Theme: We are precious to God  - 

(The basic idea of this story comes from an object lesson I saw someone do at summer camp 20 years ago)

 
Children's Sermon idea: Take a 20 dollar bill and bend it, fold it, throw it on the floor and step on it. Would you still want this 20 dollar bill? If course you would. It’s still valuable no matter what shape it’s in.
Objects needed: Ten or twenty dollar bill
Full Object Lesson: Good Morning Children. Do you know what this is? (Hold up the 20 dollar bill) That’s right. It’s a twenty dollar bill. Who would like to have this nice twenty dollar bill? I bet you would, but I’m sorry to say I don’t know if I want to give it away because it’s valuable. Now what if I took this twenty dollar bill and folded it us like this. (Fold it in half a few times) Would you still want it? (Let the children respond) What if I scrunched it up very small like this? Would you still like to have it then? (Let children respond) Really? You’d still want it? How about if I scrunched it up and threw it on the floor and stepped on it? Would you want it then? (Let them respond again) Why would you still want this old bill? (Let them respond again.) That right! Even if this bill is scrunched up, folded up, banged around and stepped on it is still valuable.
TRANSITION: I hope you know children that each one of us is precious / valuable to God. We may feel a bit like this poor twenty dollar bill. Sometimes we feel we have been beaten up, scrunched up, stepped on and kicked around. But no matter what, we are still valuable to God. The Bible says that God loves us and we are always valuable to Him.
Children's Prayer: Thank you that we are valuable to you God. Sometimes others may make fun of us and hurt us and sometime we make mistakes and hurt ourselves. Thank you God, that we are always valuable to you.