the breastplate of righteousness. We took king Nebuchanezzar's story and how if he would have been righteous and not built the big statue, it would have saved him alot of trouble and embarassment when he threw shadrach, meshach, and abednego into the furnace and they didn't burn up. Righteous means moral or godly. it means other things but we focused on these definitions. For the breastplate we took colored foamboards and cut them out into the shape of a breastplate and we took a glittery, colored foamboard with a sticky backing and cut cross shapes out and put them in the center. Now i DO NOT recommend the colored foamboards without the sticky backing because we had to tac them to the "self-portrait" with thumb tacs. Which was depressing when they took them down because the breastplate fell off lol. So test what you use before you use it which I failed to do. It was fine for what we needed and it looked cool but we could have used something better.

      Week four we learned about the shoes of peace. Now I have no idea who we learned about because apparently I lost my notes on this one. However I would assume it was a story in which the charachter failed to use the shoes of peace (haha predictable I know). For the shoes we printed off pics of high heels for the girls and sneakers for the boys and let them color and decorate them and tape them on it. Here again please print off a LEFT foot AND a RIGHT foot... otherwise the "self-portraits" will have two left feet like ours did. I guess if you find a pic you like you could put it on a program which lets you mirror an image. haha I miss the little things way too much but they had fun making fun of me for it so I guess I took one for the team.

      Week five we took a break and learned about David and Goliath. We took a "field trip" from our Sunday School room to the Kids Church room (my ceilings aren't high enough) where I had drawn a pic of Goliath on the elmers paper. it was almost as big as Goliath so it was a great visual. Now I warn you... drawing from a laddar 10 feet in the air is quite difficult so if you have a 9 foot tall friend, recruit him! My Goliath was a little wop-sided and what not but it got the point accross. After we got back to our Sunday School class we talked about how the isrealites saw an opponent too powerful to defeat, but when David looked at him, he saw a target too big to miss! I am a fan of giving out homework for the kids to do during the week so they wont forget what we learned about in class. So this week for homework I asked them to read this story every day and to pick out all of the pieces of armor that David had to use to defeat Goliath and how he used the armor and write it down in thier journals. So the next week when they came back to class the answers were awesome! They came up with ways that David used the armor that I would never have thought of! So journaling really came in handy with this study. (my kids always journal every week to re-enforce the lesson and to stay dedicated to God. I really recommend encouraging your elementary aged kids to journal and read thier bible every day because it helps them so much. and I learn from what they write the majority of the tme :))

      Week six we learned about the shield of faith. For this lesson we took the story of Peter and how if he would have put on the shield of faith he would have walked on water instead of falling in the the water. for the shield of faith we cut out a shield of aluminum foil and letters that spelled faith out of our left over stick backed glittery foam board. now... please do not put the shields on upside down or you will never hear the end of it from the people to first notice it. For the people who dont know what Im talking about... the flat side goes on TOP and the pointy side goes on BOTTOM. Ours however are not done like that because I am directionally challenged. but they still look cool lol.

      Week seven we learned about the helmet of salvation. We took the story of king Jeroboam and how all he had to do was love God and keep Gods commands and he would rule the kingdom which had been ruled by the dynasty of David. If Jeroboam would have put on the helmet of salvation God would have made him a mighty ruler. But instead, he let other gods take over and God had to take the crown from him. For the helmet we printed off pics of a helmet and decorated them and colored them and put them above our heads.

      Week eight we learned about the sword of the Spirit. We learned about when Jesus was in the desert with Satan and Satan was trying to tempt him. Satan tempted him with scripture but Jesus came right back and shot him down with scripture. This is the only story we used where the bible Charachter actually used the piece of armor... we thought it would be a nice change lol. For the sword, we cut out a handle shape out of red paper bags that were left over from valentines day. Then we cut out the sword part out of aluminum foil.

      Week nine was "pray in the Spirit at all times". All of the armor is good, but there is a secret to using them. The power behind the armor is the Holy Spirit. For this example we took candles into the room (if you have small or kids who would think it was funny to set the room on fire PLEASE DON'T do this!!) and explained that a candle that isn't lit is nice, it smells nice when youre right up next to it and it looks pretty, but it never reaches its full potential. However, when you light the candles, you can smell them from far away, and the candles do what they were ment to and made for. The Holy Spirit is like fire and we are like candles. We can try to put on the armor of God and try to use it, but without the Holy Spirit we cannot use it to its full potential. AND, its alot easier to use if we have His help. We took this oppportunity to ask if they wanted to be filled with the Holy Spirit and two answered yes. We prayed in class and they went up to the altar for Him during church. We are so proud of them! And all they have learned and applied to their life! This curriculum has really been a learning experience for us as well as an encouragement to push forward and continue on!

      I am working on a new curriculum for kids about the Holy Spirit now, but its not finished yet. I better get on the stick because we're starting it Sunday lol. When I get it done I will try to get it on here. If you have any ideas about the armor lesson for others or about the Holy Spirit PLEASE email me @ lizzsumners@agchurches.org so that I can use it or put on here! Thank you and God bless!