Trail Life Troop
NC-613
Devotional – Planning
Opening
- Taking up a hobby requires planning and preparation, let’s see what the bible says about planning ahead.
- Read, or someone read the Teaching verse. FYI: The memory verse is further down
Luke 14:28 Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?
Devotional
Big picture It is important to plan ahead.
- Q: Do any of you have a savings account or maybe you are saving up $ to buy something you want?
- Q: What is it you are saving up your $ for? (give a story where you saved $ to buy something)
- We save $ because we don’t have enough $ now to buy some things we may want.
- It takes planning to get good things we want. And it’s important to plan ahead, not just regarding saving $ for the future, but regarding everything in life. Everything takes planning.
- Even doing a hobby takes planning. Can anyone think of a hobby that doesn’t need any planning effort?
- For example, hobby model building takes planning (ask kids the steps along the way, drag it out)
- First, you must decide what model you want to build.
- Then, you have to go to the store or go online to figure out where you want to buy the model.
- Then, you have buy the model (but that may take planning to if you don’t have the $).
- Then, once you have the model, you must make sure you have all the supplies to make it.
- Then, you need a place to assemble the model. Where you going to build it?
- Then, you need plan time to assemble it, glue it, and paint it.
- Then, finally, where are you going to display your finished model?
- See, there are lots of planning ahead steps along the way in hobbies.
- The next verse, Luke 14:29, shows us the consequences for NOT planning ahead.
- It says, we may look foolish or worse, be made fun of for our foolish lack of planning if we cannot finish what we started. Back to our model example. How fun is it to have an unfinished model?
- Q: Does anyone like to be made fun of or look foolish? No!
- Jesus wasn’t talking to his followers about planning their hobbies. He was talking about them planning the costs of following him.
- Learning to plan helps us when we need to plan important things such as how to live a life for Jesus.
- So, it’s important to plan ahead. Be a good planner. Nothing worthwhile happens without planning and preparation. Hobbies are not about the planning. They are about you having fun doing them. But to do them right, to do them well, takes planning ahead.
Memory Verse #3
Ask if anybody knows it yet and can say it? Read it together 2X Consider having a memory verse pamphlet for kids take home.
2 Peter 3:9 The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.
Topical Questions
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Have your parents ever planned for a big family trip? What are some things they had to plan for?
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Would that family trip have happened without planning ahead by your parents? What could have happened if they didn’t do good planning ahead?
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In the teahcing verse, Jesus is telling his followers to plan for the costs of following him. What might some of those costs be?
Closing Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father, You plan every second of every day, forever. You are the God of planning. Genesis tells us You planned the heavens, the earth an everything in it. Thank You for showing us how to plan. We thank You that Your plans included creating us, otherwise we wouldn’t be here today. We love You, God! In Your son’s name, Jesus Christ, we give thanks. Amen!
