Number 1
Items Needed: Children’s choice of 3-5 toys
Ask your children to bring some of their toys to dinner. After the meal, let them organize their toys from most favorite to least favorite.
Why did you put that toy in first place? (I love to play with it; I’ve had it a long time; etc.)
Spending time playing with a toy that you like is not a bad choice. But would it be a good idea to spend ALL your time with that toy?
God gives us lots of things to enjoy, (1 Timothy 6:17) but we must be careful not to love anything more than we love God. When things, people, or events become more important to us than our relationship with God, they become an idol, something we love more than God. Let’s keep God as our Number 1!
Who Gets 1st Place?
Items Needed: 1st place ribbons (optional), see race ideas for other items
Run some different races to see who wins first place. (Optional idea is to buy 1st place ribbons, which can be found at a dollar store in the party section.)
Race ideas:
- Who can toss the most pennies (or marshmallows) into a bowl in a minute?
- Who can throw a paper plate the longest distance?
- Who can stand on one foot the longest?
- Who can blow the biggest bubble?
- Who can draw the best beach scene (without looking at the page)?
- Who can sing the ABC’s the fastest?
- Who can run to a designated spot first carrying a full bucket of water?
Cheer for the winners. To get first place means that you were the best! God deserves first place, and He is the only one to be worshipped.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego knew that King Nebuchadnezzar’s statue was not a god to be worshipped. A false god could never help anyone! Only the one true God deserves to be worshipped. Only the one true God is real and could care for them. (And He did!)
The Real Thing
Send the children on a search for fake and real stuff. (Fake/real fruit; food; money; flower; etc.)
What’s the difference between fake and real? (Fake is an imitation of the real—some fake things look very real, but they are not.)
What is an idol? (It is an imitation of the true God. An idol can be made from gold, silver, wood, or just about anything.)
What’s the difference between an idol and the one true God? (The one true God made the heavens and the earth; an idol is something people make to represent a god they worship.)
There are people in many countries (many even in the US) who worship idols. They do not know the one true God and worship a false god. Nebuchadnezzar set up an idol for the people to worship until he realized that there was one true God who saved Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego.