Teaching your Sunday school class can be easier using childrens Sunday school object lessons in your planning. A bouquet is more beautiful than a single flower, and a bouquet can illustrate the concept of giving.
Sunday School Object Lessons: “Concept of Giving”
One colorful bouquet of flowers from the supermarket with enough pieces (flowers, green stalks, filler) for every child to hold a piece. One vase filled with water, one pitcher filled with water. Small paper cups, one for each child. Small candies such as candy kisses or candy hearts, five or six for each child.
Put water in the vase. Pass out paper cups. Give one stalk out to each child; tell them not to worry if they didn’t get a pretty bloom. It will all work out in the end.
Isn’t God creative? Look at all the things He made that we are holding. Everyone take turns and tell me about the thing you have in your hand. Is it soft or bushy or fuzzy? Is it colorful? Did God make it strong, or did God make it beautiful? Or did God make part of it beautiful and part of it strong? Take answers, allowing kids to examine their own piece and add comments about it or about God’s creative side.
Each of you has a piece of God’s creativity. It is yours. I gave it to you. The one thing about God’s creativity in flowers: The life of a flower isn’t meant to be long. And once we cut a flower, we need to get the pieces in water fast, or it can die. Who would like some water for their piece?
One of the children may suggest at this point that you put all the flowers together to make a bouquet. If no one does, you offer it as a suggestion.
I was going to put water in everyone’s cups so you could put your stalks in them. But guess what? These stalks are long. They’d probably fall over in the cups. They belong somewhere else, really. Where do they belong? In a bouquet.
Well, if we’re going to put them all together, that means you have to give yours back. You have to give away something that belongs to you. Who wants to be first to give their flower away? Take volunteers, putting the stalks into the big vase filled with water.
Let the children come up and help arrange the flowers. If you have a large group, pick some volunteers.
Oftentimes, to really enjoy something, we have to give it away. Giving is a very important concept in Christianity. In Matthew 5:40, Jesus said that if anyone wants your shirt, give to him your coat also. If we were all more concerned with giving than with getting, how much nicer a world would it be?
And now we can see that if we all give, we will have something great.
Show the bouquet. If everyone kept their own piece, the pieces might have gotten damaged or would have wilted and died. But together? The pieces are stronger, they’re prettier, and they can make us all feel good.
Now who owns the bouquet? We all do.
Would it be better for one person to take this home than for us all to take our own pieces back. Yes. Why? Because no one can enjoy it that way. Can we pull names out of a hat to see who gets to take it home? Can we all promise to be happy for that person as God would want us to be?
And can we all enjoy together a nice snack as a reward for our giving?
Pass out candy in the paper cups instead of filling each with water. As children eat, figure out who should take home the bouquet.
PS – Need more Sunday school object lessons and ideas for your class?
Be sure to check out our video presentation of the “Fizzy Faith” object lesson.