​Dear Reign Forest,
In Mark 14:1-9, we see that towards the end of Jesus’ life, He was at the home of a man named Simon. While He was there, a woman approached with an expensive jar of perfume. She surprised everyone as she broke the jar and poured the perfume on Jesus’ head. Many were angry and said she could have sold it and given the money to the poor. But Jesus told the crowd to leave her alone. What she was doing was important for what was to happen as He would go to the cross for us.
 
Bottom Line: Love God with everything you’ve got. Sometimes it’s hard for kids to understand how they can love God. We hope that through this story of the woman who anointed Jesus, they’ll start to realize that loving God can look like singing worship songs, but it can also mean doing their best, being generous to others, or putting others first. We’re all different, so we hope to help kids understand how they can love God individually with everything they’ve got.
 
Memory Verse: But anyone who does not love does not know God, for God is love (1 John 4:8, NLT).  
 
Have a blessed week!
The Reign Forest Team

​Dear Reign Forest,
Jesus brought His followers to a mountain to explain to them what it means to live as part of God’s kingdom. During that message, He said something surprising about love. In Matthew 5:43-47 Jesus said, You’ve heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor. Hate your enemy.’ But here is what I tell you. Love your enemies. Pray for those who hurt you (NIrV). Jesus wanted to be sure that love is bigger than we think, and everyone deserves love.
 
Bottom Line: Love others because they matter to God. We tend to make judgment calls on who deserves to receive love. But that’s not the way God works. All people are created in God’s image, and regardless of how much we get along or not, we should work to be nice and show God’s love to them. We’ll help kids understand how they can do this for the people in their life.
 
Memory Verse: This is my commandment: Love each other in the same way I have loved you. John 15:12, NLT 
 
Sincerely,
The Reign Forest Team

​Dear Reign Forest families,
My apologies for the late email to summarize last week's lesson in Reign Forest.  God blessed us with a wonderful time together asking questions and learning more about each other as well as gaining knowledge through a fun, friendly competition of Tic Tac Toe (Team Lisa vs. Team Jill).  The children were so engaged in this game - we could have played more games!  Ask your child(ren) how many legs a lobster has or which of the 5 senses fails first or which state is the most populated.  With all this said, we ran out of time to watch the video as described below.  So, please take a few minutes to review this story as written in Matthew 11.
 
In Matthew 11:1-6, we find John the Baptist, Jesus’ own cousin, in prison. John seemed to wonder if Jesus was truly the Savior that God had promised. John sent two of his disciples to ask Jesus his questions. Jesus responded in love which reassured John that all of God’s promises are coming true.
 
Bottom Line: If you don’t understand something about God, ask. We never want kids to feel like they can’t ask hard questions about God. Questions about faith are part of growing in your relationship with God. We pray that kids will find a safe place in your church to ask about what they don’t understand. We pray they have a great small group leader who will help them as they are discovering what it means to put their faith in God.
 
Memory Verse: For everyone who asks, receives. Everyone who seeks, finds. And to everyone who knocks, the door will be opened.  Matthew 7:8 NLT
 
Blessings to you all,
The Reign Forest team