Free Bible Lesson for Kids

Free Bible Lesson for Kids

Welcome to our Christianity Oasis Child of God study program. This is our Free Bible Lesson for Kids. The truth within this SON-derful Free Bible Lesson for Kids will truly enhance your be-YOU-tiful Christian walk.

To go to the beginning of this program, click below:

Child of God

Child of God - Step #4

Goals for God

It's great to welcome you back again!

Let's test your memory a little ... Do you remember from the first page of our program, what it means to glorify God?

When you glorify God, it means that you are showing other people His greatness, and by doing that, you're also praising Him, honoring Him and worshiping Him.

That's the whole reason why God made us ... To glorify Him!

When Jesus was here on Earth, He told us:

Wow ... Whatever we ask in Jesus' name will be given to us. And it is given so that the Father may be glorified in the Son ... What do you suppose that means? It means that when our faith is in Jesus and when we show people that we live The Way Jesus taught us to live and when we represent Jesus ... We are glorifying the Father!

What are some ways, besides being good, that we can glorify God?

Let's talk about that.

While you're a child, you're building the foundation of who you are. What is a foundation? It's what you build something on top of. If you have a good solid foundation, whatever you build on top of it, stands a better chance of being strong than if you have a weak foundation. The story of The Three Little Pigs is a great example of this. One way of building a strong foundation is to form good habits. Habits are things that you do almost without thinking. They are things that are hard not to do. The more good habits you have, the less room there is for bad habits to become part of your life.

Today we're going to start a project called:

Goals for God

Goals aren't really things that you can do easily. They are things that are challenging and when you reach them, you should feel like you've done something really great ... So you don't want to just aim for the top of the trees, or even the clouds, but what you really want to do is ...

Aim for the stars!

This new program is a way of showing God that you want to live your life for Him. It's also a way of goal setting. You've probably heard that when you write down your goals on paper, your chances of reaching those goals are much greater than if you don't.

Before we get into the program, let's talk about you, and how God created you in His image. That means He made you like Him!

God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are three in one, which many people call:

The Trinity

God the Father

God the Son

God the Holy Spirit

There are three in Heaven and these three are one.

Now, if you are created in God's image, there must be three parts of you, also.

Your soul

Your body

Your spirit

Look at how God made you like Him ... With three different parts:

Sooooo ... You are made up of three separate parts but you are still just one person. There is the soul, the body and the spirit.

The Goals for God project is to help you strengthen your mind, body, and spirit. Just like eating every day to keep up your strength and nourish your body, you must also take care of the spiritual parts of you. Let's talk a little bit about how you can strengthen these very important parts of you, then we'll talk about your goals in just a few minutes.

Strengthen Your Mind

The Bible tells us to strengthen our mind.

This is a very very important thing that you're about to learn, so read it very slowly, and take one sentence at a time until you understand each sentence, because it will help you for all of your life.

Your mind (the soul) controls your body (flesh) and your spirit (emotions). So strengthening or controlling your mind is a very important thing to do. Your mind tells your body and your spirit what to do about the thoughts that you have. Sounds strange doesn't it?

Let me show you just how it works. What if you heard something, or thought of something sad? The thought gets in your mind and your mind tells your spirit, "that's sad," so your spirit tells your body, and your body cries (see the first two columns below). Let's repeat that. You (your thought or your mind) gets sad. Your spirit understands this and sends a message to your body and you cry. Now, let's compare it to something that you will understand more clearly. Let's say your mind is you, your spirit is the remote control, and your body is the television. If the news is on T.V. and you want to watch cartoons, you pick up the remote control, and you push a button, and the television changes channels to the cartoon channel. Whatever you tell your spirit to do, it will do, because just like the remote control, it doesn't have a choice except to do what you tell it, then the spirit passes the message on to the body (see the third column below).

Do you know what the cool thing is? You have control. You tell your spirit if something is funny or sad or good or bad. If you don't want to watch the news, you change the channel, so if you don't want to be sad, change your thoughts and your thoughts will change your spirit. Just push a different button, like the happy button, or if you think a bad thought, push the good button.

There's a trick to all of this. You have to believe what you tell your spirit.

Once, Jesus' Apostles wanted to help a man who was sick, but they couldn't seem to cure him. They asked Jesus why and Jesus told them:

What you believe is what you receive.

What is the best way to strengthen our mind?

Think like Jesus thought.

Strengthen Your Body

In the Goals for God project, you won't be strengthening your body with exercise or lifting weights or anything like that, but you'll be strengthening the control your mind has over the body. Remember that the mind controls the body, so you'll be using your mind to strengthen your body also.

Check these out:

Did you know that your body is the home of the Holy Spirit, and that God put Him there? Did you know that your body and spirit don't belong to you, but God bought them by giving up His Son Jesus for us. So glorify (praise and honor) God in your body and in your spirit, which belong to God.

Work at being godly. Exercise doesn't do anything for your soul, but godliness is good for all things.

Strengthen Your Spirit

Again ... It's important for you to understand that your spirit is the part of you that listens and obeys the things that your mind tells it to feel. Let me explain more ... You have many different feelings. Happiness, sadness, fear, excitement, love, anger, and so on. Your spirit holds these emotions. You don't walk around happy all the time, or angry all the time, or fearful all the time. But your spirit stores these feelings and when your mind tells your spirit that something is sad, your spirit says "gotcha, I understand" and you become sad in your spirit.

Your mind and your spirit can cause physical reactions too. Crying, goose bumps, shaking, laughter as well as other stuff. All this just from a thought that got into your mind ... These things all happen because your mind told your spirit something and it caused the physical reaction.

You can control your spirit by changing your thoughts. All you have to do, is send your spirit the signal for a different feeling by thinking differently. But ... Your mind has to believe it to be truth.

Have you ever gone out in freezing weather and didn't notice how cold it was outside? That's because your spirit was busy with another feeling that your mind had selected, and that feeling was strong enough to keep you from noticing the cold.

The Goals for God Project

The most important thing is to remember that in your Goals for God Project, you will find that you may not accomplish your daily goals sometimes. Think of it like being reborn and as a baby you are learning to walk. You may stumble here and there but if you keep trying, you will reach your goals. Do not allow yourself to be discouraged.

During the early stages, you may need to adjust your goals to be sure you can meet them, yet still a little bit of a challenge. Do this until you customize your Goals for God Project perfectly for you. Everyone's project is different because we are all different.

Be patient as you begin this project and figure out what is the best for you and your life, how much time you have and what you can reasonably do each day.

You will do this project daily, taking one day off each week for rest, as the Bible says. (Honor the Sabbath Day.) This day can be either Saturday (the Jewish Sabbath) or Sunday (the Lord's day).

You will need to create a simple chart. Below is a picture of a sample Goals for God Project chart.

Make your own chart similar to this with pencil and paper, or there is a link at the bottom of the sample chart where you can print one.

You may notice that the chart is called "Miracle Grow" Option A. That is because the teens and adults programs also have the same program, with different names, but the charts can be used for all three programs.

Following the chart, I will show you how it works.

Again, if you do not have access to a printer, you can just create your own on a sheet of paper. If you click the link above, you will be able to see the chart clearly to copy it.

Fill in the dates along the left hand column.

Along the top row of each area, you will write in the activities that you choose to do. On the printable charts just write your activities right over the light gray font that says "Fill in activity here."

As you complete an activity each day, you write Yes in the column underneath it corresponding with the date.

For the activities that you don't accomplish, write a big red No in the box.

At the end of each day, total up your points for each separate area and write the number in the column on the right where it says "Points."

The grading system is simple ... For each activity that you accomplish, you will give yourself 10 points for Option B and 20 points for Option A. There are a possible 100 points per day. At the end of each week, add up the six days and divide it by six and that is your week's average.

•    100 = A+
• 90-99 = A
• 80-89 = B
• 70-79 = C
• 60-69 = D
• Below 60 = F

You can also add up the points at the end of the week and write them in the row at the bottom of each area where it says "Average" to see your weekly grade. You can do monthly totals as well if you like. Just add all totals and divide by the amount of days (excluding your Sabbath Day off).

Note:

Everyone knows that life is not particularly cooperative all the time. Therefore, in addition to your Sabbath days off, allow yourself 3 days each month as free days when you can excuse yourself from your activities with no penalty on your grade. If you're sick, or can't find time because of unexpected circumstances, or whatever the reason, this is the time to take a free day.

Pssssssst ... Here is another Goals for God plus. If you do any of your Goals for God activities on a Sabbath or a free day, they may be carried over to the next day. In fact, if you want to get several days ahead because you anticipate that you won't be able to do your Goals for God activities because of a foreseen conflict in your schedule, you may do that too. Perhaps you're expecting out of town company or you have to take a school trip or are going out of town on vacation, these are times when you may choose to get ahead. When you do this, don't neglect God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit on those free days. He still exists in your life, even when time does not allow for certain other things.

Be fair. If quitting smoking is one of your activities and you conquer this, it wouldn't be fair to keep 'no smoking' as an activity forever. Yes, I realize this program is for children, but some children unfortunately do smoke, and Goals for God could help them/you quit!

If you only accomplish part of an activity, then go ahead and give yourself whatever percentage you feel is fair.

If you ever find yourself dreading your Goals for God activities, something needs to be adjusted. It is meant to be uplifting and spiritually edifying.

Set goals ... Set a specific reward for yourself if you achieve your goals, and promise yourself that the only way you will claim your reward is if you earn it. Make your reward something you really want to do or have, and something that will encourage you to continue on your journey to attaining Goals for God.

I can give you some ideas for activities, but remember, these are examples only. You will custom design your Goals for God project for your individual needs and goals. Your Goals for God project should be challenging and enjoyable.

Strengthen Your Mind

• Pray 3 times a day.
• Read a chapter of the Bible.
• Read 5 Psalms.
• Read one chapter of Proverbs.
• Read a spiritual book for ___ minutes.
• Read the Daily Word.
• Do a Bible crossword puzzle.
• Play a Christian board game.
• (You can also include your Christianity Oasis Programs and Studies too.)

Strengthen Your Body

Here are some ideas ...

• Fast (or abstain from a habit you have) for ___ hours (unless a doctor requires you to do so).
• Be completely still and quiet with your eyes closed for ___ minutes. This is a good time to invite the Holy Spirit to commune with you.
• Break a habit, by only having a certain amount of candy, soda, etc., per day, reducing slowly as the weeks or months progress.
• Cut back on a food item that you know is bad for you ... You can call it a snackrifice! 😁
• Stop cussing.
• Be patient.
• Do your chores.
• Do your homework.
• Do a good deed for someone that takes physical effort.
• Exercise ... Specific exercise programs you create.
• Weight loss program.
• Hygiene (Brush your teeth at least twice a day, or something else you tend to forget to do.
• Volunteer for a worthy cause. A couple of hours on a Sunday afternoon could give you points.

Strengthen Your Spirit

• Listen to some Christian music, concentrating on the words. I encourage you to listen to spiritual music whenever you can, but for your points, isolate this activity so you can give it your full attention.
• Spend time alone with the Holy Spirit. (Actually provide a seat for Him.)
• Attend a Bible study or other church function. (Again, this can cover as many points as you think is fair.)
• Sing a hymn - singing comes from the spirit.
• Light a candle. (Fire is a symbol of the Holy Spirit.) Ask a parent or guardian first to help you with this.
• Praising comes from the spirit, too. Spend 5 minutes praising God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit.
• Write a psalm to God.

Again, these are only examples. Create your program so that your goals are reachable. Your program should be reasonable to achieve. The last thing you want to do is set up an impossible program. At the same time, keep the leap of faith factor in there, and count on the Holy Spirit to help you attain goals that you ask Him to help you with. If you find that you don't have a large block of time at any given time of the day, break up your Goals for God activities into several different segments and that may make your goals easier.

I encourage you to replace your activities from time to time. Not all of them at once, but one or a couple at a time. If you use the same fertilizer all the time, your plants get used to it and they don't grow as well as they did when you first started. Give yourself variety. Keep it exciting. You should never grow bored with it. If you do, change the activities that need perking up.

Before any given month is over, you should have your Goals for God chart for the next month made and ready to go. It shows God your eagerness to succeed for Him, and when your new month begins, you won't have to make a chart when you can be starting your activities. If the first of the month falls on a Tuesday, start your Goals for God week on Tuesday for that month. You will have partial weeks left at the end of each month except in February of non-leap years, so just average your weekly score of that partial week by dividing your total points by the number of days in that partial week. Then start afresh each month. A fresh start is always a great and encouraging feeling that motivates everyone.

If any part of the Goals for God program is hard for you to understand, ask someone to help you to understand it. By doing so, you may be encouraging them to begin their own Goals for God program.

Goals for God is a spiritual offering to God. You are sacrificing your time to give it to Him. He sacrificed His only Son's life for you, now you're giving Him back a piece of your life by sacrificing your time to spend more time with the Holy Spirit.

Another way of looking at this is to compare your time dedicated to the Lord like comparing it to medicine. The Lord is not an antibiotic ... You can't just take a prescribed amount of Him and be all better forever. You have to take Him all the time, more like insulin! You need Him in your blood ... Steady doses, or you're sure to have problems.

Remember ...

By renewing your mind, body, and spirit, it is a way of glorifying Him.

Another thing Goals for God does is change your life. A hard thing to do when you have a problem is to stop thinking about it. You're setting new goals for yourself now, and if you ponder on problems, by keeping them in your memory, you may be keeping them from going away. Release them into God's hands ... Give it to God ... He wants you to, you know.

Let Go and Let God!

Let Go (of your problems), And Let God (remove them)!

The Apostle Paul said,

Goals for God!

Reach for the stars!

Child of God Steps

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5

6

7

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