Week 810 · about 45 minutes
Jeremiah 29
Jeremiah 29 · Memory verse Jeremiah 29:11
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Queues the lesson plan, this story’s coloring page (Jeremiah 29), the matching word search and answer key (Jeremiah 29 word search), the memory-verse tracer, and a parent slip.
Five-minute object lesson
Prop: a ribbon
Hold a ribbon. Read Jeremiah 29 in about four minutes, stopping at Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says Yahweh, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.” Ask, “What does this prop have to do with Jeremiah 29?” Let two children answer, then say the memory verse together.
Story script
Jeremiah 29 is a real chapter from the Old Testament. It starts, “Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the residue of the elders of the captivity, and to the priests, to the prophets, and to all the people whom Nebuchadnezzar had carried away captive from Jerusalem to Babylon,” 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, “Yahweh of Armies says: “Behold, I will send on them the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, and will make them like rotten figs that can’t be eaten, they are so bad.” Jeremiah 29 opens with these words: “Now these are the words of the letter that Jeremiah the prophet sent from Jerusalem to the residue of the elders of the captivity, and to…” The line to keep is Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says Yahweh, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.” Carry the word “know” from that verse into the rest of the day.
The line worth learning out loud is Jeremiah 29:11: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says Yahweh, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.” If the rest of the chapter feels crowded, hold that one sentence until the room is quiet.
What happens first in Jeremiah 29? Then try this: Read “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says Yahweh, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give…” 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 29. Every time you freeze, a child says one word from Jeremiah 29:11. The last child says the whole verse.
Craft
On a US Letter sheet, draw one picture from Jeremiah 29 and write Jeremiah 29:11 under it. Send it home as tonight’s reminder, not as a decoration contest.
Memory verse
Jeremiah 29:11
“For I know the thoughts that I think toward you,” says Yahweh, “thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give you hope and a future.”
Take-home prayer
Father, thank you for Jeremiah 29. Help us remember Jeremiah 29:11 when we wake up, and teach us to notice you in an ordinary night. Amen.