Introduction. Building Strong Families Together, Brian Dollar Kids Pastor. Introduction Page 1

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1 Introduction You know, families are a lot like cars. They have need a lot of different parts to run smoothly, you have to put the right things in them so they continue to run properly, and when they break down you need to take them to somebody who knows what they re doing in order to fix it. In this series, we are going to be talking about how we can take care of our families just like we take care of our cars. If you ignore your car, don t change the oil, don t change the tires, whatever, it WILL break down. No doubt about it. Your children will learn how to handle conflict in the family in the lesson called Family Feud. They will learn how to deal with the pain of divorce in When The Family Breaks Down. Meet The Parents helps the children discover how they can help influence their parents attitudes by loving, honoring, and obeying them. Finally, in Where s Dad?, they will discover the amazing truth about how we all have the same loving heavenly Father. Even if we don t have a Dad living at home, we can rest assured we will always have a Heavenly Father who will never leave us. Building Strong Families Together, Brian Dollar Kids Pastor Introduction Page 1

2 Introduction You know, families are a lot like cars. They have need a lot of different parts to run smoothly, you have to put the right things in them so they continue to run properly, and when they break down you need to take them to somebody who knows what they re doing in order to fix it. In this series, we are going to be talking about how we can take care of our families just like we take care of our cars. If you ignore your car, don t change the oil, don t change the tires, whatever, it WILL break down. No doubt about it. Your children will learn how to handle conflict in the family in the lesson called Family Feud. They will learn how to deal with the pain of divorce in When The Family Breaks Down. Meet The Parents helps the children discover how they can help influence their parents attitudes by loving, honoring, and obeying them. Finally, in Where s Dad?, they will discover the amazing truth about how we all have the same loving heavenly Father. Even if we don t have a Dad living at home, we can rest assured we will always have a Heavenly Father who will never leave us. Building A Strong Family, Brian Dollar Kids Pastor Introduction Page 1

3 Sound Effects and Weekly Songs 1. What s The Big Idea? 2. OFFERING TIME 3. Let s Play A Game 60 Second Game Songs 4. Hot Peppers 5. heavenly 6. hangin around Extended Game Songs 7. overdrive 8. morph 9. in The Groove Praise Songs With Vocals 10 Throw Up Song 11. I Clap My Hands Praise Songs With Soundtracks 12 Throw Up Song 13. I Clap My Hands *BONUS* Skittles Song 14. Lift Up Your Hands I Clap My Hands - Written by: Brian Dollar; used by permission Throw Up Song - Author Unknown Music CD Track Listing Page 4

4 We must honor, love, and obey our parents! Children, obey your parents for this is the right thing to do. - Ephesians 6:1 What My Parents Will Be Is Up to Me! Intro Video Meet The Parents Puppet Skit What s an oinker? Offering Time Praise Songs Game Time Whose parent am I? One of the biggest struggles kids have is obeying their parents. It s never easy, and sometimes it seems impossible. Sometimes, kids struggle so much with their parents that they wish they had a different set of parents altogether. In this lesson, the children will learn that God gave them the parents that He wanted them to have, the ones that were best suited to take care of them, train them, and help them become what God wants them to be. Children have to do their part to help their parents do their job. How? They do their part by choosing to honor, love, and obey their parents. It s not easy, but it is always rewarding. Power Verse Children, obey your parents for this is the right thing to do. - Ephesians 6:1 Worship Songs Illustrated Message Meet The parents Rap It Up Video Review Questions

5 We must honor, love, and obey our parents! Children, obey your parents for this is the right thing to do. - Ephesians 6:1 What My Parents Will Be Is Up to Me! Intro Video Meet The Parents Puppet Skit What s an oinker? Offering Time Praise Songs Game Time Whose parent am I? Power Verse Children, obey your parents for this is the right thing to do. - Ephesians 6:1 Worship Songs Illustrated Message Meet The parents Rap It Up Video Review Questions

6 PUPPET SKIT Character: Silly Willy Silly Willy: (comes up really fast like he s running from someone) I didn t do it! I didn t do it! Leader: Well, hey there, Silly Willy. What in the world are you running from? Silly Willy: It s not what! It s who! Leader: Really? Well, then WHO are you running from? Silly Willy: My neighbor. He s really mad, too! Leader: Tell us what happened. Silly Willy: OK, it all started yesterday when I asked my parents if I could have a new pet. Leader: Oh, you wanted a new dog? Silly Willy: No. Leader: Cat? Silly Willy: No. Leader: Fish? Silly Willy: NO! I wanted an oinker. Leader: An oinker? What s that? Silly Willy: You know, an oinker. One of those things that goes oink. Leader: You mean a pig? Silly Willy: Whatever. Leader: So, anyway, you asked your parents if you could have a pet pig. What did they say? Silly Willy: They said, NO. Can you believe that? Well, I wasn t about to take no for an answer, so I went out and got one anyway! Leader: You mean you disobeyed your parents? That s not right, Silly Willy! Silly Willy: Well, they shouldn t have told me I couldn t have an oinker! Well, I went and got my little oinker and named him Porky. (CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE)

7 PUPPET SKIT (CONTINUED) Leader: Oh, after Porky Pig? Silly Willy: Duh! So, I brought my oinker home and tried to hide him from my parents. Well, he got loose and ran over and started eating all of my neighbor s flowers all up. I m telling you, that oinker eats like a pig! Leader: He is a pig! Silly Willy: Duh! So, anyway now my neighbor is hopping mad and she is chasing me all over the place trying to get me to come clean up her garden. This is not good! Leader: Well, you know Silly Willy you never would have found yourself in this situation if you had just done one thing. Silly Willy: What s that? Bought an oinker cage? Leader: No. If you would have just obeyed your parents in the first place and not bought that pig, you wouldn t be on the verge of getting in such big trouble with your neighbor. Silly Willy: Well, that s true. But, I really wanted an oinker. It wasn t fair that they wouldn t let me have one. Leader: Have you ever thought that maybe your parents had a good reason for telling you no? Have you ever thought that maybe they knew something like this would happen and that having a pet pig... Silly Willy: (interrupts) OINKER! Leader:...that having a pet oinker was going to lead to nothing but trouble? The Bible says that we are to obey our parents no matter what. Even if we think it s not fair, we are to love, honor, and respect our parents enough to obey exactly what they tell us. Silly Willy: Wow. I didn t do that, did I? Leader: No, you didn t. And now you are in trouble. Was it worth it to disobey your parents? Silly Willy: Not at all. I should have just done what our Power Verse tells us to do in the first place. Leader: That s right. Now, you better run along and go do the right thing. Tell your parents you disobeyed and then try to make things right with your neighbor. Silly Willy: I will. Thanks for helping me learn my lesson. Leader: You re welcome, Silly Willy.

8 Game Time Whose Parent Am I? Items Needed For Game: Data Disc; Open up PowerPoint Presentation for Lesson 3; begin with the slide titled Whose Parent Am I? How To Play: Choose one boy and one girl to play this quiz game. They will hear descriptions of parents of famous Bible characters. Their job is to decide whose parent is being described. The team to get the most right answers wins.

9 Illustrated Message Meet The Parents Materials Needed: The Data CD Preparation: Open the Power Point presentation on the Data CD for Lesson Three, beginning with the slide titled Meet The Parents There is a slide for each point in the message. Prepare three sets of adults that will pose as parents for opening illustration The Message: (title slide) Today, I have prepared for you an incredible lesson. It is called Meet The Parents. I want to introduce you to several different sets of parents. They are all different. They represent several different types of parents out there in the world today. You might recognize some things about your own parents in some of their characteristics. And, now I would like you to Meet The Parents. First, meet Parents #1 (Parents #1 walk out on stage looking very stern, upset, and frazzled). These parents are upset most of the time. They yell a lot, mainly because they have to yell over the noise their kids are making. They don t trust their kids. They have hundreds, no thousands of rules in their house. When their kids ask to do something special, Parents #1 say the same thing every time. (Parents #1 say at the same time, NO! We can t trust you! ) And, now, meet Parents #2. (Parents #2 walk out looking like they wish they were somewhere else, obviously disinterested and bored with this) Now, these parents are very different. They don t have any rules. They let their kids do just about anything because they really don t care about their kids. They would rather be watching TV than watching their kids. Oh, their kids love it when their parents let them play in the street, play with fire, and even play with pit bulls. They don t have rules. Why would they? Rules are meant to protect, and these parents really have better things to do than to protect their kids. When their kids ask if they can go somewhere, even if its dangerous, they say (Parents #2 say at the same time, Whatever! We don t care about you anyway! ) How sad. And, now, meet Parents #3. (Parents #3 walk out looking happy and excited to be here) These parents love their kids. They are happy most all of the time. They trust their kids. They give their children freedom to do things on their own when it is possible. They allow their children to make some of their own choices even. They believe in their kids. Because they trust their kids, there s only one rule in the house, Do What s Right. When their kids ask them if they can do something special, they always try to make sure the child has the opportunity because (Parents #3 say at the same time, We love you and we trust you, kids. ). So, kids, now that you have had a chance to Meet The Parents, I want to ask you a question. If you had to choose which parents were mostly like, which would you choose? (allow the kids to (CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE)

10 Illustrated Message (CONTINUED) yell out their response, understanding that some will yell out wrong answers just to get attention. Don t even respond to those) If you are like me and like most kids in this room, you probably don t want your parents always yelling at you, always mad, never trusting you like Parents #1, right? Now, some of you might have thought for a second that it would be great to have parents like Parents #2 who didn t have any rules. But, did you also notice that the reason they don t have any rules is because they don t care about their kids. They don t care if they get hurt and probably wouldn t even notice enough to rescue them if they did get hurt. They don t care what happens to their kids. They are more concerned with themselves than they are with their kids. I don t know about you, but I don t want a set of parents like that. Then, we have Parents #3. They love, respect, and trust their kids. They allow them to do things because they trust their kids. And, how about that one rule of Do what s right? Pretty awesome. If I am choosing what my parents will be like from these three, I would choose Parents #3. How about you? Now, I know what you are thinking. What does it matter? I already have the parents I have. There s nothing I can do about it. Nothing I do can change that. You re right. God has blessed us all with unique parents. Some of us live with Mom and Dad. Others of us might live with only Mom or only Dad. Still others might live with another relative or foster parents. But, did you know that you CAN determine what your parents are like? It s true. The way you treat them and the way you respond to them will determine how they act, respond, and treat you. If you choose to do what s wrong or if you lie, your parents can t trust you and therefore won t allow you to do things you want to do. If you argue and fight with your parents, then they will most likely be on edge and irritable most of the time. Today, I am going to give you three quick lessons from the Bible on how you can make your parents the best parents they can possibly be. Remember our Big Idea: What My Parents Will Be Is Up to Me. Sound good? Here we go! 1. Obey Your Parents: (slide #1) Obeying your parents when you want to do things your own way is no fun. Right? Well, it might seem that way, but it is actually best for everyone... especially for you. Just look at what the Bible says in Ephesians 6:1: Children, obey your parents because you belong to the Lord, for this is the right thing to do. Now, why do you suppose God made such a big deal about obeying your parents? Because when you obey your earthly parents, you are learning to obey your Heavenly Father. And adults who obey God have the key not only to happiness but also to eternal life! (CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE)

11 Illustrated Message (CONTINUED) Isn t that awesome? Every time you obey your parents, you make God happy! Not only that, but every time you obey your parents you are showing them that you can be trusted. When parents trust their kids, they give them opportunities that other kids don t get. They let you make some of your own decisions because they know they can trust you. We must obey everything our parents say. Children who obey their parents have parents who trust them. You want parents who trust you? Obey them. Remember: What My Parents Will Be Is Up To Me! 2. Honor Your Parents: (slide #2) The Bible says in Exodus 20:12: Honor your father and mother. Then you will live a long, full life in the land the LORD your God will give you. That s a really cool promise. I don t know about you, but I want to live a long, full life. So, how do you HONOR your parents? You honor them in the way you talk to them. We must not talk to our parents with a disrespectful tone. When things don t go our way, we must not scream, yell, and fuss about it. That s not honoring our parents. That s dishonoring our parents. You also honor them in the way you act toward them in public. Don t argue with them, that s dishonor. When you obey and respect them in public, that shows them honor. Not only in public, but we must honor them in private as well. When kids show honor to their parents, their parents are happy. They are much more easygoing. Want your parents to be that way? Remember: What My Parents Will Be Is Up To Me! 3. Love Your Parents: (slide #3) This might seem simple, but it s not. Many children don t love their parents. Sometimes it is because they feel their parents aren t fair. Sometimes it s because their parents have hurt them in some way. Sometimes it is just because the kids are selfish. We must understand that the parents we have are a gift from God. They are OUR parents. God placed us in their care. We must show love to them. Not only show love to them, but TELL them that we love them. How can you show and tell your parents you love them? Write them a note, make them a card, give them a gift. The very best way is to walk up to them, give them a big hug, maybe even a kiss on the cheek, and say, Mom, I love you. Or, Dad, I love you. (CONTINUED ON NEXT PAGE)

12 Illustrated Message (CONTINUED) When you show your parents love, they can t help but show love back to you. We all need love. We all want to be loved. So, let s show love to our parents. Let s honor our parents. Let s obey our parents. If we will do that, we will have the kind of parents we want. Remember: What My Parents Will Be Is Up To Me! Altar Time: (play soft music) Have each child pray for their parents out loud. Have them pray that God will help them to be the kind of child who loves, honors, and obeys their parents so that their parents will be able to be the kind of parents God wants them to be.

13 Review questions 1. Did Silly Willy want to talk to his friend about God being able to help him? Answer: No, he was scared 2. What was Silly Willy s friend s name? Answer: Jason 3. Is it your fault if your parents get a divorce? Answer: No 4. Does God want to carry our pain for us? Answer: Yes 5. Can we make decisions for our parents? Answer: No, they make decisions for themselves 6. Where was our Power Verse found today? Answer: Psalm 34:18 7. What was today s Big Idea? Answer: When Things Go Wrong and I Don t Know What To Do, God Will Always See Me Through! 8. The first lesson we learned today is divorce is not my. Answer: Fault 9. The second lesson we learned today is divorce is not my. Answer: problem 10. The third lesson we learned today is that divorce is not the. Answer: end