Elementary Level, Block 6—Samuel to David
Week 55
David—A Humble Shepherd
Point to Emphasize: We can be humble, appreciating those who are better than us.
Reference Reading: 1 Samuel 16:1-11
Memory Verse: For everyone who exalts himself shall be humbled, but he who humbles himself shall be exalted. (Luke 18:14b)
Story Sample
If right now we went outside and ran a race, who of you would want to be the winner? I’m sure that we all would want to run the fastest and win. If you ran so fast and easily beat everyone else you’d feel so proud. You would think that we are really the best one around. In playing sports most winners think that they are the best and look down on those who lost. And that is not a nice way to look at others. Winning does not make us the best person.
This brings us to a very important word: humility. We all need to learn to be humble. To be humble is to admit that there may be others better than you. To be humble is to admit that there may be other students smarter than you. If you are humble, when others are good at something, you want to go to them quickly and congratulate them. You can go to them and tell them, “You are really good!”
There was a boy in the Bible whose name was David. David was humble. David was born last in his family. He was the youngest child. David was the eighth son. As the last child he learned many experiences that taught him to be humble. One of the things he had to do was the lowly task of taking care of the sheep in the field. None of his seven brothers would do that; they all wanted a better job. But David was humble and accepted his task. Caring for sheep is a task through which you learn humility.
Growing up, I liked writing speeches, memorizing them, and presenting them in front of my school. There were competitions within my class. The winner would go and compete with winners of other classes, and sometimes other schools. Year after year, I was the winner. I was really good at it. I never gave it too much thought, until one day a girl came to me and congratulated me for winning. She told me, “You are really good! Year after year I write my speech, and I hope to win. But when I hear your speech, I see that your speech is better than mine.” She was so humble. After she told me that I decided to help her. So we set a time and I sat with her and helped her to write better speeches. She was humble and I was humble! [Storyteller, share a personal story of being humble.]
David was about 15 years old. This eighth son was so young that he did the lowest family chores. While his older brothers did all the big important things, he was always sent to look after the sheep. He was so humble. Do you think this 15-year-old boy who just looked after the sheep could be put in an important position? David was chosen to be a king for the children of Israel! He was a humble person and God made him a king!
We should do our best in everything, but we can also be humble. We can want to win, but when we lose, we should still appreciate others. We want to appreciate others who are better than us. We can go and tell them, “You are really good at this!” We can be humble!