Week 668 · about 45 minutes
Proverbs 4
Proverbs 4 · Memory verse Proverbs 4:3
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Proverbs 4), the matching word search and answer key (Proverbs 4 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a seed
Hold a seed. Read Proverbs 4 in about four minutes, stopping at Proverbs 4:3: “For I was a son to my father, tender and an only child in the sight of my mother.” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with Proverbs 4?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
Proverbs 4 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “Listen, sons, to a father’s instruction. Pay attention and know understanding;” 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, “Don’t enter into the path of the wicked. Don’t walk in the way of evil men.” Proverbs 4 opens with these words: “Listen, sons, to a father’s instruction. Pay attention and know understanding;” The line to keep is Proverbs 4:3: “For I was a son to my father, tender and an only child in the sight of my mother.” Carry the word “father” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is Proverbs 4:3: “For I was a son to my father, tender and an only child in the sight of my mother.” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in Proverbs 4? Then try this: Read “For I was a son to my father, tender and an only child in the sight of my mother.” 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 Proverbs 4. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from Proverbs 4:3. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from Proverbs 4 and write Proverbs 4:3 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
Proverbs 4:3
“For I was a son to my father, tender and an only child in the sight of my mother.”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for Proverbs 4. Help us remember Proverbs 4:3 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.