41 - PRAYER - HANNA, SAMUEL'S MOTHER

References:
1 Samuel 1.

Notes for Servants
- Prayer is the feelings of a needy heart not the expression of the mind and lips. The Lord gave
Hannah a great blessing for her prayer.
- It is easyfor one to have a child, but Samuelwas a spiritualsonas he was given to the Lord. How
lovely the spirit ofdedicationis. Hannahleft hersoninthe Temple. How lovely the same spirit that
affected Samuel is.
- If you are suffering from spiritual bareness, true prayers accompanied with tears is the only way
for the success and the fruits of your service.

Objectives

General: The heaven answers sincere prayers.

Specific:
The children will be able to ...
A. Know that the relationship between us and God as it is between us and our earthly
parents. As we tell our parents how we feel, ask them for what we need and thank them
for what we get when we talk to them, so we do with God when we pray.
B. Feel the power of prayer, and its effect on us and its results.
C. Learn how and when to pray and what to say when we talk ro God.

Bible Verse

" She was in bitterness of soul,
and prayed unto the Lord, and wept sore. "
(1 Samuel 1:10)

Teaching Aids
The picture of Samuel praying. A picture of the Temple, the altar and the priest.

Instruction
(1) Review last week's lesson.
(2) Who remembers the verse?
(3) Remind the children about the church occasions for the coming week.
(4) Teacher should prepare the appropriate questions to emphasize the objectives during the

lesson.
Story Time
Inthe Old Testament,Elkanahhadtwo wives,Hannahand Perinnah. The second wife had children
and the first did not have children. She was depressed because she had a desire thatChrist would be her
descendant. Perinnah despised her, but Elkanah was a good hearted man. He comforted her all the time.
(Describe Hannah's bitter feelings and some of the aggressive attitude of Perinnah without giving details
about negative effects. Concentrate on the positive ones. Of course a picture ofPerinnahmustmake the
child hate her bad qualities.)
On the feast day, all the people were happy, each in his house, new clothes, sacrifices, happiness
was everywhere. Children play and speak about the journey and the rituals of the feast. Hannah was sad
and weeping, Elkanahwas muchaffected, he tried to comforted her, but she did not want to eat. They ate
and drank in Shiloh. All the people were happy except Hannah.
Hannah went alone to the Temple to pray. She was deeply depressed. She prayed to God
betterly. Eli the priest noticed this, he thought that she was a drunken woman. He advised her not to drink
wine. She said to him, mylord I am a woman with a broken heart praying to the Lord to give me a child.
(Here youcan speak in detail about the lively conversation between Eli and Hannah and make use ofthis
conversationto teacheverything about prayer, how the Lord answers our prayers...submission, patience,
the Lord's promises and steadfast love)
Eli told her that she will have child, she rejoiced. She went out very happy, she thanked the Lord.
They went back home. The feast ended, days went by, Hanna gave birth to baby boy, She called him
Samuel.

Discussion
1 - Follow up the story by talking about it with the children.
2 - Continue the discussion while they do the activity.

Learning Activities
Activity Sheet.