Firm Foundations 9:1

Theme: God created everything! Therefore, He makes the rules
"In God's hand are the depths of the earth, and the mountain peaks belong to him." (Psalm 95:4)


Scripture Memory: Over the next several weeks,  our memory focus will be the Romans Road, a selection of verses in Romans that clearly present the Gospel. This week we'll begin with Romans 3:23: "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God." Here are a couple options for learning the verse:

• Download Romans 3:23 set to song.
• Steve Green's Romans 3:23 song from Hide 'em in Your Heart
• And of course, make up actions for the verse. We're going to do the Steve Green version, so I'm not going to post actions here. If someone else wants to come up with some, send them my way and I'll post them here.

Catechism Q&A: The wording for this week's catechism questions and answers is a bit too technical sounding for me. I'm going to reword it to make it more understandable for my children.
Here's the original wording:

• Q. What covenant did God make with Adam? A. The covenant of works.
• Q. What was Adam bound to do by the covenant of works? A. To obey God perfectly.

Here's my wording:

• Q. What did God require Adam to do? To obey the Lord perfectly.

Owner's Rights: Provide your children with  a) some paper dolls,  dress shapes, glitter and stickers. Tell them to color and decorate however they wish; or if you have a boy that's not so hot on paper dolls b) Some playdoh, buttons, pipe cleaners and pom poms. Tell them to create anything they want out of those objects. Set the timer for 5-10 minutes and allow your children's inner artists to come loose!

When they're done, pick up the doll or sculpture and pretend to talk for it. Have the created item tell your child it really wants to be different, that it would prefer to be a skydiver and so it needs a parachute and airplane. Or that it wants to be a firefighter and needs a jacket, hose and hat. Isn't it silly for the toy to tell its owner what it should be and do? The owner makes the rules, not the toy!

Read Psalm 95:1-7a. God is our owner, as well as the owner of everything in the world. Doesn't He have the right to tell us what to do and to make us the way He wants us? Compare our situation to their creations. Then read the Psalm again and rejoice in our great Creator!

Notebook: Snap a picture of their creation. Put the picture in today's Notebook square as a reminder that the creator makes the rules!