FAITH QUEST
Mary and Martha (Revised)
Creation Station
Scripture: Luke 10: 38-42
Key Scripture Verse: “You are
worried and upset about so many things, but only one thing is necessary.” Luke
10:41b-42a (Contemporary English Version)
Memory Verse: “Be still, and know that I am
God.” Psalm 46:10 (CEV)
Offering: Food Bank
Concepts:
·
Don’t worry about
little things.
·
Jesus wants us to
listen to God.
·
God wants us to
be considerate, patient, loving, and kind.
·
Do the best you
can and don’t worry about what others are doing.
Objectives:
1. Understand that listening
can be as important as doing.
2. Learn that
Jesus wants us to continue learning as we serve others.
3. Recognize that we all have
different talents.
4. Children will work clay to create symbols of
Martha and Mary.
Procedure:
Welcome and Introductions:
1. Welcome the children and introduce
yourself. Wear your name tag. Make sure
that everyone is in the right classroom!
Children will either already have name tags on, or will get a name tag
from their shepherd. Make sure that you know everyone’s name and greet the
students individually. Remember you are interacting with a different group of
students each week that may not know you.
2. Start the “lesson time”
with prayer. Perhaps: Dear Lord, thank you for the differing talents you have
given us. Be with us as we use our
hands, ears, and minds to understand Jesus’ words. Amen.
Bible Lesson:
1. This lesson
tells about something that happened when Jesus was traveling around teaching
the word of God. Jesus and his disciples
came to a village where they were invited to eat in the home of sisters, Martha
and Mary and their brother Lazarus. Martha
wanted to be the perfect host while preparing an excellent meal. Mary wanted to be a disciple and listen to
Jesus talk so that she could learn about God.
Martha complained to Jesus that she thought that Mary should be helping
with the meal. But Jesus told Martha
that she was fussing too much with the meal and that Mary, by listening to
Jesus, was doing the right thing. A meal
would soon be over, but learning about God would always stay with her. Jesus said, “Martha, Martha, you are worried
and upset about so many things, but only one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen what is best and it will not
be taken away from her.”
2. The reason that this story is told in the
Bible is to remind us that we should not let ourselves be so busy doing things
that we have no time to learn about God.
Even if we are helping others, that is not enough. There is always more to learn about God. It is right to work for Jesus and right to
listen and learn.
3. In this workshop we are going to model
symbols for Martha and Mary’s talents in clay.
Martha used her hands to prepare meals.
Mary used her ears to listen to Jesus.
Both talents are necessary and right for each person and for God. We all have different abilities and we should
not criticize those who are not doing things the same way we do. While working with clay, we will see that
this is something that some people find to be easy and others find
difficult. If we are listening and
trying our best, what each one of us makes will be different and good.
Application:
1. READ the lesson (1-3 above) with
expression.
2. Have children put on smocks. Create:
Give the children a paper plate and a lump of clay that is about the
size of an orange (you will need to divide lumps ahead of time – use a flexible
wire to cut the clay). Have them squeeze
the clay into a sphere and then flatten the clay onto the plate as a “pancake”
that is slightly bigger than their hands.
Make sure that the clay is still of a thickness that they will be able
to imprint their hand in it - if it is too thin, they will not get a good hand
impression. Have the kids press either
their palm or back of their hand into the clay - really press hard so that fine
details will be visible in the clay.
3.
Analyze: Give the kids a minute to examine their hand impression - what details
do they notice? Remind them that our
hands are very complex - our hands are one of the things that make us very
different from many animal species. We
are able to do so much with our hands!
Are we using our hands to do what God wants us to do? How do we know? Are we listening to and for God?
4.
Have the children mush up their clay into a ball again (shepherds can help by
using wires to cut clay free from the plates).
This time encourage the children to sculpt an ear. Children can pinch the clay and push ridges
with wooden sticks. Take a minute to
talk about how ears are not all alike, just like our talents are not all
alike. Talk about lobe shape and size
(some lobes are attached, some detached) and talk about differences in ear
folds. Have them look at your ear and the
ears of others and notice ear differences.
NOTE: Sculpting an ear is not going to be easy for
everyone. Encourage them to be patient
and try. What their neighbor is doing
should not be their concern. This is
each one’s chance to see what they can do. (If they don’t like their efforts,
they are welcome to redo their hand impression to take home). Each child will take home either their ear sculpture or hand
impression.
5.
Clean up! Pass our dry paper
towels for the children to wipe their hands with before using soap and
water. Sponge any clay from the tables
into a bucket of water and dump outside.
Involve everyone in cleaning up so that you will have time to share together
in the closing. You may want to have a pre-arranged signal for clean up and
tell them at beginning of art project what that will be - perhaps giving them a
5 minute warning and then the final clean up notice to allow those who need a
bit more warning that they need to complete whatever they are working on.
6. Turn out lights and lock the classroom door
when leaving.
Reflection Time:
1. Pass out journal pages and
pencils/markers. The children should
spend a few minutes reflecting upon the morning's lesson.
2. At 10:40 ask the kids to put away their
pencils/markers and prepare for the closing prayer.
Closing:
1. Encourage them to remember that it takes a
long time to learn what talents God has given us. We need to listen and try things, and when we
know that we have a talent, we can use it to help others. This is how we serve God.
2. Remind them that their offering will go to
the Food Bank.
3. Say the Memory Verse together (see above).
You may want to have this verse printed on a banner and hung in the room, write
it on the white board in the room, or have it on slips of paper that each child
can take home.
4. Pray! Ask the children if they have any
prayer requests to include in the closing prayer. Prayer (suggestion): Thank
God for our hands and ears and for stories in the Bible that teach us so much
about the love of God and Jesus.
Teacher preparation in advance:
1. Read the scripture passage
and attend the Faith Quest Leaders Workshop.
2. Practice reading the Bible story (above) with
expression.
3. Prepare an opening prayer in case nobody
volunteers to pray.
4. Check the art room and the supply closet to
see what supplies exist.
5. Experiment with what the children will be
doing.
6. Prepare all the materials you will need for
the creation process. Have the materials
ready to go. There will be limited time
for the creation process, so do everything you can to conserve time.
7. Decide how you want to close the lesson. Prepare a prayer, ask for suggestions, or use
suggestion provided.
Materials:
Wooden ice cream sticks for
sculpting
Flexible wires for adults
Paper towels