Sunday School Lesson / Devotion: I'm Thankful for You!

Hi! My name is Bouncy Bear. I came over to Bible Kids Fun Zone to tell you about how thankful I am to God for good friends - good friends just like you!

Thankful ABC's Activity Page

One sunny autumn day, Bouncy Bear was raking leaves all by himself outside. He was just thinking about how beautiful all the leaves looked: Bright red, neon orange, sunny yellow, gorgeous green and warm brown. Then he sighed. Ah-h-h-h. He was also thinking about how hard it was to rake leaves all by himself. It was a BIG job because he had such a BIG yard and LOTS of trees in the BIG yard. He didn't have any brothers and sisters to help him either. Even though it was hard work, Bouncy kept raking. He worked until he was about half-way done, then he was just all worn out. He just couldn't rake any more. He thought about how fun it would be to rake the leaves into one great big pile to jump in them if.....well...if only he had a friend to do it with. Raking leaves and jumping in them was not much fun doing it all by yourself. But, instead of feeling sorry for himself, Bouncy decided to pray. He prayed, "Dear, God: Please give me some friends to play with. Thank you for hearing my prayer. I know that you love me, and that you will answer my prayer. Amen."

So, Bouncy decided to go for a walk since it was such a nice day. First, he passed Cuddle-Puppy's house. Cuddle-Puppy lived next door to Bouncy. He didn't know his Cuddle-Puppy very well since he was new in the neighborhood, and had just moved there a few weeks ago. But he decided to say "hi" anyways. "Hi Cuddle-Puppy!", Bouncy yelled as he waved. Bouncy saw that Cuddle Puppy was raking leaves too. Cuddle-Puppy waved back, "Hi, Bouncy...Hey, wait a minute. I wanted to ask you something....Are you busy today?

"Not really... " answered Bouncy, "I was raking leaves, but then I got tired, so I decided to take a walk. I can see you're raking leaves too."

"Yeah, I can see why you got tired. It is hard work." Cuddle-Puppy agreed. "I just started, and I'm ALREADY tired."

But by then Bouncy had rested up for a little while, and now he felt like he had more energy. "I can help you, Cuddle-Puppy," Bouncy said.

"Really? OK! That would be great", Cuddle Puppy said with a big smile on his face.

So, Cuddle-Puppy got Bouncy a little rake just his size, and they worked side by side for a while...and soon they finished raking the whole yard! "Wow! That was fast with both of us," said Cuddle-Puppy, " We're all done. Maybe we can finish raking your yard tomorrow, Bouncy".

"Ok", .Bouncy said, "That will be nice. My mom will like that a lot.... Hey...I just remembered, my mom just made some chocolate-chip cookies! So they raced over to Bouncy's house and had a snack of cookies and milk.

"Thanks a lot!" Cuddle-Puppy said as he took his last bite. "I gotta go now, but I'll come over tomorrow to help you rake leaves. And, thanks for helping me today.

"You're welcome, Cuddle-Puppy...It was fun helping you. Much more fun than raking leaves all by myself. See you tomorrow"

The next day, Cuddle-Puppy grabbed his rake and went over to Bouncy's house to help his rake his yard. "Hi! I'm here to help you rake leaves", said Cuddle-Puppy.

"Cool...I'll go get my jacket". Soon they were finished raking the leaves in Bouncy's yard too! It only took a little while with both of them working together. Then they got the idea to rake the leaves into a big pile, and jump right into the middle of them. Whee-e-e-e! What fun they were having now! Soon they were all worn out. So they sat in the middle of the big pile of leaves to rest. Cuddle Puppy was happy that he had a new friend, so he decided to tell Bouncy, "Hey Bouncy...I just wanted to say thank you for being such a good friend. I'm really glad we're friends".

"Thanks for saying so, said Bouncy. "I'm really glad we're friends too. I like you a lot....Hey...I just thought of something. You know what? You didn't even know it, but you are an answer to my prayer...I just prayed yesterday for some new friends to play with. And, I now I see that God answered my prayer by helping us become friends".

"Wow! God really cares about us, huh?" said Cuddle-Puppy. Bouncy replied, "Yeah, just like the Bible verse says....Ecclesiastes 4:9 says:" (Read verse). Then he added, "Its true...everything is more fun when you do it with a friend". Cuddle-Puppy agreed. "Yep, it is", he said, as they gave each other a big hug.

And, so the two became very good friends after that day. The next week, Bouncy invited Cuddle-Puppy to come over for Thanksgiving dinner, so Bouncy showed up at Cuddle-Puppy's house. They shared a wonderful turkey dinner together with lots of good food. They talked and laughed. They shared stories and had lots of fun eating together along with their families. And they also both said a really nice Thanksgiving prayer. And, can anyone guess what they were very, very thankful for on Thanksgiving Day? That's right. They were thankful for each other...that the Lord had given them both a good friend. THE END

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Circle Talk Time: I hope you liked the lesson. Let's talk about for a few minutes. How many of you think that playing is more fun when you have a friend to play with? There are lots of wonderful things about having friends. Its great when you can be there to help each other with your work too. Playing with a friend is much more fun than playing by yourself. And, if you get hurt, you can be there to help each other . And, you have someone who will listen to you when you need someone to talk to. Friends are very special to us, aren't they? Let's all give thanks to God for all the friends he has given us. Sometimes its easy to forget how special they are to us, but God deserves our thanks and praise. He is the one who gives us friends. Let's also remember to also thank out friends for being our friend also. And, if you don't really have too many friends, just ask God to give you some, and He will answer your prayer. He cares about you very much and He wants you to have friends.

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