Week 790 · about 45 minutes
Jeremiah 9
Jeremiah 9 · Memory verse Jeremiah 9:8
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Jeremiah 9), the matching word search and answer key (Jeremiah 9 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a ribbon
Hold a ribbon. Read Jeremiah 9 in about four minutes, stopping at Jeremiah 9:8: “Their tongue is a deadly arrow. It speaks deceit. One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart, he waits to ambush him.” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with Jeremiah 9?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
Jeremiah 9 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” 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, “but have walked after the stubbornness of their own heart, and after the Baals, which their fathers taught them.”” Jeremiah 9 opens with these words: “Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people!” The line to keep is Jeremiah 9:8: “Their tongue is a deadly arrow. It speaks deceit. One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart, he waits to ambush him.” Carry the word “tongue” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is Jeremiah 9:8: “Their tongue is a deadly arrow. It speaks deceit. One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart, he waits to ambush him.” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in Jeremiah 9? Then try this: Read “Their tongue is a deadly arrow. It speaks deceit. One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but…” 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 Jeremiah 9. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from Jeremiah 9:8. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from Jeremiah 9 and write Jeremiah 9:8 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
Jeremiah 9:8
“Their tongue is a deadly arrow. It speaks deceit. One speaks peaceably to his neighbor with his mouth, but in his heart, he waits to ambush him.”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for Jeremiah 9. Help us remember Jeremiah 9:8 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.