Week 702 · about 45 minutes
Ecclesiastes 7
Ecclesiastes 7 · Memory verse Ecclesiastes 7:18
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Ecclesiastes 7), the matching word search and answer key (Ecclesiastes 7 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a paper crown
Hold a paper crown. Read Ecclesiastes 7 in about four minutes, stopping at Ecclesiastes 7:18: “It is good that you should take hold of this. Yes, also from that don’t withdraw your hand; for he who fears God will come out of them all.” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with Ecclesiastes 7?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
Ecclesiastes 7 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “A good name is better than fine perfume; and the day of death better than the day of one’s birth.” 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, “All this I have seen in my days of vanity: there is a righteous man who perishes in his righteousness, and there is a wicked man who lives long in his evildoing.” Ecclesiastes 7 opens with these words: “A good name is better than fine perfume; and the day of death better than the day of one’s birth.” The line to keep is Ecclesiastes 7:18: “It is good that you should take hold of this. Yes, also from that don’t withdraw your hand; for he who fears God will come out of them all.” Carry the word “good” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is Ecclesiastes 7:18: “It is good that you should take hold of this. Yes, also from that don’t withdraw your hand; for he who fears God will come out of them all.” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in Ecclesiastes 7? Then try this: Read “It is good that you should take hold of this. Yes, also from that don’t withdraw your hand; for he who fears…” 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 7. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from Ecclesiastes 7:18. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from Ecclesiastes 7 and write Ecclesiastes 7:18 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
Ecclesiastes 7:18
“It is good that you should take hold of this. Yes, also from that don’t withdraw your hand; for he who fears God will come out of them all.”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for Ecclesiastes 7. Help us remember Ecclesiastes 7:18 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.