Teachinghearts™	Bible Stories - Great Children "Explore the Word. Change your World."	Statistics: Time: 25 minutes Print: 7 pages

The Boy Jesus	David and Goliath	Good King Josiah	The Mighty God
Samuel	Joseph	Naaman and the slave	Faithful People

God does use very young children to do great things. Sometimes when adults are disobedient, God will use good children to carry out his plans.
In Sweden, Denmark, and Norway, the public preaching of the word was outlawed just after 1800. What did God do? He inspired child preachers by the hundreds to proclaim the soon coming of Jesus. God also inspired children in the Bible.

Teacher's Resource Games (Odd ball, Scrambled) Arts and Crafts Puzzles More Bible stories Bible facts David and Goliath Jesus Samuel Naaman and the slave girl Joseph and his brothers Mighty acts of God Faithful men and women

The Boy Jesus

Perfect	What matters in perfection? Is it perfect hair, or perfect clothes or a perfect life with a lot of money, famous friends or a big house? Or is it a perfect heart?
Luke 2

Is it sometimes hard to be a perfect little boy or girl?
Well Jesus had to be a perfect boy so that He could save the world. But how did He do it?
How did He behave when His brothers made fun of Him?
What did He say when people called Him names?

He never fought back. He never used angry words. He used love and kindness when he was treated with hatred.

He probably was not the most handsome little boy - but He was the best little boy who ever lived.

Every morning, noon and night and many times in between - Jesus would pray to His real father God.
When He learned to read He would read the Bible every day.

Because he was so close to God and so obedient - Jesus remained perfect. By the age of twelve, He knew the Bible (Torah) so much that He was able to teach the adults in the temple.
It happened on day when the family went to Jerusalem for one of the important feasts. While he was there He watched all the ceremonies. He saw the priests and He saw the lamb of God being killed. He knew that the lamb must be perfect. Without any defects or illness or deformity.
Then He remembered the story of His birth, and He remembered all the things the Spirit of God had made clear to His mind when He studied the Bible.
It was then that He realized that He was the true Lamb of God who must die for the sins of the world. So He knew that He must be a perfect little boy for all His life.

After the feast was over, Mary and her friends went back home. After some days they realized that Jesus was not with them. Then they went back to Jerusalem and she found Him in the temple teaching the older men.
So Mary said, "son did you not know that we would be worried about you? We were searching for you".
Then Jesus said, "Why were you looking for me? Did you not know that I would be in my father's house?" Jesus found perfection by obeying His father in heaven.

Obedience	Obedience to the law of God and the teachings of the Holy Spirit can lead to perfection. Because the law describes how we should love God and love each other. And the Holy Spirit helps us to understand what is good.

Goliath

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Courage	Courage is not being brave all the time. The most courageous are those who are afraid, yet they go out to conquer the thing that makes them afraid.
1 Samuel 17

David was the youngest child. He was the seventh son of Jesse and he was also the twelfth generation from Abraham. While His brothers went out to fight the Philistines, David had to stay home because he was too young. Even though David had fought and killed a lion, his family thought that he was much too young to go off to war.

Now, the nation of Israel was afraid of a giant Philistine named Goliath. For forty days he would come out to the field and dare any Israelite to come and fight him.
For forty days the men of Israel were afraid.

One day, David's father sent him to the battle field to bring food for his brothers. While he was there, he heard the boasting of this giant named Goliath.

David was angry. How dare this Philistine challenge the God of Israel? And why was Israel so afraid if God was on their side?

So David said, "I will fight this impudent Philistine". So the men of Israel dressed him in the best suit of armor. But they were too heavy for such a tiny boy.

So David took off the helmet and the shield and the breast plate and the arm shields and the leg shields and the heavy sword. Instead he went to the river and found five smooth stones.
And he prayed to the God of Israel to deliver the nation.

So David went before the giant named Goliath. He only carried five stones and a sling.

Goliath laughed when he saw him.
"Is this the best you can do? Why do you send a mere, puny boy to fight me?" He is nothing but a little flea that I can swat away with my little finger!

But David said, "You come to me with sword and shield, but I come to you in the name of the Lord".

And David placed a stone in the sling and threw it. The stone hit Goliath on the forehead - between the eyes, and he fell down. Then David took the sword and killed him.

Finally, the whole nation of Israel were free of the annoying Philistines, all because of a courageous and faithful little boy named David.

Trust	David was able to defeat Goliath because he trusted in the God of Israel. Years later, David would become King of the nation. A king chosen by God.

Good King Josiah

Teacher's Resource Games (Odd ball, Scrambled) Arts and Crafts Puzzles More Bible stories Bible facts David and Goliath Jesus Samuel Naaman and the slave girl Joseph and his brothers Mighty acts of God Faithful men and women

Good Example	Usually, adults show children what is right by being a good example. But sometimes, children learn to do what is right by obeying God and ignoring the evil things that adults do. Josiah was this good child.
2 Kings 22

For many years Israel had many kings who disobeyed God. They broke the law. They worshipped other gods and forgot their God.

None of them did the right thing. They were all evil. They did what the rest of the heathen nations did.
They sacrificed their children.
They broke the laws of Yahweh.
They burned incense to a false god named Baal.
They broke the Sabbaths.
They did not honor the jubilees.
They were unkind to the poor and the widow.
They lied and stole and cheated.

Everyone did what they thought was right. Even the priests did not show the people the right thing to do. They also disobeyed God.

Eventually, the house of God started to fall into ruins. But nobody fixed it, because nobody loved God. Instead they built nice houses for themselves and forgot the house of God.

Yes, all the priests and leaders of Israel and Judah did what was evil - until Josiah.

Josiah was a good king even though he was only eight years old. He did not have parents who were a good example.
His father, grandfather, great grandfather and all the relatives before him did not obey the God of Israel who had protected them. Instead they worshipped false gods who did not care if they were evil.

Now, Josiah was only eight years old when he became king and he did what was good. He repaired the house of God. He destroyed all the altars made for false gods. When he found the laws of God, he realized that the whole nation was guilty and deserved the punishment of God.

So he repented and he prayed for the nation and he taught them what God required. And God blessed him with peace for the rest of his life all the time he remained king for thirty one years.

Peer pressure	You too can be good no matter what others around you are doing. You can be an example to adults and older children if you let the law of God control your heart.

Samuel

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Adopted	Samuel was adopted by the high priest Eli. He was a gift to God from his mother Hannah. Sometimes when we are given up for adoption, we have not been abandoned. We are being given to parents who can do greater things for us.
1 Samuel 1 to 3

Hannah had no children. In Israel, this was not a good thing. People believed that children were a blessing from God, therefore if a woman had no children she was cursed by God.

So Hannah prayed for many years that God would give her a son. She promised God that if she had a son she would give him back to God as a gift.

Finally, Hannah had a baby boy and she was no longer a curse. No one teased her any more or made her feel bad. She named the boy Samuel, and when he was old enough she took him to the temple and gave him to Eli - the high priest.

Now Samuel was a good, obedient boy. He was the opposite of Eli's sons who did bad things to the people, encouraged the people to do evil and corrupted the house of God.

Eli wished that his sons would be good like Samuel but he loved them and he did not discipline them as he should.

One night Samuel was asleep and he heard a voice saying, "Samuel, Samuel".
So he got up and went to Eli's room and said "here I am". But Eli told Samuel to go back to sleep, he must have been dreaming because he had not called him.

So Samuel went back to sleep and again he heard the voice calling - "Samuel, Samuel". Again, he went to Eli's room. But when Eli woke up he said, "I did not call you, it must have been a dream, go back to sleep".

Samuel went back to bed for the third time. This time he heard the voice calling his name again and he knew that he was not dreaming. So he went back to Eli's room.

Finally, Eli realized that God was calling Samuel. So he told the boy that the next time he heard the voice he should say, "Speak Lord, for your servant is listening".

When he went back to bed, Samuel heard the voice of God calling his name and Samuel replied, "Speak Lord, for your servant is listening".

And God told Samuel that he was unhappy with the sins of Eli's sons and that he was choosing Samuel to be High priest instead of them - because Samuel was a good boy who loved God.

Chosen	If you are ever tempted to think that you are adopted and therefore unwanted. Just remember that being adopted could also mean that you are chosen. And you are a special gift to your parents. And if you are chosen, then you are very special.

Joseph

Teacher's Resource Games (Odd ball, Scrambled) Arts and Crafts Puzzles More Bible stories Bible facts David and Goliath Jesus Samuel Naaman and the slave girl Joseph and his brothers Mighty acts of God Faithful men and women

Jealousy	Jealousy can lead to hatred and hatred and lead to murder. The best way to overcome all of these is through love, kindness and forgiveness.
Genesis 37 to 49

Joseph as the eleventh son of the twelve sons of Jacob. He was his fathers favorite son and all his brothers knew this. So they became jealous.

Jacob loved him so much, he had a special coat made for him. It was a coat of many colors. This made his brothers hate him even more.

Joseph was also a dreamer.
One night he had a dream in which he saw the sun, the moon and eleven stars bowing down to him. Even his father was annoyed. "Does this mean even your mother and I will bow down to you?"
Now his brothers really hated him. So they planned a way to kill him.

They got their chance one day when Joseph came to the place where they were taking care of the sheep. He came to bring them some food. He was wearing the coat of many colors.
When his brothers saw him, one of them said, "look, the dreamer is coming".
When he reached them, they took him and threw him into a pit until they could decide what to do.
Soon some slave traders came by and they sold Joseph as a slave and he was taken to the land of Egypt. Then they took his coat and dipped it in blood and decided to lie to their father. They would tell him that they had found his coat and probably a wild animal had eaten him.

While he was in Egypt, Joseph suffered many things. He was put in prison because he wanted to remain obedient to God. Potipher's wife told a lie and he was put in prison. While he was there he was such a good man, that they put him in charge of all the prisoners.
He even interpreted a dream that would later get him out of prison.

Now Pharaoh had two dreams. He saw seven fat cows and seven thin cows and the seven thin cows ate the fat cows and they still remained thin.
In the other dream he saw seven fat ears of corn and seven thin ears of corn. The seven thin ears ate the seven fat ears and they still remained thin.

No one could interpret the dream, until the butcher remembered Joseph in prison.

Pharaoh promised Joseph great wealth if he could interpret the dream.

Joseph explained that there would be seven years of good harvest followed by seven years of famine. So Pharaoh placed Joseph in charge of preparing for the famine.

During the seven years of famine, his ten older brothers came to Egypt for food. They did not recognize Joseph. They bowed down before him and begged him to sell them some food for their starving family. But Joseph recognized them and he tricked them into bringing their younger brother Benjamin to Egypt. So Joseph saved his whole family from starvation and he forgave his brothers and God turned something bad into something good many years later.

Abandoned	If you have ever felt betrayed or abandoned and alone, remember that God is watching over you. And many years from now, the evil that you have suffered can be changed into something good for others.

Naaman

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Prejudice	Do you know someone that you think knows less than you? Do you sometimes find reasons to ignore someone because of the way they look, or how much money they have, where they live or how smart they are?
2 Kings 5

Sometimes in our world, we ignore some people and listen to others not because of their knowledge or wisdom - but because they have money, look pretty, have a nice job, a big car, a big house or because they are popular.
This is not the loving thing to do. This is also called prejudice.

In Syria, the captain of the army was sick. His name was Naaman and he had an incurable disease named leprosy. His body was full of sores that would not go away. In fact, they would only get worse and worse until his fingers and toes fell off.

Everyone was afraid of leprosy because you could get it by touching others. So a leper was forced to live with other lepers - away from their families. And everyone tried to run away from them.

In Israel, a leper would have to shout, "unclean, unclean" as they walked through the streets. This was to make sure that nobody would touch them and get their disease.

Now, Naaman had a slave girl from Israel and she knew about the prophet Elisha. So she told Naaman that Elisha could heal him.
Ordinarily, no one would listen to a little girl and definitely not a slave. But Naaman was desperate. So he went to Israel and met the prophet Elisha.

Elisha told Naaman to dip himself in the muddy Jordan river seven times.

Naaman was disappointed. He said, "Why should I wash in the dirty Jordan river. The rivers in Syria are much cleaner!".
But the little slave girl convinced him to obey the prophet.
So Naaman went in the Jordan river one time. When he came up there was no change! He was disappointed. If even one of the many sores had gone, he would have felt encouraged but there was nothing!

So Naaman went into the river a second time. No change!

And Naaman went into the river a third time. No change!

Then Naaman went into the river a fourth and a fifth time. No change! No change! So Naaman wanted to leave. He had listened to a little slave girl. He had bathed in a dirty river. And he was still a leper. He felt foolish.

But the little girl said, you have already dipped in the river five times and the prophet said seven times. You might as well obey.

So Naaman went into the river for the sixth time. Still no change!
And the slave girl said, "only one more time".

So Naaman went into the river for the last time. When he came up out of the water, he looked at his hands, his feet, his legs and his arms. He looked at his face, his belly and his back. And everywhere he looked his skin was as clean as a new born baby.

Humbled	A fearful disease humbled this great man. But he humbled himself more when he listened to the advice of a little slave girl. Because he listened to the child, he was healed. Prejudice could keep you from experiencing some of the good things of life.

Thank You
Thanks for coming to our Web site. I hope you enjoyed your adventure in the Bible. And I hope that you realize that you are not too young to serve God.