Keys for Kids - daily devotions and Bible stories for kids

Keys For Kids Ministries
  • 4.6 (395)
  • CHRISTIANITY
  • UPDATED DAILY
Keys for Kids - daily devotions and Bible stories for kids

Keys For Kids Ministries is a children's ministry organization, offering Keys for Kids, Down Gilead Lane, and much more.

  1. 4 HR. AGO

    A Visit to the Capitol

    "Okay, class, change of plans," called Miss Allen from the front of the bus. Ana could barely hear her because of the wind and rain beating against the bus windows. "Due to the storm, we're not going to be able to visit the zoo today after all. However, the state capitol is not far away, and they said they could fit us in for a last-minute tour, so we'll be going there instead." All the kids groaned except for Ana's friend Evelyn, who bounced up and down in the seat next to her. When they got to the capitol building, a tour guide greeted them at the door and led them down a long hallway decorated with gaudy statues. "This is boring," one of the boys complained. He tugged on the tour guide's sleeve. "Can we see the governor?" The tour guide shook his head. "As much as he would like to, the governor isn't able to visit with every school class that comes through. Thousands of kids visit the building each year." Just then several important-looking people emerged from the elevator. "That's the governor in the gray suit," the tour guide whispered. Suddenly Evelyn started running toward the group of people. "Uncle Mike!" she called out. The governor turned and held out his arms when he saw Evelyn to give her a hug, then he walked her back to her class, who were all staring at them open-mouthed. "My niece tells me your field trip to the zoo didn't work out," he said. "Maybe you kids would like to see my office instead?" That night Ana excitedly told her family about everything her class had seen at the capitol that day, thanks to Evelyn. "Like they say, it all depends on who you know," said her older brother. "True," said Dad. "Evelyn gave you access to the governor. She was your go-between." Ana smiled. "I know what you're going to say next, Dad. In our devotions this week, we talked about Jesus being our go-between--the mediator between us and God. Through Him we have access to our heavenly Father because Jesus paid the price for our sin and made us right with God." "I'm glad you were listening, Ana--and your trip to the capitol today is a perfect example." – Linda Weddle

  2. 1 DAY AGO

    A Special Poem

    "Whenever I get home from school, all I want is food that's cool," chanted Marina, making up the rhyme as she opened the freezer and took out an ice cream bar. She grinned at her brother Archer. Archer rolled his eyes and made up a rhyme of his own. "I think your rhyme is kind of sad--your poetry is really bad." Marina laughed and went outside to where her mother was working in the garden. "Hello, Mother with a thumb that's green. You have the best vegetables I've seen." Mom smiled. "Still working on that poem you need for school?" "I'm trying, but all I can think of are silly things," said Marina. When Dad arrived home, Marina greeted him with another one of her rhymes. "Dad, your work day is finally done. Now it's time to have some fun!" "Oh, Marina, I think your poems are getting worse," said Archer. "How about this? Mom, that chicken pasta looks so yummy. I want to put it in my tummy!" Dad laughed and joined in. "My family's always such a delight. It's a joy to be with them each night." As he sat down at the table, he said, "Actually, I know of a very special poem. It's mentioned in the Bible--in Ephesians 2:10." "That was our verse at church last week!" exclaimed Marina. "It says, 'For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works.' But that doesn't rhyme like a poem, and it doesn't say anything about a poem." "The word handiwork comes from the Greek word poiema--that's the word we get our English word poem from," Dad explained. "So to say we are God's handiwork is like saying we are His poem." "I like that," said Marina with a grin. Dad smiled. "And just like a poem can bring joy to people through its words, you can bring joy to people through your good works--the good things you do for others that show them the love of Jesus. God created us to do these things and gave us the Holy Spirit to guide us in doing them. We are His poems that tell the story of the great things He has done for us." Marina's eyes lit up. "God is our Creator, and He made us for something greater!" – Lyndel F. Walker

  3. 2 DAYS AGO

    Ready for Church

    "Let's get ready for church," said Dad. "We don't want to be late." "Dad says that every week," Amos told his sister, Maggie. "We should get ready early some Sunday, just to see if it's really Dad talking or if it's a recording that plays every week." Dad grinned and nodded. When they arrived at church, no other cars were there. "That's odd," said Mom. "I wonder what--" She stopped and pulled out her phone. "Oh no!" she exclaimed. "We're an hour early! Last spring we moved the clocks ahead an hour, and last night we were supposed to set them back again." They could hardly believe that no one had remembered to change the clocks around the house. "While we wait, let's get ready for church," suggested Dad. Maggie giggled. "It must be a recording after all, Amos. We woke up, ate breakfast, cleaned up, got dressed, and even came to church a whole hour early--but the recording is still going off!" Dad laughed with the rest of the family. "We prepared our bodies," he said, "but it would be good to prepare our hearts for worship too, and today we have time." "We can't feed our hearts breakfast," said Amos. "Sure we can. We can feed on God's Word for a few minutes." Dad opened his Bible and read a short passage aloud. "Okay, but we can't wash our hearts, can we?" asked Maggie when Dad finished reading. "Sure we can," said Dad. "We can search our hearts and confess sins to Jesus, and He'll cleanse us." "We can't dress our hearts though," said Amos. "Sure we can!" Maggie echoed Dad's words before he could say them. Then she looked at her parents. "But how?" "How about by praising God?" suggested Mom. "Singing praises to Him can help set our mood for worship. What should we sing?" Amos suggested a praise song, and Maggie wanted an old hymn she liked, so the family sang them both. "Maybe we should do this every Sunday and really get ready for church," Maggie said as other cars began to arrive. "Is that my recording I hear?" asked Dad. They all left the car smiling. – Nance E. Keyes

  4. 3 DAYS AGO

    A Home in Heaven

    "Do you really believe what your Sunday school teacher said?" asked Oscar. He was spending the weekend with his friend Michael while his parents were out of town. "Your teacher said some people won't go to heaven. If that's true, who gets to go? Do you? Do I?" "Like Mr. George said, only people who trust Jesus as their Savior will go to heaven," Michael replied. "Well, I don't get it," said Oscar. "Can we ask your dad?" Michael nodded, and the boys went to the living room where Michael's father was reading. Oscar cleared his throat. "Hey, Mr. Woods, everybody will go to heaven, right?" Mr. Woods shook his head. "Not everybody." He looked at Oscar and rubbed his chin. "Oscar, when you go home after school each day, do you ever ask yourself, 'Will Mom let me stay for dinner?' Or, 'Will my parents give me a bed to sleep in tonight?' Or maybe, 'What will I do if Mom and Dad don't let me in the house today?' Do questions like that ever come to your mind?" Oscar laughed at such a ridiculous idea. "Of course not! I'm their kid, so it's my home." "Well, it's the same way with God's family," said Mr. Woods. "When you trust Jesus as your Savior, you become a child of God--part of His family--and your home is in heaven with Him. If you haven't trusted in Jesus, you're not part of God's family, and heaven isn't your home." Michael turned to his friend and asked, "Are you part of God's family, Oscar?" Slowly, Oscar shook his head. "You can be," Mr. Woods told him. "You were physically born into your parents' family, so you're their son. To be part of God's family, you need to be born again--not physically, but spiritually." "How do I do that?" asked Oscar. "That's the best part--God has already done all the work for us! Jesus died on the cross for our sins and rose again so that we could have eternal life with Him. When we trust that His work is enough to make us part of God's family, we have a home with Him forever." Mr. Woods picked up his Bible. "Come sit and let me explain, okay?" Oscar nodded. "Okay," he said and took a seat. – Nani T. Bell

  5. 4 DAYS AGO

    Give Thanks for Stars

    "Our room is going to look so cool!" Ivy said as she set her brush down and took a seat on the floor. She and her twin sister, Elinor, had just finished painting their room completely black. After it dried, they were going to put star-shaped glow-in-the-dark stickers all over the walls. "It's going to be like sleeping outside!" Elinor said. "Okay, now we need to decide how we're going to put the stickers up," said Ivy. "Do we want to do some sort of pattern or just put them up randomly?" Just then Mom walked in. "The walls look good, girls." She turned on the overhead light. "I'm glad you're going to add the stickers though, otherwise it would be pretty dark in here." "Thanks, Mom," said Elinor. "That light helps--it's only three in the afternoon and it's already getting hard to see in here!" "Yeah," said Ivy. "Can you imagine what it would be like if God had made the sky completely black, without any stars or light?" "That would be pretty dark," replied Elinor. "Do you remember when we first moved here and we'd try to find the bathroom in the middle of the night with no lights on?" "I do," said Mom. "You girls got so many bruises from running into things that we finally had to get a night light." "Yes, and we were sure thankful for it!" Elinor picked up a star sticker from the floor. "I'm thankful God gives us night lights outside too. The stars and moon are beautiful to look at." "And bright," added Ivy. "When the sky is clear and the moon is full, we don't even need the house light on to play basketball." Mom nodded. "Sometimes we take for granted all that God has created and provided for us. It's important to remember to pause and thank Him for everything. I'm thankful that Jesus is the light of my life and that He loves me enough to die for my sins." Ivy sat up. "Elinor, that gives me an idea for how we should arrange the stickers! Let's scatter them around, but in the center of one of the walls, we form the words 'Give Thanks.'" "Let's do it!" said Elinor. "That will be a good reminder to thank God for everything He's done for us." – Melissa Yeagle

  6. 5 DAYS AGO

    Spooked

    Danae was excited when she returned home from an afternoon of horseback riding. "That was so much fun!" she told her family. "We went on a trail ride through the woods. My horse was spooked once, but I didn't fall off!" "Spooked?" asked Dallas, Danae's little brother. "Did you see a ghost?" Danae laughed. "No, Dallas. It's just that when horses see something they don't expect--like a piece of paper blowing in the wind--they might all of a sudden jump sideways or try to run away. We call that being spooked. If you're not a good rider, you might fall off when the horse does that." "Horses are so big!" said Dallas. "Why would papers scare them?" Danae shrugged. "I don't know. They just do. But if the horse knows you and trusts you, he usually calms down and you can get him to go places he'd be scared to go otherwise." "Sounds like you've learned a lot about horses and how to ride them," said Dad. "Your description of how a horse responds when he trusts his rider is a good picture of how we should respond when we truly trust God." Danae tilted her head. "You mean we shouldn't be afraid to go wherever God wants us to go because we can trust Him to take care of us?" "Exactly," said Dad. "We need to trust Him in every situation. Sometimes we get spooked when unexpected things happen in our lives. We need to learn to trust God to take us through all the scary places." "Like when Mom was diagnosed with cancer?" asked Dallas. "That was scary." Mom nodded. "It was scary for me too. But your dad's right--we can trust God to take care of us in scary situations like that. Even though I was afraid of what might happen, I knew that because Jesus died to save me, He would always be with me through everything. Knowing that gave me peace and helped me not be afraid." "I didn't know I'd learn all this just from horseback riding," Danae said. A mischievous grin crept across Dallas's face. "Maybe it's time for me to take lessons too so we can all learn more about Jesus!" – Deborah S. Marett

  7. 6 DAYS AGO

    The Best Treatment Plan

    Thea inhaled the mist from her nebulizer. She felt her chest muscles relax as air rushed in. Just a few minutes before, an asthma attack had robbed her of her breath. "How do you feel now?" Mom asked as Thea let out a breath. "Better," Thea said. "I wish I didn't have asthma." "I know," Mom said. "But thank God we have this medicine when you do have an attack." "Mom, why doesn't God just heal my asthma like I've asked Him to?" asked Thea. "Doesn't He like me?" "I don't know why God heals some people and not others. Even when Jesus lived on earth, some sick people weren't healed. But we know that Jesus loved them and that He loves you because He died so we could have our sins forgiven." "Then why pray about it if God isn't going to heal me?" Thea asked. "I still have the medicine to make me feel better when I need it." "Remember when we took you to the emergency room during your first asthma attack?" Mom asked. "Yeah, that was scary," Thea said. "I could hardly breathe at all! Then Dr. Singh came. He knew what medicines I needed." "Maybe since you have your medicine, we don't need Dr. Singh anymore," Mom suggested. "But Mom, he's in charge of my treatment plan!" Thea protested. "You're right, Thea. We still need Dr. Singh--and we also need God. When we pray, we're asking God to take charge of our lives. God loves you and is working for your good. In fact, God gave the knowledge to treat asthma to doctors like Dr. Singh. Your medicines came from the earth He created. Your doctor isn't here for every attack, but we trust and follow his treatment plan. We don't know all the ways God is working in our lives, but we know He loves us and is always with us, even when doctors can't be. We can trust that God knows just what we need and is bringing about good, even when He doesn't answer our prayers the way we ask." Thea sighed. "Then I guess the best treatment plan for my asthma is to keep praying and let God be in charge." – Heidi Schmidt

  8. OCT 29

    Looking Up to You

    "Oh man! Julie's here again?" whined Luke. "I told Aunt Megan I would watch her for a few hours," said Mom. "What's wrong? I thought you loved your baby cousin." "She's fine, I guess. It's just that whenever she's here, Kevin totally ignores me. He doesn't want to play or go outside. He just wants to hold Julie. What's so great about her, anyway?" muttered Luke. "She can't even do anything," "Let me show you something we liked to do with you when you were a baby," said Mom as she led him to Julie and his older brother, Kevin. "It takes a while for a baby's sight to develop. Julie can only see things that are eight inches away from her face." "Really? How far is that?" asked Luke. "That's just the right distance to see whoever's holding her," Mom replied. "Watch this." She slowly stuck her tongue in and out of her mouth at Julie. Julie started doing it back! "The only time it's not rude to stick out your tongue is if you're playing with a baby," Luke said with a laugh. "Let me try!" Much to Luke's delight, Julie mimicked him too. "Let's try peekaboo," suggested Kevin. Luke covered his face with his hands and then suddenly pulled them away and said, "Peekaboo!" Julie started kicking excitedly and huffed with joy. Then Kevin and Luke both tried the tongue trick again. When Aunt Megan arrived, Luke asked if Julie could stay longer. "I guess Julie grew on you, Luke," said Mom. "Once I realized she could see me, it was fun to connect with her," said Luke. "And that connection is important," said Mom. "Julie was looking up at you today, and she'll continue to look up to you as she grows. Just like you enjoy having your brother's attention, younger kids will thrive when you give them your attention, and you'll be showing them God's love too. He wants us to help younger children grow by loving and caring for them the way He loves and cares for us as His children." "I guess that means I'll have to stop sticking my tongue out at Julie," said Luke with a smile. – Kelly Bakshi

See All (500)

4.6
out of 5
395 Ratings

About

Keys For Kids Ministries is a children's ministry organization, offering Keys for Kids, Down Gilead Lane, and much more.

Information

You Might Also Like

To listen to explicit episodes, sign in.

Stay up to date with this show

Sign in or sign up to follow shows, save episodes, and get the latest updates.
Select a country or region

Africa, Middle East, and India

Asia Pacific

Europe

Latin America and the Caribbean

The United States and Canada