Perseverance Bible Lessons for Kids - Building Resilience
Perseverance is an important godly character trait for kids to learn as they grow in faith and life skills. Through Bible-based teaching, hands-on crafts, printable lessons, and engaging activities, children can discover how God calls them to keep going, trust Him during challenges, and remain faithful even when things feel difficult.
How do you define perseverance to kids?
Perseverance is not giving up on something, even if it’s really hard. We live in a world that wants things fast, and we don’t like to wait. When we are learning something new, and it takes a long time, we can become frustrated and give up.
But God wants us to persevere and keep going, even when things get hard. Sometimes it will take a long time to learn something new. Sometimes, a situation we are going through will feel really hard, and we will want to give up. But perseverance is the ability to keep going and not give up.
For example, when math homework feels difficult, seek help instead of giving up. This is showing perseverance. When you’re learning how to ride a bike, keep practicing because the more you practice, the better you will get.
Perseverance Bible Lessons for Kids
Are you looking for an engaging way to teach children about the character trait of Perseverance? Use the Bible story of Noah to facilitate learning. Our scripted lessons, printable crafts, and discussion questions are a great resource to help kids learn about this important character trait.
Perseverance builds resilience
Resilience means being able to bounce back when challenges arise. The more we practice perseverance, the more resilience we build. Perseverance is a choice in our actions. This means we choose to keep going even when something is difficult. Resilience is a choice in how we respond to our feelings, meaning we choose to calm down, think differently, and see challenges as opportunities for growth.
HOW DO YOU TEACH KIDS ABOUT Perseverance?
Take time to teach children the definition of perseverance and explore different examples of what perseverance looks like. These examples can include stories from the Bible where people chose perseverance (or didn’t choose perseverance), as well as modern, real-life situations kids may face.
Discuss these stories and scenarios, then apply the material by having children role-play situations that require perseverance. Use hands-on crafts and activities to help them engage with the topic. Before they head home, challenge them to practice perseverance throughout the week.
The ‘Perseverance’ lessons for littler kids in kindergarten and first grade includes a number of hands-on activities and scripted lessons.
BUILDING BLOCKS OF PERSEVERANCE craft
Sometimes it is very hard to have a mindset of perseverance. It’s easy to become frustrated and give up, rather than using strategies to calm our bodies and persevere.
Brainstorm various strategies for what to do when you don’t want to show perseverance. Some ideas might include praying, asking for help, finding someone who is already good at that task, taking a break, and coming back later.
Then give each child a ‘cube’ template found in Perseverance for Older Kids or Perseverance Lesson for Little Learners. The template for older children is largely blank, allowing them to draw and write their own ideas, whereas the cube for younger learners already includes traceable words, so they only need to trace them.
Once kids have finished writing and coloring their cube, help them assemble and practice rolling it. This craft is a great visual reminder and a practical tool that kids can use when they are stuck in frustration.
A plan for Perseverance – spinner craftivity
Having a plan can help children (and adults) visualize a step-by-step approach to persevering through a challenging task. Take time to help children create a perseverance plan to help them learn something that has been causing frustration. This could be riding a bike, doing math homework, learning a new piano song, etc.
Use the spinner template pages in Perseverance Bible Lessons for Older Kids to help students develop their perseverance plan. Take time to brainstorm ideas, then have children write and draw how they will work (and persevere) until they have accomplished this new skill.
Bible Sword Drill
Using a Sword Drill to introduce children to the Bible is an effective way to help them navigate the pages of Scripture and understand the relationships among the books of the Bible. A Sword Drill is a simple exercise in which children are given a verse to look up and then must search for it.
To help kids with this, show them where the Table of Contents is in the Bible. Then teach them how to locate the book in the Table of Contents, flip to the page, and search for the chapter and verse. Initially, this will be a time-consuming and awkward task for children to manage. There will be some hand-holding and guidance. However, this is an important skill for children to have, so fostering this it is worthwhile.
You’ll find printable cards with the verses and lined pages for children to write the verses in the Perseverance Bible Lesson for Older Kids.
BIBLE STORY about Perseverance - Noah
Bible stories are an effective means of teaching biblical character traits. Take time to read a story about perseverance, discuss it, and complete an activity that connects to the story.
The story of Noah found in Genesis 6-9 pairs well with the topic of perseverance.
After reading the story, discuss the concept of perseverance. Noah was faced with a challenging task: to build a gigantic boat. Despite the odds, Noah persevered for many, many years and completed the task. Noah and his family were rewarded for their perseverance because they were the only humans safe aboard the ark when the flood came.
Next, do an activity to reinforce the learning. The Perseverance Bible Lesson for Older Kids includes a reflection page where kids brainstorm the things Noah might have been feeling while he built the ark. Then they can brainstorm things they can persevere at.
The Perseverance Bible Lesson for Little Learners includes a printable ark scene craft where kids will color and cut out the ark as well as the animals. Then they can glue Noah and the animals onto the ark.
MORE Crafts and activities to teach about Perseverance
Perseverance Obstacle Course: Set up an obstacle course using various supplies from around your room and have kids complete the course. Challenge them to use perseverance and not give up.
Perseverance Physical Challenge: Do a series of exercises like squats, push-ups, wall sits, and burpees. This will make kids tired, but turn it into a fun perseverance challenge and encourage kids to keep going, even when it’s hard.
Snail Crafts: Check out Kids Craftroom for some cute snail crafts. Snails pair well with perseverance because, even though snails are slow creatures, they still get to where they want to go. Perseverance doesn’t mean learning something quickly. It might be slow going, but perseverance means never giving up.
WOULD YOU LIKE MORE LESSONS ABOUT Godly CHARACTER BUILDLING?
This lesson on contentment is part of a seven-part Character Education mini-series. Other lessons include contentment, kindness, courage, forgiveness, self-control, and honesty.
