We opened by reading Jeremiah 1:5, "Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations." We asked the kids what they thought it meant to be "set apart." The kids struggled for a bit, but we generally came to the agreement that it meant you were different than every body else. We talked about how God made each of us different, and how we have different purposes because we're different.
Activity #1: Each child wrote their name at the top of a piece of construction paper, then drew a picture under their name. We passed the papers around, and each child wrote one characteristic/trait of the child on the paper (for instance, "nice," "good at praying", "helpful", etc). By the end, each child had about 20 characteristics of their own. Then, we read the passage about how God has appointed some to be pastors or teachers, etc. We talked about the traits of each, and had kids write down which one they thought best applied to them.
Lesson: We read the story of David and Goliath, and talked about how David was set apart to defeat Goliath. We focused in on the point where Saul asks David to put on his armor. When David put it on, it didn't fit, however, when David put on the armor that fit him, he was successful. God made us all different, and we all fit into different armor, and our job is to find that armor and wear it so we can be the best we can be.
Activity #2: All the children took their shoes off and threw them in the center. We separated kids into two teams. Each kid then picked two shoes (neither of which were their own, and they didn't pick a pair). We had them line up, then put on both shoes. They then had to race through an obstacle course. If they lost their shoe, they had to start over again. When the kids were finished, we talked about how it was so much easier to do it with our own shoes, and not shoes that were too small or too big.
Lesson: All the kids came and sat down, and we gave them a short quiz to get them thinking about how God made each of them different. The questions for the quiz were from the book "Prayer Saturated Kids." 1. What do you dream about most? 2. What bible character would you most want to be like and why? 3. What would you be happiest doing as an adult? 4. What's your favorite part of the school day? The worst? 5. What do you think God wants you to do to help others? ... After the kids had written these answers down with their names, I collected them to pray over them in my own time... We then talked more about how God made each of us different for a different purpose, and I asked the kids how we should figure out what that purpose was.
Bringing It Home: We talked about how we have to pray and ask God to show us who he created us to be. And how God would show us that through circumstances, prayer, the Bible, etc. Then, we played some music and had the kids lay down and pray while they listened to the music.
The take-home challenge: We challenged the kids to pray through music throughout the week, and to learn Jeremiah 1:5. We shortened it to, "Before I was born, you knew me and set me apart."
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