During the lesson, the information for you to know is written in regular type, and what we suggest speaking or reading aloud to children is in bold. All resources for this lesson, including the Teacher Guide and Student Page, can be downloaded in a ZIP file by clicking on the following link:
In some lessons you will find "resource articles." These are articles written by experts from around the world to help equip you for your work with children and adolescents. Share them with parents or guardians if you consider it appropriate.
They trusted in you, and you didn’t let them down.
Psalm 22:5b, NIrV
Having a friend you can rely on, someone you can trust completely, is rare. For you to trust someone absolutely, that person must know all about you—the good things, the difficult things, the joys, the hardships, the nice and the ugly. Is there anyone who knows you like that and can still be trusted? Most of us feel that if someone knew everything about us, that person would turn away from us. Our hard things would be too difficult to handle. Our ugly side would cause that person to want to leave us.
Jesus sees all of you—the things you show the world and the things you would rather hide. He loves you. Jesus can be trusted absolutely. He is the One who will not disappoint you. Spend a couple of moments writing down things that you can entrust to Jesus right now. He will not disappoint you.
Let your children’s families know that they are learning about building trust in their relationships. Encourage families to talk about how they build trust as a family. Some examples of how to do that could include: being reliable, telling the truth, and caring for each other.
Teacher Tip: If possible, email or text the Family Connection Card to the families of your students.
As you begin class today, ask the children if they reached out to new friends in the past week. Pick a couple who did and ask them which tips they used.
Today we will talk more about how to trust friends and work together.
Answers might include: Friends do not gossip, and they stand up for each other.
Let the children know they will do a trust activity now. Have the children stand up and divide them into 2 teams. You will need a stick from a tree or a metre stick for each team.
Each team will split into 2 groups who will line up shoulder to shoulder facing each other. The lines should only be about a step apart. Ask the children to hold out 1 finger at the same height, in the space between the two lines. Lay the stick horizontally on their extended fingers. Tell them they cannot touch the stick in any other way. Each team must work together to lower the stick to the floor without dropping it. Everyone must continue to touch it, but no one may grab it. It must simply lay on top of their fingers. The first team to lower the stick to the ground wins.
If you have a large number of children in class, you can have only 2 teams compete. If you have a small number of children in class, have them form 1 group and work together to accomplish the task. When the activity is done, have the children sit down.
Children might answer that they had to listen and trust each other to work together.
Optional: If using the Student Pages, ask the children to fill in their answers in the bricks.
Listen as I tell you a true story from the Bible about some friends who trusted each other a lot.
One day, Jesus was in a house teaching. He was very famous, so people came from every village to hear Him. They knew that God had given Jesus power to do miracles and heal sick people. Everyone wanted to hear Jesus teach and see Him perform miracles. Some religious leaders were there too. Soon the house was very crowded. No one could get in. No one could get out.
There were 4 friends who heard Jesus was teaching nearby. So the 4 friends carried their paralyzed friend through the dusty streets to the house where Jesus was. They tried to get in, but there was no room because the house was filled with people.
In those days, most houses in that land had steps on the outside that led up to the roof. In the evening people would go up on the roof to escape the heat.
These 4 friends carried the paralyzed man up to the roof. When they got up there, they removed some tiles in the roof. Then they lowered their friend on his mat in front of Jesus. When Jesus saw their faith, He told the man his sins were forgiven.
When the religious leaders heard this they thought, “Who does He think He is? Only God can forgive sins!”
Jesus knew what they were thinking, so He asked them a question. “Is it easier to say, ‘Your sins are forgiven,’ or to say, ‘Get up and walk’? But I will show you that I have the power to forgive sins.”
Then Jesus told the paralyzed man to get up, take his mat, and walk home. The man did and went home rejoicing in God. Everyone there was amazed and praised God.
Optional: If you are using The Action Bible, let the children review the story on pages 560–562.
The 4 friends trusted that Jesus could help their paralyzed friend. They trusted each other to help carry him and lower him through the roof. The paralyzed man trusted his friends who took him to Jesus. He trusted Jesus to heal him.
Allow the children to offer their thoughts. The paralyzed man may have trusted his friends because they had helped him in the past.
Pick 5 children to pretend to be the 4 friends and the paralyzed man. Give them a minute to imagine how the friends or paralyzed man might have felt or what they may have been thinking. Then ask them the following questions. They should respond as though they really are that person. This activity helps children see that the people in the Bible characters had thoughts and emotions like they do.
Clap for the characters and have them rejoin the group.
Today we are talking about friendship, but that is not the most important thing in this story.
This best thing Jesus did in this man’s life was forgive his sins.
They were angry. They said only God could forgive sins. They did not realize that Jesus is God.
Share the following if it’s not mentioned: The friends may have been surprised too. They had brought their friend to Jesus for physical healing, but Jesus had also healed the man’s heart.
God always wants to heal a heart from sin even more than He wants to heal our bodies, because sin separates us from Him. Jesus is the perfect Friend. He is always trustworthy, always loyal, always protecting, and always loving.
We have learned today about how trust is important in friendships. Think about the game we played at the beginning of class. Your team had to work together and trust that each person would do his or her part so the stick would not fall. You also saw in the story of the 4 friends that friends who trust each other can help each other. And we learned that Jesus is the most trustworthy Friend of all! Listen to this verse about friends:
Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves.
Romans 12:10
Share the optional Memory Verse poster if you are using it and let the children repeat the verse again.
Tell the children know they will get to create a special poem using the letters from the word, “trust.” You will call out the first letter of the word “trust.” The children will think of a word or short phrase that starts with that letter and describes what a friend is like. When they have a word or phrase, they can shout it out. If possible, write their words on a blackboard, whiteboard or large paper. Here is an example:
Once you have a word or phrase for each letter, read the entire poem aloud.
Optional Supplies:
Give each child a piece of paper and pencil. Have them write the letters of the word “trust” down the side of the page. They will write a word beginning with each letter that describes a trustworthy friend.
End of Option
Have the children pair up and repeat this blessing based on Ephesians 1:3 and Proverbs 27:6 to each other. If you have an odd number of children, you and one child can pray with each other.
Blessing: May you know that God, the Father of Jesus our Lord, has blessed you with all you need to be a trustworthy friend.
Lead your children in worshipping our great God who gives us friends.
Life on Life ©2020 David C Cook. Reproducible for home or classroom use only. All other uses require written permission from David C Cook [email protected]. All rights reserved.
