What did God ask Jeremiah to do at the beginning of the story? (Write down everything God had told Jeremiah while he had been a prophet and have it read in front of everyone as they were gathered in the Temple, and in front of the king.)
What did the king think about God's message through Jeremiah's writings? (Did not like it.)
What did the king do about his dislike for Jeremiah's writings? (Burned it up in a fire.)
What did God have Jeremiah do in response to this? (Have him write it all down again.)
How will God make sure we all know how to love God and love each other really well someday? (God will write God's law on our hearts)
What do you think it means to have God's law written on our hearts? (That we would automatically know how to love God and love each other well and would want to do it because we fully understand how wonderful it is).
Has there ever been a time in your life where you felt like the king who rejected God's word? What was going on? How did you get through it?
Are there ever times when you feel that God's laws of love are written on your heart and you feel driven to help someone? Talk about a time when that happened.
Have you experienced someone in your life who totally rejected an offer of connection that you extended? How did it feel? How do you suppose God felt when the king totally rejected God's offer of connection?
What do you think about the story for today? What jumped out at you either because it was nice or strange or confusing? (Let kids think about it on their own and spark conversations based on their thoughts first)
How would you feel if you were Jeremiah and this happened to you? How would you have reacted to the king burning the writings and rejecting God's message?
What do we learn about what God is like from this story?
God is patient with humanity - ready to try something new to help us understand God's love
God loves us very much - even when we reject God
God is persistent - continually sending messages to help us turn back to God
