Wrestling with God
Group Activities

Sermon Title: "Jacob Wrestles with God"

Scripture Reading: Genesis 32:22-31

WRESTLE FOR BLESSINGS:

The teacher can place many slips of paper around the room, under and over things in the room, with BLESSINGS written on each slip of paper. Children will run to find a blessing and bring back to the WRESTLE FOR BLESSINGS poster board and tape onto the board and run out around the designated area to find another blessings. Play for as long as time allows. Let children stand at the board and read the blessings out loud to each other, taking turns. Encourage children to raise their hands if THEY have received ONE of the blessings that is read out loud.

DOMINO WRESTLING:

Divide the children into two teams. Give each team the same amount of dominoes and have each team stand their dominoes all up next to each other and the teams will wrestle against each other to see who can stand all the dominoes up the quickest and then at the same time, each team will touch the first domino and watch them all fall! Tell children there will be a wrestling match in our Bible story today.

WRESTLING TUG OF WAR:

Let children takes turns at playing tug of war, individually. They can keep asking the other side of the rope if they GIVE UP? Continue to play, giving all children a chance to TUG against another player, as time allows.

GIVE UP?

Let children take turns doing something that they think the other children can't do. All the other children will attempt to do that activity. The child that is leading them will keep saying, GIVE UP? Let other children be the leader if desired to give their classmates something to try and do together.

WRESTLE MANIA:

Divide the children into teams and the first person of each team can begin the wrestle mania with first an arm wrestle, a short RUNNING through an obstacle course and a quick "wrestling" to the candy box and back to their teams. The the next 2 people of the teams will continue to do the same until everyone has played the mania!

JACOB BINGO:

The teacher can make up a "bingo" game board (with stickers and the letters for J-A-C-O-B for each child to play JACOB "bingo". When the children have covered all letters for J-A-C-O-B with a button or another small object, they will call out JACOB!! Have little prizes for the winners. (This can be very simple if the teacher just puts 12 squares on each board/paper

BLESSINGS ACROSTIC:

Write BLESSINGS down the left side of a large poster board and let children give words to describe today's Bible lesson, for each of the letters down the left side of the board. Make sure to use colored markers and make each letter and word a different color so the board will attract the children and others to NOTICE all our BLESSINGS!

JACOB SHAPE WRESTLER:

Give children cut out triangle shapes of various sizes to glue onto a piece of construction paper to form Jacob and wrestling the angel. Children can use colored markers to write WRESTLING MATCH WITH GOD at the top and also SURRENDER TO GOD'S WILL on their paper as well.

JACOB AND ANGEL LOLLIPOPS:

Provide each child with 2 lollipops to dress as Jacob and the Angel. Different colored tissue papers cut in circles and string or bread ties, etc can be given to the children, to place one tissue paper circle over the top of the lollipop and tie around the neck. Use markers to draw a face on each figure and tie or glue on a craft stick under the tissue paper to be the arms. Darker colored tissue papers could be used for the Jacob figure and yellow and white tissue paper could be for the angel. Children will enjoy telling the story to each other with their "figures" and then eating the lollipop at another time if desired! Make sure to have a lollipop for the children to eat as well!! Tell children if they save their extra lollipop, there will be something SWEET for them to stick it into at the end of class!! :-)

JACOB AND ANGEL MAZE:

Give children a piece of paper and a pencil. Tell children they'll have just 15 seconds to draw BIG squiggly lines around the paper. Then hand the papers to the child to their right. The next child will take a color crayon or marker and will start with JACOB (the beginning of the squiggly lines) and will try to follow the lines around to the end of the squiggly lines to find the ANGEL. When they have completed the following of the lines of the maze, they can write JACOB at beginning of the lines and ANGEL at the end of the lines.

PANTOMIME WRESTLING:

If children need to get some energy worn off and if there is time at the end of class, children can stand apart from each other and take turns doing a pantomime that they are wrestling with the angel like Jacob did. When the teacher says NEXT, the next child will do the same and give all children an opportunity to wrestle an angel like Jacob did in our story today.

SURRENDER MATCH GAME:

The teacher can type up short stories or incidences where we should surrender to Go d's will. Then the children can go to a bulletin board and choose a slip of paper that would be the answer to the "situation" that the Teacher read to them. One side of the poster board will have the short story and the children will match it up with the correct answer on the other side of the board. Examples: Two children want the same toy - the SURRENDER to God's will slip of paper would be - Share the toy or find each child a toy to play with; or A child sees money on the floor that does not belong to that child - the SURRENDER would be a slip that says... Do not keep the money but give to an adult to find the owner of the money; A child is told to clean his room but he wants to play outside instead - SURRENDER slip of paper would say .. Obey mother and then play outside;, etc...

SING A SONG:

O BE CAREFUL LITTLE EYES (EARS, MOUTH, HANDS, FEET) WHAT YOU DO.

SHARE A SNACK:

Children can enjoy a lollipop that has been stuck in the top of an ice cream cone or sundae. SO sweet!

Song: "O Be Careful Little Eyes" - Traditional

Words and music (pdf)

MP3 Piano Accompaniment

Song: "Have Thine Own Way, Lord" - George C. Stebbins

Words and music (pdf)

MP3 Piano Accompaniment

These songs are in the public domain and can be downloaded and reproduced for ministry purposes.