Teddy Bears’ Picnic

Teddy Bears’ Picnic

Ideas for a Mother-Daughter Evening

by Deb Brammer

 

We’ve tried lots of ideas for our Mother-Daughter Evening, but I think this is the one they liked the most.

 

Decorations:

Decorate with teddy bears, books, and pictures of them. (I have an extensive collection and a girl in our church does, which helped a lot.)

 

Games:

Art and Writing: Before the night we gave girls copies of a picture of a plain teddy bear that the girls could dress up by coloring, painting, or collage. They could also write original bear stories. We announced that we would give prizes for the best ones. We actually gave prizes to each one who entered the contest, pointing out nice things about each one.

 

Bear Quiz: Give this quiz to the ladies and girls when they arrive. Ask questions about the bears on display and let them find the answers. Here’s some of the questions we used:

How many bears are wearing flowers?

How many pastel colors can you find for the teddy bears’ fur?

How many occupations can you find among the bears? (fireman, sailor, etc)

How many foreign countries do you find represented among the bears? (koala from Australia, panda from China, bears with flags, etc)

What famous bears are there? (Winnie the Pooh, Paddington, etc.)

 

Bible Bear Quiz:

Ladies and girls do this during the evening without consulting their Bibles.

Fill in the blanks.

1. In 2 Samuel 17:8 Hushai said to Absalom, “You know your father and his mean are so mighty and so angry that they are like a bear robbed of ____.

2. In the book of Daniel the bear was a symbol of what country?_____

3. In Isaiah 59:11 it says, “We roar like bears and mourn like ______

4. In Proverbs 28:15 it says a wicked ruler is like what two animals? Bear and a _____.

5. In 1 Samuel 17:34 David told Saul that God had helped him kill what two animals? ______

 

Bear Contest:

We asked ladies and girls to bring their own bears to compete in different categories. Prizes were given for: most unusual bear, most loved bear, smallest bear, biggest bear. For categories which are hard to decide, let the audience vote.

 

Songs:

Girls can sing “Teddy Bears’ Picnic.”  Words are easily found on the internet.

Our girls also sang “My Mother’s Gentle Love” by Ron Hamilton in Praises III.

 

Devotions:

Share quick stories about the bears they brought.

Here are the notes from a devotional I gave. Feel free to adapt and use.

 

3 Bible Bears

1. Bear Witness (I John 1:1-3)

[Dress a bear in eyeglasses and have his hand on the Bible.]

Bible talks about bearing witness of Christ more than 20 times.

John says they heard, saw, handled Jesus Christ.

Now they could bear witness.

How did they bear witness?

            They preached, spread the word, wrote Matthew and Luke.

They experienced Christ first hand.

            Their inspired accounts give foundation for our faith.

Acts 1:8

Disciples couldn’t go to the whole earth. That’s a task for all believers.

We need to experience Christ first, then bear witness.

We can’t see Christ but we can read about Him.

            We need our sins forgiven.

            We can experience his salvation, peace, joy and tell others.

 

2. Bear fruit.

[Put a bear in a fruit bowl and arrange plastic fruit around him.]

Jesus said: John 15:1,4-5,8

If we have experienced Christ in salvation,

If we abide in Him, draw strength from Him, let Him live through us,

            we will bear His fruit, be like Him.

            Gal 5:22-23—fruit of Spirit

By their fruit you’ll know them. Matt. 7:16-20)

            What does the fruit in your life say about your relationship to Christ?

 

3. Bear One Another’s Burden

[Put a backpack on a bear.]

 Gal 6:2, 5

Rom. 15:1

We’re not on earth just to please ourselves.

We need to care about others.

            How can we make the load of someone lighter?

Mothers naturally bear many burdens of children.

            They look after them, feed, clothe, comfort, love, help work through                               problems.

Some mothers are over-loaded, many people need encouragement.

Who around is struggling? How can we help?

 

Remember the 3 bears:

Bear witness—experience God in your life and tell about it.

Bear fruit—live like Christ lived. Does God make a difference in your life?

Bear one another’s burdens—comfort and encourage others.

This doesn’t mean that you won’t have problems, but you’ll live happily for Christ ever after.