When Jeff and I were going through and figuring out what lessons we wanted in our Bible curriculum, and what we would teach over the 100 lessons we had, it was hard to figure out. We started out with a very long list, and slowly whittled it down. Now that I have a bit more time, I’m going through and adding in some of the lessons we couldn’t figure out how to fit it into our Bible lessons. The first lesson not originally included I finished is the Boy Jesus at the Temple lesson.
(there are probably affiliate links in here)
Let’s get this right up at the top, get it all here
Since I published this post this morning, I’ve got the next two parts of it all done:
I have to create the pictures for the bundle.
Why I love the Boy Jesus at the Temple lesson
I’ve spent the past month or so studying this passage over and over again. There are a bunch of interesting lessons in it, and I’ll talk in detail about it as we look at different parts of the lesson.
But, I particularly love seeing how Jesus reacts to His parents.
Side note: funny editing story
I asked The Artist to go through and edit my story and tell me if there’s any grammatical errors.
There was a point where I essentially repeated the same sentence on the first page.
There was a page where I had every sentence starting with ‘they’. I did that for creating a pattern. I liked the way it sounded.
But, the thing that really threw her?
I capitalized ‘He’ when using a pronoun for Jesus. That confused her so much. I was greatly amused because this is one of those controversial things in Christian circles.
Some people capitalize all pronouns related to God as a sign of respect.
Others don’t think it’s necessary, and don’t do it.
I guess I never really talked about this with her.
Oops.
Okay, back to why I’m liking this Bible lesson
Jesus was obedient, even though He’s God Himself (notice that? Three words in a row capitalized because of it).
I’m pretty sure I’m going to bring this up every time I talk about this lesson.
It’s one of those things that is pretty cool.
He was there when the world was created. He is part of the triune God who spoke the world into existence.
And when His Mom said it’s time to go, He left.
What I don’t think Boy Jesus at the temple Bible lesson is about
I’m pretty sure some of you are going to disagree with me on this, but here are a few things I don’t this lesson is teaching us.
Mary and Joseph were not bad parents. I’ve seen more than one take claiming Mary was a bad parent for losing Jesus.
I will restrain myself from telling you all my reasons I don’t think this is true right now.
I’ll just leave it with this reason:
The Bible never says that.
All right, what are you going to get in this Jesus at the temple lesson?
Right now all I have done and put up is the Boy Jesus at the temple storybook. That’s just like all of my other storybooks, but since it’s not part of the base curriculum, it’s not free. It’s $1 for a color and black and white version.
It has the same discussion question format. There’s a younger kid version that is basically recall of what happened in the story. Then a second set of questions aimed for upper elementary/middle school that starts to use higher level thinking skills. The final set are aimed towards teenagers and adults and has questions that don’t necessarily have one right answer. Those are designed for you to really wrestle with harder questions people disagree about.
And just like in all of my other storybooks, there are a few activity suggestions.
I’m almost done with all of the other activities for boy Jesus at the temple Bible lesson
I am all done with the lesson!
I have a pretty cool set of various different printable activities. I just finished making a cootie catcher that I think is pretty amusing, to go with a maze and a one-page mini-book (just like I have in the Creation Unit and Fall of Man Unit).
Fingers crossed I get this done today. I did! I’ve now got it all done and instruction cards for all of the activities! YAY ME!
I just need to get pictures of the prayer stations, homework, and the cootie catcher.
Boy Jesus at the Temple posts
As I write and share all the different way to interact with this lesson I’m going to add them here.
What do you like about boy Jesus at the temple?
Make sure to go grab the boy Jesus at the temple printable storybook.
Or grab the Jesus at the temple Unit or the Find Jesus at the Temple game.
I love your mini book for this lesson.