Week 341 · about 45 minutes
1 Kings 12
1 Kings 12 · Memory verse 1 Kings 12:4
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (1 Kings 12), the matching word search and answer key (1 Kings 12 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a wooden spoon
Hold a wooden spoon. Read 1 Kings 12 in about four minutes, stopping at 1 Kings 12:4: ““Your father made our yoke difficult. Now therefore make the hard service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, lighter, and we will serve you.”” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with 1 Kings 12?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
1 Kings 12 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.” 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, “But as for the children of Israel who lived in the cities of Judah, Rehoboam reigned over them.” 1 Kings 12 opens with these words: “Rehoboam went to Shechem, for all Israel had come to Shechem to make him king.” The line to keep is 1 Kings 12:4: ““Your father made our yoke difficult. Now therefore make the hard service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, lighter, and we will serve…” Carry the word “father” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is 1 Kings 12:4: ““Your father made our yoke difficult. Now therefore make the hard service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, lighter, and we will serve you.”” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in 1 Kings 12? Then try this: Read ““Your father made our yoke difficult. Now therefore make the hard service of your father, and his heavy yoke…” 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 1 Kings 12. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from 1 Kings 12:4. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from 1 Kings 12 and write 1 Kings 12:4 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
1 Kings 12:4
““Your father made our yoke difficult. Now therefore make the hard service of your father, and his heavy yoke which he put on us, lighter, and we will serve you.””
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for 1 Kings 12. Help us remember 1 Kings 12:4 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.