presents
the "Let's Talk About" series
presents
Let's talk about BEING CARELESS.
The Bible says: "This is what the Lord God says, 'Give careful thought to your ways'." (Haggai 1:5)
You are being careless when you act as though you do not care about yourself.
You are being careless when you act as though you do not care about the people and things around you.
Being careless can cause you to hurt yourself.
Being careless can cause you to hurt other people.
Being careless can cause you to damage or destroy something.
It is not good to be careless.
You need to BE CAREFUL instead.
When you are careful you act as though you care about yourself.
When you are careful you act as though you care about the people and things around you.
Be careful.
OBEY THE RULES.
The adults who are responsible for you know what you need to do to keep yourself and others safe. They also know what you need to do to take care of the things around you.
The rules they make can help you to be careful.
Be careful.
PAY ATTENTION.
Think about what you are doing. If you do, you will make fewer mistakes.
Be careful.
SLOW DOWN.
If you do, you will avoid the accidents that often happen when you are in a hurry.
Be careful.
LOOK WHERE YOU ARE GOING.
If you do, you will avoid tripping and bumping into things.
Be careful.
LISTEN TO THE PEOPLE AND SOUNDS AROUND YOU.
They may be warning you that danger is near. If you listen and respond to them, you may avoid a dangerous situation.
Be careful.
DO NOT PLAY TOO ROUGHLY.
Someone might get hurt, or something might get broken if you play too roughly.
No one will get hurt, and nothing will get broken if you play carefully.
Be careful.
DO NOT PLAY WITH DANGEROUS THINGS.
If you avoid playing with dangerous things, you will avoid hurting yourself and others.
Be careful.
DO NOT PLAY IN DANGEROUS PLACES.
If you avoid playing in dangerous places, you will avoid hurting yourself and others.
It is not good to be careless.
It is better for you to be careful.
A Bible character who was CARELESS.
Jacob and Esau were twin brothers born to Isaac. Esau was a hunter and one day he went off to hunt. When he arrived back home he was very hungry and exhausted from his hunting trip. His brother Jacob was just then cooking a stew.
"Quick, let me have some of that red stew! I’m famished!" he asked Jacob.
Jacob replied, "First sell me your birthright." The birthright was a set of special privileges that belonged to the firstborn son. Since Esau had been born a few minutes before Jacob the birthright was Esau's. This meant he would get a double amount of inheritance plus a special blessing from their father Isaac.
"Look, I am about to die," Esau said. "What good is the birthright to me?" He wasn't actually about to die; after all, he was home again. But he certainly was careless.
Jacob said, "Swear to me first that you will sell me your birthright."
So he swore an oath to him, selling his birthright to Jacob. Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew, which he quickly ate.
So Esau did not care about his birthright. This meant he also did not care about God’s promise to make a great nation from his descendants, one of whom would be the Saviour of the world. Being careless about something this important made Esau very sorry later.
