Children’s Story for September 19th, 2004

By Miriam Rempel, Home Street Mennonite Church, Winnipeg, MB

Bible passages

• Luke 16: 1-13
• 1 Timothy 2: 1-7

Themes

• Luke - Story of shrewd sanager, “If the you have not been faithful in handling worldly wealth, how can you be trusted with true wealth”
• 1 Timothy - God wants everyone to be saved, to receive “true wealth”

Telling the Story

• Greet the children
• Ask how many of them have pets at home
• Ask them to think about how they take care of that pet

Story: Caring for Pets

Allison wanted a dog for her birthday more than anything else. Every day she asked her parents for a dog, although her birthday was still months away. One day her mother took her to the pet shop. Allison got very excited. But, when they entered the pet store she took Allison to the fish tanks, instead of heading towards the dogs. “But Mom, I want a dog, not a fish!” Allison exclaimed. Her mom replied, “If you want a dog, you need to prove that you can take care of a smaller pet, like a fish, first.”

After a week of taking good care of her fish, Allison thought that she would feed her fish some people food. Her big brother stopped her, and told her that fish only eat fish food. “Well, that’s boring”, thought Allison, but after that, she only fed her fish fish food.

On Allison’s birthday, her family gave her a box that kept wiggling. It was a brand new puppy. They told Allison how proud they were, of the good care she had taken of her fish. Since she had proved she could take care of a small pet, they thought that, with her family’s help, she could now handle a bigger pet. Together, they trained Mr. Wiggles, (that is what Allison named the dog), all sorts of tricks. Allison noticed that at first her mom often gave Mr. Wiggles doggy treats to teach him new tricks, but now she did not use them anymore. “Mom, why don’t you use those treats to teach Mr. Wiggles tricks like you used to?” “Well Allison, doggy treats are what Mr. Wiggles likes, so I used what he likes to teach him how I would like him to behave. After a while I did not need the treats anymore, because pleasing me rewards Mr. Wiggles more than treats. At first, he loved the treats more, but now he loves you and me more than treats. He knows that we will always take good care of him, and love him.”

Today’s scripture talks about how we need to show that we can be trusted with small things, before we receive the greater rewards of eternal life. It also says that sometimes we need to use those things that the world values, to gain the world’s trust so that we can show them the things that God values, like sharing with and caring for everyone. As you go to your seats, think about ways that you can show others how much God loves them, and wants them to follow God’s ways.