Week 274 · about 45 minutes
Ruth 1
Ruth 1 · Memory verse Ruth 1:5
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Ruth 1), the matching word search and answer key (Ruth 1 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a smooth stone
Hold a smooth stone. Read Ruth 1 in about four minutes, stopping at Ruth 1:5: “Mahlon and Chilion both died, and the woman was bereaved of her two children and of her husband.” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with Ruth 1?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
Ruth 1 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “In the days when the judges judged, there was a famine in the land. A certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to live in the country of Moab, he, and his wife, and his two sons.” That is not a motto invented for a poster. It is the first sentence a family hears when this page is opened at night.
Keep going a little further. The chapter also says, “Go back, my daughters, go your way; for I am too old to have a husband. If I should say, ‘I have hope,’ if I should even have a husband tonight, and should also bear sons;” Ruth 1 opens with these words: “In the days when the judges judged, there was a famine in the land. A certain man of Bethlehem Judah went to live in the country of Moab,…” The line to keep is Ruth 1:5: “Mahlon and Chilion both died, and the woman was bereaved of her two children and of her husband.” Carry the word “mahlon” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is Ruth 1:5: “Mahlon and Chilion both died, and the woman was bereaved of her two children and of her husband.” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in Ruth 1? Then try this: Read “Mahlon and Chilion both died, and the woman was bereaved of her two children and of her husband.” once more. What does it show you about God? You do not have to finish every verse. You can close the book after the memory verse and still have read the Bible together.
Group game
Walk the room as if you are moving through Ruth 1. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from Ruth 1:5. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from Ruth 1 and write Ruth 1:5 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
Ruth 1:5
“Mahlon and Chilion both died, and the woman was bereaved of her two children and of her husband.”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for Ruth 1. Help us remember Ruth 1:5 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.