Elementary Level, Block 6—Samuel to David
Week 53
Samuel—Trained by Eli
Point to Emphasize: We can learn lessons to be qualified and become useful to God.
Reference Reading: 1 Samuel 2—3
Memory Verse: Train up a child according to the way he should go; / Even when he is old, he will not depart from it. (Proverbs 22:6)
Story Sample
Last week we learned that Samuel was a very special boy, because he was chosen by God (just like each of us!). When Samuel was little, his mother Hannah brought him to live in the temple with Eli the priest, just as she had promised God. God gave Samuel to Hannah and her husband, and as a little boy, Samuel was given back to God to live in God’s house and to serve God and learn to be a priest. God had chosen Samuel, but Samuel still needed to grow up and learn many lessons in order to become qualified to be useful to God. To be qualified means to have the skill or ability needed for a special purpose or event. So for Samuel to be qualified to become a priest and judge, he had to learn many things. For us to be able to do anything, like ride a bike or play the violin, we need to do some learning, don’t we? We have to first be qualified!
Under Eli the priest, Samuel learned how to be a proper priest. He had to learn how to do all the practical things in the temple, like cleaning the temple, taking care of the utensils, and handling the offerings. Samuel learned how to serve God from Eli. He was given practical tasks, and he was a good learner. He paid attention and listened. He not only listened to Eli, but as a child, he also learned to listen to God’s voice. So from the time he was young until he grew up to be a priest, Samuel listened to God’s voice and followed it his whole life.
Samuel had to learn to be a priest since he was young. He couldn’t have become a priest when he was a grown man because he had to learn so many practical things, and that took a long time. Do you all go to school? Some children start preschool when they are 2 or 3 years old. But all the children need to start school by the time they are 5 years old. First they go to Kindergarten, then elementary school, middle school, high school, college or university, the FTTA, and maybe even more schooling after that. We all need many, many years to learn how to be useful. Samuel also needed many, many years to learn the things of God.
When I was younger, I wanted to be many things, and one of those things was to be a writer. So I had to figure out what I needed to study in order to become a good one. I had to make sure that I paid attention in all my classes, did well in my English classes, and participated in writing contests. I also joined clubs and took harder English classes to help me get better at writing and to give me an opportunity to learn from the best teachers. [Storyteller, insert your own story about learning something that would be useful for your future.]
We all can learn to be good at something in order to become useful. We should work hard at being good learners, paying attention and listening carefully. Because Samuel learned his lessons well, he became a priest and judge who was proper and very useful to God. We can learn from Samuel’s story and we can also become qualified to be useful to God.