Faith+Open: Gather the children. If they have not heard the gospel story yet, recap it. If they have remind them of what was said along the lines that a father had two children and one said he would do something and didn’t and the other said he wouldn’t but did.
Faith+Share: Say, “Hhhhmmm… this sounds familiar to me! I think I hear this at home a lot from my own two kids. But you know, I can remember times that I have said I would do something for another person and then either forgot or got busy and didn’t do it. One time I told my son that I would help him out by sewing his cub scout badge onto his uniform shirt and then it was time for the meeting and guess what, I hadn’t done it yet. Or another time, I told a friend I would pray for her when I got him but then I just plain forgot. Has this ever happened to you? Where you said you would do something but then didn’t do it?” Take some answers.
“I am thinking that one of the things that Jesus wants us to know is that what we say AND what we do matter. It is another way for us to think about being in service to one another. Once my daughter told me she WAS NOT going to move the clothes from the washer to the dryer and I was pretty tired and didn’t want to fight with her so I sighed and walked away. But then I came upstairs and she had done what I had asked. That meant a lot to me. It was a way for her to help me out in a busy day.”
Now get quiet and whisper and make a deal out of this being a ‘secret surprise”
“Let’s think of some kind of act of service you can do at home for someone you live with. Any ideas?”
Get their ideas and then challenge them to go home and do a mystery act of service for someone in their family.
An extra idea would be to have little “mystery service” cards to hand out to them so they could leave the card wherever they had helped out.
Faith+Prayer: God, help us to remember to talk about you and be in service to others, showing them our love and your love. Amen
Faith+Blessing: God in my head, God in my heart, God on my left, God on my right Amen.