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, Student Page, Family Connection Card, and other resources 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.
Dear friends, here is one thing you must not forget. With the Lord a day is like a thousand years. And a thousand years are like a day. The Lord is not slow to keep his promise. He is not slow in the way some people understand it. Instead, he is patient with you. He doesn’t want anyone to be destroyed. Instead, he wants all people to turn away from their sins.
2 Peter 3:8–10
Some things take time to happen. For God, some things take a lot of time. Think about creating the universe and everything in the world, then having to wait to see what would happen. That is exactly what God did! His creation started all life. But, it was just that, a beginning! God is patient with His creation, and He is patient with you.
Sometimes patience requires waiting for other people’s poor choices to resolve themselves. There are also times when you must be patient with yourself. Patience can take many forms. As you wait and hope for what may come next, remember that God Himself has shown you a lot of patience over the years. Some things take time, so sit back and relax. Have patience!
Encourage your children’s families to talk about things they do that take time to complete. Ask the children to share some of the things they can do while they wait with patience.
Teacher Tip: If possible, email or text the Family Connection Card to the families of your students.
Before greeting your children, ask them to wait for all of the children to arrive. Once everyone has come to class, invite the children to sit on one side of your teaching space.
Welcome to class! Today, we will talk about patience. We will start with a game that will test your patience.
Have the children stand on one side of your teaching space. The children will walk toward the opposite side. This will be the goal. If you can do this outside, use a tree or large rock as the goal. Pick up 2 sticks.
Stay where you are until I say, “Begin!” This is how the game is played. Each time I hit these 2 sticks together, you will take 1 giant step toward the goal. The goal is here (show the children where the goal is). If you take a step before I hit the sticks together, you will have to return to the beginning, where you are now. Ready? Begin!
Hit the sticks together 1 time. Then, silently count to 10 before hitting the sticks together again. Continue in this manner until all of the children reach the goal or for 5 minutes. If any children take steps before you hit the sticks together, ask them to return to the beginning.
You all reached the goal! Some of you found it easy to wait for me to hit the sticks together. Others struggled to wait. Sometimes it is difficult to wait for things. This game required patience. If you struggled with patience, it took longer for you to reach the goal because you had to start over. Let’s talk about what it means to have patience.
To have patience means to wait for or go through something while controlling your emotions. This means that even if something is bothering you, you do not become angry and you do not complain. You can have patience with yourself, other people, and the things that happen in your life. It can be difficult to have patience, but learning to wait calmly for things to happen will help you to be a calmer, happier person.
There are many examples in the Bible of people who had to be patient. Noah was one of them. Noah built a big boat called an ark. In this true story from the Bible, Noah spent many years building an ark before living on the ark for many months.
The story begins with God explaining to Noah that He would send a big flood to get rid of all the evil in the world. He told Noah to build an ark and gave him the instructions. Noah spent a very long time building the ark. When the ark was finished, it was about 137 meters long, 23 meters wide, and 14 meters high. As you can imagine, it would take a long time to build such a huge boat!
Let’s stop for a moment and pretend to build a boat. Grab a pretend hammer, some nails, and a few pieces of wood. Hammer in the nails with me. Each nail takes a while to hammer into the wood. Noah would have had to cut the wood himself. Making a huge ark would take a lot of patience, right? We do not know for sure how long it took to build the ark, but we know it took a really long time. The Bible tells us that God was patient and waited for Noah to finish building the ark before He sent the flood. Think of a time when you had to work on something for a long time.
Allow 2–3 children to respond.
God’s plan for Noah and the rest of the earth was just beginning! Once the ark was complete, Noah, his family, and 2 of each kind of animal on earth climbed aboard the ark. Noah was also asked to bring enough food for all the people and all of the animals.
Let’s pretend we are going on a very long trip. Raise your hand if you have ever travelled somewhere far away.
Answers may include: food, clothing, water, and other items.
Those are great ideas! Let’s pretend to pack some of these items in a bag to bring with us on our long trip. Place some food in your bag. Then, grab some water and put that in the bag. Add to your bag any other items you want to have with you on your trip.
Let’s return to the true story of Noah. Once Noah, his family, and all the animals were on the ark, springs in the ocean came open and rain began falling from the sky. This was not just any rain, though. It rained without stopping for 40 days and 40 nights! That is more than a month of rain! Can you imagine waiting for 40 days and nights for it to stop raining? That is a really long time to wait! Luckily, Noah and his family had a lot to do while they were on the ark. Think about who and what else was on the ark with Noah.
Optional: If you are using The Action Bible, show the children the pictures on pages 30–37 or the downloadable image as you read the story that follows.
Answers may include that he: fed the animals, made sure all of the animals were healthy, prayed, and spent time with family.
Sometimes, when you are waiting for something to happen, the best thing you can do is to keep yourself busy doing other things. This helps you to have patience because it keeps your attention on what you can do instead of focusing on what you cannot do. Let’s pretend we are on the ark. Choose 1 activity to pretend to do while you are waiting for it to stop raining. You may choose to play a game with someone else, pray, feed animals, or check the health of the animals. Ready? Show me what you would do to pass the time.
Give all the children 1 minute to act out what they would do while they waited for the rain to stop.
You all did a great job of waiting patiently! Let’s return to our story. When the rain finally stopped, Noah, his family, and everything in the ark waited for the day when they would see dry land. For about 6 months, water covered everything, even the tallest mountains! Finally, they saw dry land!
Noah and his family waited a very long time for the water to go away! To help you understand this, let’s talk about what can happen in 6 months. If you dig up the soil and plant maize in April, you will have to wait until September or October to eat it! That is 5 or 6 months. The time Noah and his family were on the ark would have been enough time to grow and harvest maize!
Let’s return to the true story of Noah. The Bible says:
Read this verse directly from your Bible.
But God showed concern for Noah. He also showed concern for all the wild animals and livestock that were with Noah in the ark. So God sent a wind to sweep over the earth. And the waters began to go down.
Genesis 8:1
Finally, the water was lower, but it was still not time to leave the ark. Many months passed before the land was ready for Noah, his family, and the animals to step out onto it. Those on the ark stayed on the boat for about 1 year in all. Raise your hand if you are 6 years old now. If you boarded the ark now, you all would be 7 years old when you left the boat! That is a long time to wait! The Bible tells us that God told Noah when it was time to leave the ark.
So Noah came out of the ark. His sons and his wife and his sons’ wives were with him. All the animals came out of the ark. The creatures that move along the ground also came out. So did all the birds. Everything that moves on land came out of the ark, one kind after another.
Genesis 8:18–19
Children may respond with 1 or more of the following: Noah, Noah’s family, the animals, and God.
Some answers include: It took time for Noah to build the ark. It took time for the rain to stop, it took time for the water to go down, and it took time for the land to be ready for the people and animals.
In the true story of Noah, Noah had to be patient with himself while he built the ark. God had to be patient with Noah as he completed it. Then Noah, his family, and all of the animals had to be patient for the flood to come and the water to go away. All of these things required waiting with patience.
Optional: If you are using Student Pages, give each child a pencil. Then, allow 3 minutes for the children to trace the lines on Noah’s Ark.
Sometimes you will need to be patient for a little amount of time. Other times you will have to be patient for a very long time, like Noah. Your parents or teacher may tell you “No” when you ask to have something, or they might tell you, “No, not right now.” What is the difference between these 2 examples? The second one means that you cannot have it now but you need to be patient for the day when you might be able to have it. You can have hope and wait without becoming angry or complaining.
Let’s play a game! For our game, I will give you a situation. You will show how you can wait with patience. Let’s try an example together. You made plans to play a game with your friend after school. You cannot wait for school to end!
To wait with patience, I will pray for God to help me focus on my schoolwork. I will then try my best to enjoy my learning so that the time passes quickly. (Use actions to show what this would look like.) Show me what you can do to wait with patience. (Allow 30 seconds for the children to act out what they would do.)
Very good! Remember, patience is waiting without getting angry or complaining. Now, let’s try acting out a few more situations.
Pause for 30–45 seconds after each statement to allow children to act out their responses. If no one moves after 15 seconds, show them what you might do. If you do not have time for children to act out all of the situations, only use 1 or 2 of the following.
You all did a great job of showing what you can do to wait patiently! It is not always easy, but it is important to be patient when things take time to happen. Today’s memory verse reminds us that patience is waiting calmly.
Show the Memory Verse poster, if you are using it.
The end of a matter is better than its beginning. So it’s better to be patient than proud.
Ecclesiastes 7:8
Read the verse once. Then, ask the children to come up with a rhythm as they say it with you. Pause after each sentence to give children a chance to catch up with you. To create their rhythms, the children can clap, tap their knees, stomp their feet, or find something to use as a drum. When music is used to memorize something, it is more likely to stay in long- term memory.
End class by saying this blessing, based on Genesis 6—8, over the children.
Blessing: May you understand that some things take time. May God help you to grow more patient.
Lead the children in singing this quarter’s song if possible.
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.
