A story on the theme of Mark 12.38-44 (The Widow’s Offering)

Title: “Giving Out of Poverty”

Theme: We can be generous toward God because of God's "all-in" generosity to us

Change the names and genders and parental configurations as works best for your context.

Zach tripped and fell. He was in his room and there were so many toys and trucks and balls and books and gloves and shoes on his floor that he could hardly move without stepping on somehting. He wasn’t surprised that he’d tripped. It wasn’t the first time. You would have wondered why he didn’t fall more. It wasn’t that Zach was so messy and never cleaned up his room. It was that he had so many things that he didn’t have enough places to store them and so they spilled out all over his room; from his closet; from his bookshelves; from under his bed. He hadn’t asked for all these things. He had been given them by his parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins. It was too much. Some of it he had never played with; never used. It was getting close to Christmas and he wondered what he would do if he got  more stuff. Where would he put it?

Then he got an idea. What if he gave some of it away? To kids who didn’t have anything or didn’t have much. He thought about giving all of it away when he fell, but he thought that the people who gave him the gifts might not like that. He’d have to pick through what he had.

He began to go through his things. First he set out in the hallway everything that he had never played with or even taken out of their boxes. Any kids who got one of these would be getting a brand-new toy. Then he looked for the things that he hardly every used. They looked almost new. He set those aside. While he was doing this he got thinking about how great the kids who got these things would feel and it made him feel so good that pretty soon the give-away group of things was bigger than the I’ll-keep-that group of things. And when he stopped to take a break, he noticed some things in the give-away group that he wasn’t sure he wanted to give away. But he had made up his mind and he didn’t move them back to the I’ll-keep-that group. 

His mom called him to supper and at supper he told his mom and dad what he was doing. They thought a moment and then told him what a good idea it was. They would help him find kids who would like to get what he had to give away. And they told him that they didn’t mind if he gave away even some of the things they had given him. They told him that they would try not to give him so much that it would be a problem for him.

In some ways, it was hard for Zach to give away all those things, because he really liked some of them. But he knew that he had very generous parents and grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins and that he would always have some things to play with. In fact, he decided that he would tell his grandparents and aunts and uncles and cousins that for this next Christmas, they could give gifts to the group he had picked out to help give his give-away toys to other kids. They could just tell him what they gave and it would be like giving it to him. He would always have enough, but now other kids would have enough, too. I wonder what you have that you might give away to someone else this Christmas?

A story on the theme of Acts 2.1-21

Theme: Once filled by the Holy Spirit, will you be a filler of others with the Good News or an emptier?

Change the names and genders and parental configurations as works best for your context.

Scotty had two friends, Phillip and Cory. They were best friends and played together all the time. They lived near one another and so played at each other’s houses.  But they were boys and sometimes got rambunctious -- a little to wild. When that happened, sometimes the mom or dad whose house they were at had to make them sit down in separate rooms or corners of the backyard and calm down. Because of that sometimes Scotty was only allowed to have one friend over at a time. 

One day Scotty’s mom asked him if he would like to invite a friend over, but just one because she had lots to do around the house and couldn’t be watching them too closely. He said that he would and that he’d like Phillip to come over. His mom stopped for a moment and asked why the last few times he was only asking for Phillip to come over and not Cory. Scotty thought for a while and as he thought he realized that it was because it was not as much fun any more to just have Cory come over. Cory had gotten kind of selfish. Whenever they were going to play a game, Cory always insisted on going first or of having the best choice of characters in the game. If they played a ball game, he always wanted the best ball or bat. If they had a snack, he always seemed to grab more than his fair share. By the time, Cory left Scotty was feeling a little empty like Cory had drained something out of him and it didn’t feel good.

It was different with Phillip. He was willing to share and take is turn or even let Scotty go first. He didn’t try to hog things or grab what was Scotty’s. When Phillip went home, Scotty felt like he had gotten some gifts and he was sorry to see him go.

When the three of the boys played together, Cory wasn’t such a problem, but when it was just Cory and Scotty, it didn’t feel so good.

Later that day, after Phillip and he and played and Phillip had gone home, Scotty just sat quietly for a little while and wondered what kind of friend he was? What his friends thought of him? Did they think that he took things away from them when they were together or did they like to have him around because when he was with them they always had more than they started with? 

A story on the theme of Luke 10.38-42

Title: “Resting in God” (Prayer)

Theme:  We need to root ourselves in the "one thing" that God desires for us--to focus on "being"...and allow any "doing" flow out of that.  

Will had been sitting quietly thinking for quite a long time. He had been thinking about how fun it had been, earlier in the afternoon, to play with the Lego set that he had gotten last Christmas. It had been more than nine months that he’d had it and he’d learned how to build it and rebuild it and add parts and change parts around. He could make it move other Lego blocks from one place to another and then move itself from one place to another. It was a very complicated set with wires and motors and gears and belts and hinges and tracks and batteries and controls.

He hadn’t always had such nice thoughts. In fact, almost as soon as he had unwrapped the package and discovered that it was just what he had been hoping for and ripped open the box and started to build it...he had gotten mad...really mad...really, really mad...so mad that he broke a part of it. It just wouldn’t go together the way it looked in the picture on the box. 

Now as he sat quietly, he wondered, “What was I thinking? How could I build that complicated kit with wires and motors and gears and belts and hinges and tracks and batteries and controls by just looking at the picture on the box and not even looking at the plans. The plans were very good plans. They showed very clearly, step by step, how to put the kit together; how to snap one block on top of the other. But he hadn’t even seen them inside the box, he was in such a hurry to build the kit.

Now as he sat quietly, he remembered how easy it had been to build the kit after he finally studied the plans; laid out all the parts so he could see them; and started following the plans slowly putting together all the blocks and wires and motors and gears and belts and hinges and tracks and batteries and controls -- step by step

Now as he sat quietly, he thought about other times since last Christmas when he had just sat quietly and thought through what he was going to do before he did it. When he did that, by the time he got around to doing something, he really knew what he was doing and he had discovered that some of the things that he thought he should do were things that he didn’t have to or shouldn’t do.

Now as he sat quietly, he thought that when he stopped early in the morning, right after he woke up, and thought and prayed about what he was going to do that day...his day usually went a lot better. 

A story on the theme of 1 Corinthians 12.27

Theme: As we recognize the God-given diversity within our church, we must affirm, respect and encourage each other as having a pivotal place in building up the church.

Mark was # 3. That is, he was the third son in his family. There were times when he loved being the third son. His two big brothers were very nice to him. They took him places that he wouldn’t have been able to go alone. Because of them, he got to do lots of things that his friends who were his age didn’t get to do. He got to play lots of sports with them in the neighborhood. He was never a very important member of the team, but he was on their team. Best of all, his brothers didn’t let any body give him a hard time or make fun of him because he couldn’t play their games very well.

But then there were times when he didn’t like being the littlest brother. He could never do things as well as his big brothers. He never knew as much as his big brothers. He didn’t even understand the things that they talked about sometimes. They tried to make him feel like he was an important part of their family and an important part of the team of three brothers, but sometimes even that didn’t help. Especially when he got left behind if they ran fast some place or rode their bikes across their neighborhood.

Then one day, their neighbor Mr. Lowe came over. He had locked himself out of his house. All the members of his family were away. He couldn’t find the key they usually hid some place outside for emergencies like this. He didn’t want to break a window or have to pay a locksmith a lot to come and open the door for him. He had walked all around the house and tried every window to see if it was unlocked. They were all locked except one. He got excited when that window started to come open, but then after just a few inches it stopped. It was open, but not far enough for him to squeeze through. 

That was why Mr. Lowe came next door to Mark’s house. He was looking for someone small who could get through the window. All three brothers were in the back yard together. He looked them over. First he looked at brother # 1. He was obviously too big to squeeze through the opening in the window. Then he looked at brother # 2. He looked a long time. He wondered and wondered if he could fit through the opening in the window. Nope! He shook his head. He didn’t think so. Then he looked at brother #3 who, of course, was Mark. He looked just the right size to squeeze through the window. In fact, he might not have to even squeeze.

All of them went next door to Mr. Lowe’s house. They found the window that was open -- just a little bit. And Mr. Lowe lifted Mark up to the window. Mark slipped right in. He didn’t even have to squeeze. He ran through the house to the back door and opened it. When he opened it and stepped through it, he heard cheers -- from Mr. Lowe and his brothers. And then he got a wonderful surprise. Mr. Lowe gave him $5 for his work. 

Mark who thought he was too small to keep up with his brothers, found out that for some things he needed to be small to do the job. That felt really good. He was needed.

A story on the theme of 1 Samuel 17.26-45

Topic/Title: “Know yourself that you may know God”

Theme: Of all the voices around you, telling you what you can and can’t do, God’s is the most important for you to listen to.

Change the names and genders and parental configurations as works best for your context.

 Alyssa had a nightlight in her room, but she was afraid of the dark. She lived alone with her mom. One pretty dark night, right after they had come home from shopping, she went to her room, turned on the lights, and picked up a book to read. While she was reading, she heard a crash in the other room like something had broken and then a loud thud. She ran into the kitchen and found her mom on the floor.

It looked like her mom had dropped a jar of lemonade and then had slipped on the spilled lemonade and bumped her head on the counter and knocked herself out. “What should I do?” thought Alyssa. She thought about trying to find her mom’s cell phone, but thought that might be too hard. Then she thought that she should run next door to their neighbors and tell her what happened.

But it was very, very dark outside. Their porch light had burned out and they hadn’t had a new bulb. There were no street lights in their neighborhood. Their neighbors had one light on in their house, but it was dark between her house and theirs. And Alyssa was afraid of the dark!

She thought about her friends making fun of her for being afraid of the dark. About her mom saying when her mom was small she was really afraid of the dark and didn’t get over it until she was grown up. She thought of all the scary cartoons she had seen about people getting hurt in the dark. How could she go next door?

Then she remembered part of a Bible verse that she had heard in Sunday School. It said that God would be with her when she was in the dark and she didn’t need to be afraid. Well, if God knew she didn’t have to be afraid, maybe she could trust him and not be afraid.

She knew she had to act fast. She poked her head out the door. Looked around. Nothing out there to be afraid of. Nothing between her and her neighbors. She ran for it like something scary was chasing her. But she got to her neighbors door....and nothing scary had happened to her -- nothing at all. And she wasn’t afraid. She knocked and they came. She told them what happened. They called the ambulance and went over to see how her mom was doing.

After it was all over, she agreed that if God knew she didn’t have to be afraid of the dark, she probably didn’t have to be afraid.

A story on the theme of 1 John 3.16-24

Theme: Sometimes it hurts to love sacrificially...at least for a while.

Change the names and genders and parental configurations as works best for your context.

Josh looked up to Michael. He had to because Michael was a head taller than him. But that wasn’t the only reason. Josh looked up to Michael because he liked him so much and wanted to be like him. Michael was strong and fast at games. He could remember lots and figure things out. He was kind to all the little kids and did things with Josh and his friends, even when he didn’t have to. He was a class ahead of Josh in kids’ classes at church. But the biggest reason that Josh liked Michael was that he got Michael’s hand-me-downs. That meant that when Michael out grew his clothes, Michael’s mom handed them to Josh’s mom and because Josh was shorter than Michael the clothes kind of got handed down.

They were the coolest clothes that Josh had. Josh’s mom just bought Josh regular clothes. Whoever bought Michael’s clothes bought cool clothes. Usually Josh’s favorite shirt or sweatshirt or jacket was one he had gotten from Michael. He couldn’t wait to empty the bag of Michael’s clothes when his mom brought it home. When his mom brought home clothes from the store, Josh never put them on until he had to, but with Michael’s clothes, he usually tried them on as they came out of the bag. One of his all time favorites was a 49ers jacket.

Sometimes the clothes were too big and Josh would have to wait a while before he could grow into them, but lots of times he could start wearing them right away. It was really fun when he wore something to church and Michael recognized it and told him how cool he looked in it.

When Josh outgrew his clothes, there was no one he knew to give them to. All the kids a few years younger at church were girls -- who certainly didn’t want his old clothes -- except for maybe that 49ers jacket. So when Josh outgrew his clothes, his mom put them in a bag and they went with the mission teams to Mexico when the group went to work at the orphanage.

That was okay with Josh. He didn’t feel bad. He had usually forgotten about those clothes that he wasn’t wearing anymore. That was until a new family came to church. They had a boy named Adam who was about as much younger than Josh as Josh was to Michael. Josh’s mom told Josh that they might give some of the clothes he had outgrown to Adam as hand-me-downs. Josh said that sounded okay. He didn’t care much about them because he was more interested in the next bag of hand-me-downs that he was about to get from Michael.

But that all changed when he came to church one Sunday and saw Adam wearing that old favorite 49ers jacket. Suddenly he was very sorry that his mom had given his old clothes to Adam and sulked the whole time he was at church and even on the way home. He wasn’t mean to Adam, but he wasn’t nice to him either. On the way home, his dad asked him why he was moping and Josh said that he didn’t want to say. He was just going to mope. His mom and dad finally got it out of him that he was mad at them because they had given away his old clothes. His mom asked if he hadn’t noticed how proud Adam was to be wearing that 49ers jacket and how he even saw Michael go over to Adam and tell him that it used to be his and he thought it looked pretty cool on Adam. That made Josh even madder. Now he was not only going to lose his clothes, but he was going to have to share his friend. This was turning out to be a pretty bad deal.

Well, Josh got used to seeing Adam in the Michael-to-Josh-to-Adam hand-me-down clothes, but he wasn’t really happy about it. I wonder how you would feel? Then one day he came into his room and found his mom going through his dresser drawers and picking out clothes and putting them in a bag. He knew immediately where that bag was going --- to Adam -- and he got pretty upset. He yelled at his mom and he threw down the car he had in his hand and stomped around in his room. He was particularly upset when he saw a pair of pants that had been his favorites. They weren’t even pants that he had gotten from Michael. When he told his mom that she couldn’t give those away, she said that he never wore them any more because they didn’t fit him. They were too small. He said that, “No! They were not too small.” So his mom ask him to put them on. He did. Or he tried to. Hmmm, they were a little tight, but he slowly squeezed into them. He felt something like a quarter in one of the pockets and he put his hand in that pocket to see if it was a quarter, but he couldn’t get his hand down to the bottom of the pocket to feel if it was. He looked at the bottoms of the pants and they ended about where his socks started. Maybe they were a little tight, but they were still his favorites and he wanted to keep them. Then his mom accidentally, I think, dropped a sock on the floor near Josh. She asked Josh if he would do her a favor and pick up the sock. When he bent over to pick up the sock --- rrrriiippp --- his pants split in back so wide that you could read the label on his underpants. At first he got kind of angry and then he started to smile like he did whenever any of his friends at school ripped their pants and then he started to laugh and then he couldn’t stop and he laughed so hard he fell on the floor and ripped them even more which made him laugh so hard he couldn’t catch him breath. And about that time, he changed his mind (and his heart) and thought that he’d like to have Adam look forward to getting his hand-me-downs as much as he looked forward to getting Michael’s hand-me-downs. 

The next Sunday when he got into the car to go to church, he saw a shopping bag of clothes. And on top of the bag was that pair of favorite pants of his that his mom had sewn back up. He hoped that Adam would like those pants as much as he had, except for the ripping part and he hoped that he’d have the chance to tell Adam how cool he looked in them. And he hoped that Adam might look up to him like he looked up to Michael. He didn’t feel hurt any more.

A story on the theme of Exodus 18:13-26

Theme: Life in God’s family is better when everyone works together.

Change the names and genders and parental configurations as works best for your context.

Andy’s church was going to hold a big Easter egg hunt at the park next door to their church. His Sunday School class had been raising money for books for a school in a village in Africa. In fact, one Sunday they had even been able to use a computer to meet some of the children in Africa. Those kids were really nice. That was really fun and it made Andy and his friends want to get even more money for the books. When he heard about the Easter egg hunt and remembered what it had been like the year before, he got an idea. He wondered if he could sell lemonade. He wouldn’t charge much, but with all the things going on at the Easter egg hunt, kids would get thirsty and might not just want water from the drinking fountain. They could ask their parents for money and buy lemonade.

Andy began to plan for a lemonade stand. He didn’t want to just come up with an idea and make his parents do it for him. He realized pretty quickly that he couldn’t do it alone, so he started  to think about a friend who could help him. Andy thought that he was pretty good as selling things, but if he didn’t make very good lemonade, he wouldn’t sell much. Who could make really good lemonade? He knew that one of his classmates, Barbara, could. So he called her and told her about his idea and ask if she’d like to join him. She said, “Yes.” right away. 

But what if they sold all their lemonade and kids were still thirsty? Who could run back to church and make more. Barbara’s friend in the class, Sasha, probably could. By this time he and Barbara were realizing that the project was bigger than they first thought. They got wondering who would want warm lemonade on a hot day? Someone would need to be sure there was enough ice...and cups to put the ice in...and an ice chest to get the ice out of. And what about tables and chairs. That would take a couple strong guys to carry over and back from church, maybe Pat and Frederick? The lemonade stand would be prettier if it had a table cloth and some flowers. They thought they’d heard Sally talking about flowers in her garden at home. Suddenly they realized that some people liked extra sugar in their lemonade or a slice of real lemon. Who would get that? They were going to need the whole class to help.

Finally they made a list of all the names of the kids in the class. Next to most of them they had written something that that kid would do or bring. Finally there was only one name left -- Phillip. When they thought about Phillip, they thought about the fact he was the smallest kid in the class so he probably wouldn’t be good at carrying heavy things. He had once made some of the worst kool-aid that anyone had every tasted. Better keep him away from the lemonade making. What could he do? They really wanted everyone to have a part. Oh. Yes. They thought of it, both, at once. They needed a sign so that people didn’t think this was a little group drinking lemonade. People needed to know the lemonade was for sale. And why did they think about a sign when they thought about Phillip? ----- Because he was a wonderful artist and could probably make the best sign of anyone in the class. So they weren’t just giving Phillip something to do so he’d have something to do. They were giving him something to do because they needed it done and he was certainly the one to do it. What a great team they would make -- selling lemonade that would raise money for those books they wanted to buy for the kids they had met on the computer.

I wonder what I could do or you could do if you were a part of their team?