Week 699 · about 45 minutes
Ecclesiastes 4
Ecclesiastes 4 · Memory verse Ecclesiastes 4:2
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Ecclesiastes 4), the matching word search and answer key (Ecclesiastes 4 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a key
Hold a key. Read Ecclesiastes 4 in about four minutes, stopping at Ecclesiastes 4:2: “Therefore I praised the dead who have been long dead more than the living who are yet alive.” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with Ecclesiastes 4?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
Ecclesiastes 4 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold, the tears of those who were oppressed, and they had no comforter; and on the side of their oppressors there was power; but they had no comforter.” 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, “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their labor.” Ecclesiastes 4 opens with these words: “Then I returned and saw all the oppressions that are done under the sun: and behold, the tears of those who were oppressed, and they had…” The line to keep is Ecclesiastes 4:2: “Therefore I praised the dead who have been long dead more than the living who are yet alive.” Carry the word “praised” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is Ecclesiastes 4:2: “Therefore I praised the dead who have been long dead more than the living who are yet alive.” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in Ecclesiastes 4? Then try this: Read “Therefore I praised the dead who have been long dead more than the living who are yet alive.” 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 Ecclesiastes 4. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from Ecclesiastes 4:2. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from Ecclesiastes 4 and write Ecclesiastes 4:2 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
Ecclesiastes 4:2
“Therefore I praised the dead who have been long dead more than the living who are yet alive.”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for Ecclesiastes 4. Help us remember Ecclesiastes 4:2 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.