Here is another quick overview to get you familiar with newest Ten Commandment Lesson Series which you can read about in my post here.
You can find the complete set of these lessons to download in our Free Shop, under Lessons, Study Guides, and Worksheets.
Each lesson package offers a completely, written-out, word-for-word lesson plan with a memory verse, review questions, and space to write your own notes.
And, today, we are talking about Lesson 2 which talks all about worshipping and praising God!
Commandment 2: “Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven images.”
While in modern America, kids may not consider that they have “graven images” or idols all around them that they are being pressured into making and serving! As teachers, mentors, and parents, though, it is our job to make them aware of this, and show them how they can put away these harmful distractions and praise God instead.
In today’s society, with readily-available access to TV, streaming platforms, social media posts, and news outlets, there is a huge push for young people to create idols out of everything and anything. Celebrities, influencers, products, brands, apps, shows, movies, and even certain lifestyles are constantly being lifted up as things that we are supposed to be in awe of, revere, stay loyal to, like, subscribe, and in other words, worship.
Think about how much image worship is in our modern, western culture: selfies, videos, reels, memes, etc. of different people, brands, games, sports teams, and lifestyles are held up by many kids and adults alike. If you don’t believe me, just scroll on your phone for a while and notice how many views, likes, comments, and ads you encounter — we (and our young people) are constantly being targeted to support and promote and praise everything other than God.
What you can do, though, is use this lesson and others, to teach your children and make them aware that none of these famous people or viral trends or popular lifestyles can really help them in time of need. None of those things died for our sins to make an eternal impact. None of those care about each one of us individually, listening to our heart’s every desire, feeling, and thought. And certainly none of them have done more for us than our gracious Savior!
Instead, these flashy distractions often cause us to compare ourselves among ourselves and focus on what we don’t have, creating feelings of pride, selfishness, anger, self-pity, worthlessness, shame, envy, lust, depression, and anxiety.
So, as you teach your children to take their attention off all of the distractions around them, show your students how they can replace those feelings and items with the joy of the Lord through being thankful and praising Him! There is no better way to improve your mood or turn your attitude around than to start thanking God for all He has done and given each one of us individually!
One great way to do this is have everyone create a list and write down as many things as they can that they are grateful to God for. Alternatively or additionally, depending on your age group, you can even end this lesson off with a favorite song of praise to begin put this lesson into practice together right away! After all, teaching a lesson will not be impactful unless your students are able to use it practically!
As always, don’t forget to keep your eager listeners involved in the lesson by asking them answerable questions: What are some things that distract you from God? Are there any people or things you have been focusing on or hearing about lately? What are you thankful for today? What praises do you have? (Be sure to answer these for yourself first!)
You can then use the memory verse, Psalm 106:1, to reinforce your lesson about praising God instead of graven images.
Once you have gone over the memory verse, and maybe played a review game with our handy-dandy questions already provided for you in the lesson, you can add the second commandment to our Ten Fingers for Ten Commandments Craft which children can work on completing after each one of the ten lessons in the series!
I hope this overview and lesson is a help to you and your class — whether you are in Sunday school, children’s ministry, or a homeschooler!
Find all of the materials for this lesson and the others in the link below:
Ten Commandments Lesson Series
Also, explore our free shop for lots of other great kid and teacher-friendly materials!
Thanks so much for reading through this article. Leave a comment below if you like this lesson concept, and let me know what other lessons/lesson series you would like to see in the future! Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter, too, in order to be the first to see all the new and exciting content we publish weekly!! God bless!
