Week 704 · about 45 minutes
Ecclesiastes 9
Ecclesiastes 9 · Memory verse Ecclesiastes 9:7
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Ecclesiastes 9), the matching word search and answer key (Ecclesiastes 9 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a smooth stone
Hold a smooth stone. Read Ecclesiastes 9 in about four minutes, stopping at Ecclesiastes 9:7: “Go your way—eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works.” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with Ecclesiastes 9?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
Ecclesiastes 9 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “For all this I laid to my heart, even to explore all this: that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God; whether it is love or hatred, man doesn’t know it; all is before them.” 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, “Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work, nor plan, nor knowledge, nor wisdom, in Sheol, where you are going.” Ecclesiastes 9 opens with these words: “For all this I laid to my heart, even to explore all this: that the righteous, and the wise, and their works, are in the hand of God;…” The line to keep is Ecclesiastes 9:7: “Go your way—eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works.” Carry the word “bread” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is Ecclesiastes 9:7: “Go your way—eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works.” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in Ecclesiastes 9? Then try this: Read “Go your way—eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted…” 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 9. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from Ecclesiastes 9:7. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from Ecclesiastes 9 and write Ecclesiastes 9:7 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
Ecclesiastes 9:7
“Go your way—eat your bread with joy, and drink your wine with a merry heart; for God has already accepted your works.”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for Ecclesiastes 9. Help us remember Ecclesiastes 9:7 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.