Job: A Bible Lesson for Preschoolers

“I can Praise God When I’m Happy AND When I’m Sad”

Opening Activities:

1. Give all the kids a paper plate. Help them draw a smiley face on one side and a frowny face on the other. Say: Sometimes things happen that make me happy (hold plate with the smiley face out) and sometimes things happen that make me sad. (hold plate with the frowny face out). Do the following things make you happy or sad?

Make each of the following statements. If this makes the kids happy, have them face the smiley face out. If it makes them sad, have them face the frowny face out.

• You get a new toy

• You win your tee-ball game

• You fall down and scrape your knee

• Your mom or dad gives you a hug

• You have to clean your room

• Someone steals your toy

• You get to go to your favorite restaurant

• You have an upset tummy

Add other statements that fit your group!

When you finish say: You know what? Some things make us happy and some things make us sad, but we should PRAISE God no matter how we are feeling! We can praise God when we are happy (hold the happy face out) AND when we are sad (hold the frowny face out). Today we are going to talk about someone who did just that!

2. Sing, “If You’re Happy and You Know it”. When you finish the song, say: Should we only praise God when we are happy? NO! We should also praise God when we are sad! Today, we are going to talk about someone who praised God when he was happy and when he was sad.

Bible Lesson:

Beforehand, gather several blank pieces of large paper and crayons, cotton balls, matches (optional), and sticker dots.

Say: Today we are going to learn about a man named Job. Job loved God. Job also had a very good life. He had seven sons and three daughters. Will you help me draw his seven sons and three daughters on this paper?

Take the first blank piece of paper and have the kids help you draw seven people. Let each child draw on the paper (at the same time so it goes quicker). When there are 10 people drawn, count all the kids and then say: That’s a lot of children! Job loved all of them very, very much.

Not only did Job have 10 children, but he also had lots of animals! The Bible says he had 7,000 sheep! Will you help me put cotton balls on this paper to show that Job had a lot of sheep?

Give each child some cotton balls. Put glue on the second piece of paper and let the kids all glue their cotton balls to the paper. Say: Job sure had a lot of sheep!

Not only did Job have 10 children and 7,000 sheep, but he also had 3,000 camels! Will you help me draw some camels?

Take out the next piece of paper and have all the kids help you draw camels.

When they are finished drawing the camels, say: But that’s not all! Job had lots of kids, lots of sheep, lots of camels AND lots of oxen and donkeys! Will you help me draw those?

Take out the last piece of paper. Have all the kids help you draw oxen and donkeys (or anything close) until the whole page is covered.

Take the pieces of paper (that are now filled with pictures and cotton balls.). Job had it pretty good. He had (show the pictures as you say each one) 10 children, lots of sheep, lots of camels, lots of oxen and lots of donkeys.

But one day, something bad happened to Job!

(Hold up the paper with the oxen and donkeys on it). One day some mean people came and attacked his servants and killed his oxen and donkeys! (Rip up the page with the donkeys and oxen on it)

On the same day, fire fell from heaven and burned up all his sheep! (Tear up the page with the sheep – or, if you’re feeling really brave, light a match and burn the page)

On the same day, mean people came and destroyed all his camels! (Tear up the paper with the camels on it)

And, on the same day, all of his children died in a big wind storm! (Tear up the paper with the children on it)

This was a BAD day and Job was very, very sad! (Point to all the torn up pieces of paper). Job no longer had any of those good things. It was all gone! And then Job got really, really sick! He had big sores all over his body that hurt REALLY bad! Things were not looking good for Job!

(Put the sticker dots on the kids to represent the boils that Job had on his body)

What do you think Job did? (ask kids to respond)

This is what Job did – Job STILL praised God! Even though so many bad, bad things happened to him, Job knew that God was still GOOD and that God loved Him.

When we have bad things happen to us, we need to remember that God still loves us! We need to still praise God!

Let’s praise God together now by learning a song that talks about how God is good – even when bad things happen.

Teach the kids the song “God is so good” and sing it with them.

The words are: “God is so good, God is so good, God is so good, He’s so good to me.”

After you sing the song a few times, say: Guess what? Job’s bad times didn’t last forever! Yes, things were really bad for awhile, but God eventually took away the sores that Job had and gave him back even MORE sheep, donkeys, camels, oxen AND children!

And Job praised God again! Job praised God when things were good AND when things were bad. We need to praise God, too!

Additional Activities:

1. Make a pile of cotton balls at one end of the room and have an empty bucket at the other end. Give each child a plastic spoon with a cotton ball on it. Have the children walk from one end of the room to the empty bucket and dump the cotton ball in the bucket. When they drop the cotton balls, have them say one way they can praise God. (You might want to help with this).

Add variety to this game by having the kids do different things while carrying the cotton ball (examples include: walk backwards, walk on one leg, hop, skip, crawl, spin in circles, etc.)

TIP: If possible, have all kids go at the same time so no one is waiting. This will keep all kids engaged during this game.

2. Snack: Give the kids a variety of cut up fruits and some yogurt. Help them spread the yogurt on a paper plate and then place the fruit on top to make a smiley face and then a sad face. (Grapes can be eyes, cut up strawberries can be the mouth, bananas can be the nose, etc). Talk about how we can praise God when we are happy AND when we are sad! Eat the snack.

3. Help the kids make an “I can Praise God” book. Staple several pieces of paper together ahead of time. On the cover, write: “I can Praise God when I’m . . . “. Write one of the following words on each of the inside pages: “Happy”, “Sad”, “Scared”, “Alone”, “With a bunch of people”, “Sick”, “Healthy”, “Mad”, “Excited”. Help the kids draw pictures of them in each of those situations on the page that matches. (For example, have them draw a picture of something that makes them happy on the “happy” page). While they are working on the books, talk about how they can praise God no matter how they are feeling. Send it home with them to finish and to read with their families.

__________________________________

I hope you enjoy this lesson and that you are able to use it! Check out some of my other free Bible lessons here.