ELEMENTARY KIDS & FAMILIES date
1.8
God delights in giving all of His love to buy us back … and redeem our lives. Inspire (for parents) When I became pregnant with my oldest daughter, my husband and I were in a dark period of our marriage. We’d both walked away from God and nearly walked away from each other. I gave birth to my first baby and named her “Hope.” This was a strange choice for me at the time because I had none. When she was two, the problems in our crumbling marriage came to a head and my husband and I found ourselves looking over the edge of the cliff of divorce. But it was a leap we weren’t willing to take. When I began to rebuild my life with my husband and God, I wondered about the self-serving and self-absorbed mother I had been for the first two years of my daughter’s life. I broke down in a counselor’s office and asked her if I’d ruined my baby. She was a toddler now, and I’d been so full of myself. Could any of this be redeemed? She smiled. Of course it could. God’s main business is to heal. His primary job is to scoop up the broken pieces of our lives and put them back together in a way that makes more sense than when it began. He delights
in giving all of His love to buy us back from that edge and redeem our lives. He’d redeemed our marriage, and He would redeem our daughter. The stresses of her hurting parents had some effect on Hope, but those first two years are almost forgotten. Six years later, she is vibrant, growing, and beginning to understand God’s big rescue of the world. Soon, I’ll tell her the story of how He rescued her parents and how He redeemed us all.
Getting Started
by Sarah Markley
oseph, Part I) is 37; 39—41 (J es en G : re tu rip Sc Redeems Main Point: God your family to designed to allow This resource is your children d’s Word before for parents have time in Go n use God’s pla is ca Be . ch ur ch attend children’s faith, l nurturers of their ua irit sp e th be to lly, your children you grow spiritua we know that as lly as well. will grow spiritua
Equip (for parents) In the story of Joseph, God redeemed him REM many times over. Joseph was beaten by his EMB “The ER v brothers, sold into slavery, framed by the wife not Lord is ers be i m of Potiphar, and forgotten in jail, yet God E y nw dow she a p n n herd redeemed him out of every one of these t. H in g me em ree ,Is b situations. An interesting thing about this my eside q n pastu akes m hall s u e story is that God not only redeemed righ oul. He iet wa res, he lie ters lead teou guid Joseph out of these situations, He , Psa s lm 2 sness f es me he rest redeemed him extravagantly. A writer of in p ores or h 3:1– a is n Scripture points out God’s extravagant 3 ame ths of ’s sa redemption can be seen in Joseph’s ke.” garments. Joseph changed garments five times during the story. Joseph goes on a Suppor t journey that sees him take on the garments of (for parents & kids) a favorite child, a slave, an overseer, a prisoner, and eventually a ruler dressed in fine robes. Sometime this week read through the biblical account of Joseph’s story in Genesis We all have stories of redemption. Whether 37:12–36 and 41:41–49. At the end of each they seem big or small in our eyes, we have all passage think of a question that reviews what been restored by God’s grace. Our garments you just read such as, “What did Joseph’s of sorrow and hopelessness have been brothers do to him?” or “What did Pharaoh do changed to garments of salvation and joy. It’s to Joseph?” so important that we tell these redemption stories to our children. These stories give Before you begin to read the account, pray hope, and they give our children a picture of together as a family. Spend some time asking a God who can move and redeem. They also God what He might want each of you to hear show our kids that we are not perfect, that from Him. following Jesus is not about being perfect. Just for fun, incorporate a bit of They show that a genuine life lived with Jesus your own story into this time. Gather your is not about never messing up, rather it’s kids together and read the passage to them. about letting God redeem those mess-ups for After you have finished, tell them that, just as His glory. God redeemed Joseph, He redeems all of us. Chose a story in your own life that shows God’s redemption and share that with your children. When you are finished, ask your children if they have any questions about the story of Joseph or about your story. Let them know what they just heard is a part of The Big God Story in the Bible and that they will hear it in church. Remind them God is working to redeem their lives as He redeemed Joseph’s, just as He redeemed you.
© 2010 David C Cook. TruResources are developed in partnership with ROCKHARBOR Church and a national network of family and children’s ministry leaders. All rights reserved.