Consider the Birds with Your Children (A Lesson on Trusting God)

Even the sparrow has found a home, and the swallow a nest for herself,
where she may have her young–
a place near your altar, O Lord Almighty, my King and my God,
Psalm 84:3

He will keep in perfect peace all those who trust in him,
whose thoughts turn often to the Lord!
Isaiah 26:3

In the last post we talked about how God values birds and used them as teaching aides and object lessons, so let’s do the same.  Let’s use birds to teach our children about trusting God. Tell a different Bible Story each day and do the corresponding Activity. Put one of the above verses on the fridge and spend the week memorizing it.

Bible Stories:

1.  Matthew 6:26, Job 12:7 God wants us to look at the birds and learn from them. There are many Bible verses that talk about birds which shows how much God values even the little birds.  We can value the birds too by giving them food in the winter when it is hard for them to find food and leaving fresh water for them if there hasn’t been rain in a while.  We can also value the birds by hearing what God says about them in the Bible.

 2.  Psalm 84 David was sitting in the Tabernacle of God (church) and singing to God about how much he loved to be near Him.  He must have been watching the birds there and it caused him to think about how even the birds felt safe to build their nests there in the church.  They knew the best place to live is near to God.  The sparrows and swallows are known for being restless birds who loved to freely flutter and dart about, but they felt it was safe to rest near to God. God will keep us safe too when we stay near to Him.

3.  Matthew 6:25-33 Jesus was teaching His friends about how much God loves them when He noticed the birds flying around.  He said,  “Look at the birds! They aren’t worried about having enough to eat because God feeds them.  In the same way, you shouldn’t worry about what you will eat.  God will feed you too!”  Just stay close to God and He will make sure you have all you need.

4.  Job 28:21, Proverbs 1:17, Job 35:11, Psalm 145:10  God liked to use the birds as an example.  The birds have the ability to see more than we can because they can fly high above and see a lot of things at one time.  The birds are very watchful and not easily trapped.  God said it is foolish to lay a net in front of the bird; he won’t go into it.  God made birds wise, but He made man even wiser.  God made birds to sing His praises and He made us to do so too!

5.  Matthew 23:37  One day Jesus was feeling sad about all the evil in the world.  People had turned away from God and were doing the opposite of what He wanted them to do.  He loved them and wanted to protect them but they refused. He compared his love for them to that of a bird.  He said, “Oh how I wish I could gather you like a hen gathers her chicks under her wings so I could love and protect you but you wouldn’t let me.”  Let’s stay near Jesus and let Him love and protect us.

Activities:

1. Make a bird feeder out of a pinecone: Spread it with peanut butter and cover it in birdseed.  Hang it in a place outside that you can see from a window. Then sit down and watch the birds with your children. While watching, point out that the birds mentioned in Ps 84:3 made their homes near God and that is what we should do.  The birds knew that near God is where they would be the safest.   The same is true for us.

2. Color  – Look at the picture at the top – how peaceful the little bird is even though there is a thunderstorm going on around it.  Click here to download the above picture to color.  Talk about the fact that the bird trusts God to keep him peaceful in the midst of the storm.  We can trust God when things go wrong in our lives.

3. Eat like a bird:  When people say, ‘You eat like a bird,’ they often mean you hardly eat anything at all. But although birds do eat tiny mouthfuls of food, they do so hundreds of times each day. So try a bird’s eating habits. Take a day to eat like a bird -break up your meal into about two dozen tiny meals and eat your food gradually, one tiny bite at a time – (suggestion from TLC Bird Watching Activities)  Talk about Matthew 6:26 – that the birds don’t worry about where they get their food because God feeds them.

4.  Make a bird out of paper Click here for a pattern of the above.   Cut out and make a slit to slide the wings through. Tape  to a craft stick and sing Little Bird as you move it up and down to ‘fly it’.  Fly the bird high and talk about all the bird can see from way up high in the sky.  Pretend the bird is singing and praising God.

5. Make a picture of a bird and her babies in a nest.  Click here to download and print onto card stock .  As you cut, color and fold this, talk about how Jesus pointed out in Matthew 23:37 that the mother bird loves and protects her babies by taking them under her wings and that is what He wants to do for us.

And now enjoy this song about feeding birds from one of my favorite Disney movies – “Mary Poppins”. Interesting that the birds were at a cathedral just as the birds in Psalm 84 were at the Tabernacle.

http://youtu.be/XHrRxQVUFN4