Series Overview: Pow-Wow Praise, the Power of Praise 

In this series, we are looking into “praise”, what it actually is and how it packs a punch of God’s power! Praise is not just the time when we sing fast songs to God, but praise is an expression of faith, has power to bring us to God’s presence and is an act of loving God. Praise brings us to know God even more and is a weapon to fight the enemy and forces of darkness! How awesome is God and praising Him!

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Series Aim: To help kids to understand the power of praise and how it helps us know God more!

Talk to your child about what they just learnt by asking them these questions: 

1. We are in a new HopeKids series that’s all powerful and exciting! What is it and what is it about?

• We are on a series, learning all about the power of Praise.
• It is called Pow-Wow Praise!
• We are learning about praising Jesus and how it has power and that it is not just about singing fast songs during HopeKids service.

       2. What is the Big Point this week?

• In this first week, we learnt that Praise Helps Us Enter into God’s Promises.

      3. Does praise need to be sung/said out?

• Yes! What makes praise truly praise is that it has to be expressed: sung, said, danced, written, read. It has to be heard and made known.
• We can praise God in our hearts, but nobody but God and you would know it. Sometimes when we say something out, it has power because it is made known to people. Expressed praise makes what you believe and feel, known to God, all people around you, and even the enemy, Satan.

       4. How does Praise help us to Enter into God’s Promises?

• When we praise God, we are also remembering God’s character and God’s goodness in our lives, and it helps us to remember God’s promises.
• Without realising, we are creating faith as we praise God, and that faith helps us to believe God’s promises and eventually enter God’s promises.

       5. From which story did we learn about today where we see praise helping people enter God’s promises?

• We learnt from the story of Moses and the twelve spies, with Caleb and Joshua being two of the 12 spies who went to spy out the promised land that God had promised to give to the Israelites.
• Moses had instructed 12 people, one from each tribe/family, of the Israelites, to check out the land that God had already promised to give them, to see what the land looked like.

       6. What happened in the story and what was different about Caleb and Joshua?

• The twelve spies went and saw that the land was very good, and the plants and fruits that grow there are very good. The grapes were so big that two men had to carry it on a pole.
• However, the spies were also greatly intimidated of (felt scared of) the people of the land who were big and powerful, like giants. So much so that they compared themselves to be like grasshoppers compared to the people there.
• Because of their fear, 10 of the 12 spies were afraid and complained. They did not want to take the land that God had already promised to give them.
• Caleb and Joshua were different. They saw all the good things of the land that God gave them, and praised God for His goodness and the goodness of the land. They wanted to take the land because they believed in God’s promises.
• In the end, the other ten spies never got to enter the promised land because of their lack of belief and lack of praise.
• Caleb and Joshua were the only ones who God allowed into the promised land because Caleb and Joshua believed in God and in God’s plans and promise. Praise of God was what left their mouths. All of that helped them to enter God’s promise and into the promised land.

       7. Reflect and think: Do you think you will be more like Caleb/Joshua or more like the rest of the 12 spies? (Note: there are no right or wrong answers!)

• Allow kids to share honestly because this is supposed to be a reflective question for kids and us to understand where they are in their journey to believe in God.
• There is no shame in thinking you may be more like the other 10 spies, rather than Caleb and Joshua. We don’t get to a position of being able to trust God right away. Learning to trust God takes time to grow our faith and belief in God and we need to know His heart for people more and more. This is also why we always pray for God to help us to know Him more, so that we can trust him even more!

End the time by praying together with your child(ren) and have spiritual conversations with them. Help them know that they are allowed to think and ask questions so that their understanding of God and God’s Word grows with them and in them as they grow. A healthy growing faith and understanding of God involves all parts of our being!

• • Prepare the following materials: 
  • Writing materials – pens, pencils, colour pencils 
  • Pieces of paper 
  • A small cardboard box 
  • Stickers and other decorative materials
  • Glue
• Gather all your family members.
  
  
  • Praise is simply expressing good things about someone or something, and making it known to the person and the people around.
  • For us to know what praise is, it starts with simple things around us.
  • Gather all your family members and together, everyone is to think of one praise point to praise each family member.
    • Every single one of us are members of our family, and everyone has a place in this family and no one gets left behind. 
    • Today we are going to learn to practice praise of each other! 
    • We will go through all our family members and think of praise points which we can write down. 
    • E.g. If it’s Mummy’s turn, we will all, including mummy, think of one good thing about Mummy that we want to praise, which we can write down and share to that person. 
    • We also want to think of a praise point for ourselves, so that we learn to know what you are good at and continue to be good at doing those things and thank God for being good at that.
• Pray together to conclude, thanking God for giving us all these good things in each of our family members.

• To continue the practice of praise as part of our lives, we are going to have a Praise Box!
• Let’s decorate this praise Box together. → Proceed to decorate as a family: draw, write, paste stickers ~
• This praise box will be placed in a place where everyone can see and access.
• If you see or observe something you want to praise in the week, you can write or draw it out and put it in the praise box.
• Together at the end of one week, we will look into the praise box together and praise each other, to have a culture of praise in our family!

Today, we learnt that praise is simply expressing good things about someone or something, and making it known to the person and the people around. 

Draw a praise point and place it into your Family Praise Box! Think of someone you want to praise in your family and draw that person doing the thing you want to praise him/her about! 

Today, we learnt how Praise Helps Us Enter into God’s Presence. 

Simply print by accessing the file here: Pow-Wow Praise Week #1 Worksheet

You can access the answers here: Pow-Wow Praise Week #1 Worksheet (Answers)

This file is only used for HopeKids Online Activity Pack purposes and not for distribution.

Look for words related to what we have learnt today! 

Simply print by accessing the file here: Pow-Wow Praise Word Search and Answers 

This file is only used for HopeKids Online Activity Pack purposes and not for distribution.

Simply print by accessing the file here: The Twelve Spies Maze Activity

This file is only used for HopeKids Online Activity Pack purposes and not for distribution.