Key Question: What does it look like to trust God? Once they know they can trust God, preteens might need help understanding what it means to trust God in different situations. We pray they’ll learn some practical ways they can trust God at home, school, and wherever life might take them.

Next, we find out what happens to Jacob’s son, Joseph, in Genesis 37 and 39:1-2. Joseph learned what it meant to trust God through difficulty. Because Joseph was Jacob’s favorite son, his brothers hated him. This only became worse when Joseph had a series of dreams where his brothers bowed to him. The brothers get back at Joseph when they sell him to a band of traders headed to Egypt. He must have felt scared and completely alone. Thankfully, he wasn’t. God was with him the whole time.

Bottom Line: When you think you’re alone, you can trust God is with you. Kids will face times when they feel like they’re alone. We hope this lesson from Joseph’s life will encourage them as they remember that God is always with them.

Key Question: What do you need to trust God with right now? We hope that Small Group can be a place where preteens start to trust their small group leader and each other. Kids will have a chance to talk through situations in their own life where trusting God is important. We pray this is a powerful week for kids.

Next, we see how God is faithful to Joseph in Genesis 41. Joseph seemed to continually find himself in situations where he needed to trust God. Pharaoh had a dream that no one could interpret. It’s in this moment the king’s cupbearer, who was in prison with Joseph, remembered how Joseph had interpreted his dream. At once, Pharaoh sent for Joseph. He went and with God’s help interpreted the dreams and offered a plan for helping Egypt survive the famine that God says is coming. Pharaoh put Joseph in charge of the entire kingdom.

Bottom Line: When the pressure is on, you can trust God is with you. Kids face moments all of the time when they’ll need to trust God. Rather than getting scared, they can put their trust in God and face whatever comes their way.

Key Question: When have you had to trust God? For this week, we want preteens to look back and remember the times when God helped them through difficult situations. We want kids to see that God has been trustworthy in the past and will continue to be trustworthy in the future.

In Genesis 42-45 we conclude Joseph’s story. Now second in command in Egypt, Joseph put his plan into action as the famine has spread far and wide. Joseph’s brothers end up making the trek down to Egypt, and sure enough they ended up right in front of Joseph. After some back and forth for several weeks, Joseph can’t stand it any longer. He revealed who he was to his brothers and offered them forgiveness for everything that had happened.

Bottom Line: You can trust God has a plan. It’s often hard to see how God is working in a certain situation while you’re going through it. As we get older, we see that story that God was writing with our life. Kids are just starting this journey of faith, we pray that they’ll discover that God has a plan and will trust them as they learn what that is.