Week 344 · about 45 minutes
1 Kings 15
1 Kings 15 · Memory verse 1 Kings 15:3
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (1 Kings 15), the matching word search and answer key (1 Kings 15 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a smooth stone
Hold a smooth stone. Read 1 Kings 15 in about four minutes, stopping at 1 Kings 15:3: “He walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him; and his heart was not perfect with Yahweh his God, as the heart of David his father.” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with 1 Kings 15?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
1 Kings 15 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam the son of Nebat, Abijam began to reign over Judah.” 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, “Then Asa took all the silver and the gold that was left in the treasures of Yahweh’s house, and the treasures of the king’s house, and delivered it into the hand of his servants. Then King Asa sent them to Ben Hadad, the son of Tabrimmon, the son of Hezion, king of Syria, who lived at Damascus, saying,” 1 Kings 15 opens with these words: “Now in the eighteenth year of king Jeroboam the son of Nebat, Abijam began to reign over Judah.” The line to keep is 1 Kings 15:3: “He walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him; and his heart was not perfect with Yahweh his God, as the heart of David his father.” Carry the word “walked” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is 1 Kings 15:3: “He walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him; and his heart was not perfect with Yahweh his God, as the heart of David his father.” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in 1 Kings 15? Then try this: Read “He walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him; and his heart was not perfect with…” 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 15. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from 1 Kings 15:3. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from 1 Kings 15 and write 1 Kings 15:3 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
1 Kings 15:3
“He walked in all the sins of his father, which he had done before him; and his heart was not perfect with Yahweh his God, as the heart of David his father.”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for 1 Kings 15. Help us remember 1 Kings 15:3 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.