Unit 5 / Lesson 5
Handling Trouble
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Teacher's Prep
Games
Intro Activity:
Option A: Baking
Note: this baking activity is optional and can be removed from the lesson without affecting the teaching.
Suggested baking projects: cookies, or muffins.
Assemble recipes, ingredients, and equipment for baking. Have some Ziploc bags so they can take the leftovers home.
At the end of the lesson, they will eat the baked goods. You may want to provide water, milk, grapes, or other things to make the snack more enjoyable.
You will want to make sure you have enough time for the rest of the lesson, as baking can be quite time-intensive.
Option B: Biathlon
Two nerf guns and plenty of nerf bullets (thirty to fifty nerf bullets would be a good number. If you have less, you may just need to pause the game and collect bullets before continuing)
Set up a large space for running, and a line to stand behind and shoot a target. See the diagram below for a suggested setup:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Wp_v01IPL_FcF1OkFd1gl_i8nfusmwH0/view?usp=sharing
Nose Dive
Materials:
Vaseline
A bag of cotton balls
Up to six bowls (two for Vaseline, two for holding cotton balls in the beginning, two for receiving cotton balls)
See this video to see how the game works:
Intro
SLIDE 1
Gathering
How was your week?
SLIDE 2
Intro Activity
OPTION A: Baking (Main Activity Part 1)
Instructions
Teacher: our main activity is at the beginning of the lesson this time because we need to give the baked goods time to bake and to cool. You will, of course, need to keep track of time once the baked goods are in the oven so they don’t overbake.
Today we are baking! We'll do our baking first, and then once we put everything into the oven, we will start our Bible lesson.
Teacher: lead the baking activity. Afterwards, gather all the children together in the teaching area for your lesson.
SLIDE 4
Debrief
The reason we did baking was that it helps us understand something about life. When we are baking, we are always thinking about the tasty treat that we are trying to make, but we don't get the treat right away. First we need to follow a whole bunch of steps, we need to fix problems when things don't go the way we planned, and then we need to wait. Only after all that, we get the tasty treat.
Life is like that too, which leads us to our main question for today.
(Teacher: skip the instructions below for Option B: Biathlon)
SLIDE 4
OPTION B: Biathlon (if you are not baking)
Instructions
We'll start our lesson with a game!
In the Olympic Games, they have an event called the biathlon, where people go skiing, and every once in a while they stop skiing and shoot a gun at some targets. They get points for how fast they are, and for how many targets they hit.
Today we will be running and shooting nerf guns instead.
Here are the rules. We will have a relay race with two teams. When it’s your turn to race, you need to stand behind the line and shoot the target.
You can't just stand there and shoot. Instead, every time you want to shoot a bullet, you need to run to the far wall and back. Then you can shoot at the target one time.
Teacher: give the children a reasonably large target, like a whiteboard, and demonstrate how to shoot the target from behind the line, and where to run between shots.
If you miss, run to the far wall and back and try again. You're done after you shoot the target twice OR you try five times. After five times, you're automatically done and it's the next person's turn on your team. When everyone has had their turn, your team is done.
Teacher: you may want to play this game more than once depending on time and interest.
SLIDE 5
Debrief
We played this game because it's a bit challenging. Sometimes you'll feel like you're not running fast enough, or maybe you'll miss your target. But, games like this make us grow. If the game were too easy, it would be boring and it wouldn't help you. But when the game is challenging it makes us grow.
This game helps us to understand why God lets us go through challenging and difficult times, and even painful times. It’s because God uses trouble to make us grow.
SLIDE 6
Big Question
Our big question today is: What’s the best way to go through trouble?
SLIDE 7
Big Idea
Our big idea is, we need to go through trouble with faith. (What is faith again? Knowing things without seeing).
We will need to use faith to remember two things:
1. God is using trouble to help us, and
2. God is using trouble to make us into the people we need to be.
SLIDE 8
Bible Reference
That's what we will learn from our Bible passage today. Let's read from the Bible.
Hebrews 12:7-10 (International Children's Bible)
7 So accept your sufferings as if they were a father’s punishment. God does these things to you as a father punishing his sons. All sons are punished by their fathers. 8 If you are never punished (and every son must be punished), you are not true children and not really sons.
SLIDE 9
9 We have all had fathers here on earth who punished us. And we respected our fathers. So it is even more important that we accept punishment from the Father of our spirits. If we do this, we will have life. 10 Our fathers on earth punished us for a short time. They punished us the way they thought was best. But God punishes us to help us, so that we can become holy as he is.
Point 1
SLIDE 10
Our first point is, God is using trouble to help us.
SLIDE 11
Game: Nose Dive
Instructions
We'll start this point with a game. It's called Nose Dive.
Let’s watch how the game works.
Teacher: play the first 30 seconds of this video
Minute to Win It: Nose Dive (Head-to-Head)
Teacher: We will be doing a relay race, so instead of having just one person running back and forth, each team member will make a single run at a time. Also note: to prevent the spread of germs, have someone apply Vaseline to everyone’s nose rather than having them all dip their noses into one glob.
We'll have two teams, and this will be a relay race. When it's your turn, we'll put some Vaseline on your nose, and then you can try to stick your nose into a bowl and bring the cotton ball across the room.
When you make it across the room, shake the cotton ball into a bowl. If the cotton ball drops to the ground, go to the back of the line and someone else on your team will try.
We will keep lining up until we have TEN cotton balls in your team's bowl on the other side of the room.
Teacher: demonstrate how the game works, then run the game. If time and interest allow, you may want to play another round.
SLIDE 12
Debrief
We played this because it's a game where all kinds of things go wrong, but that's actually part of the fun. We all want our turn to go just right, but sometimes it doesn't go the way we planned. Life is like that too. Sometimes we have an idea of what we want, and we don't get it. Instead, we get all kinds of trouble. The Bible tells us all of our trouble is part of a bigger plan.
SLIDE 13
Bible Reference
Let's go back to verse 7
7 So accept your sufferings as if they were a father’s punishment. God does these things to you as a father punishing his sons. All sons are punished by their fathers.
SLIDE 14
Explanation
Our passage is saying, sometimes you're trying to do what is right, but instead of going the way you want, you just get into trouble. For example, say you take the time to be nice to someone, and then you end up being late for class. Or, you really try to help someone by telling them what they are doing wrong, but they just get angry at you and say mean things to you.
You might be wondering, what's going on? Isn't God with us, and isn’t He watching out for us? The answer is: Yes, He is watching out for us.
God is right with us, and the only reason He's letting us go through trouble is because He loves us and he has a good plan for this trouble.
Our Bible passage says it's similar to getting disciplined by your parents: you never like it. You would never ask your parents to punish you more. But, discipline is one of the ways our parents help us and show us that they love us. Normally when our parents punish us, it's because there is a lesson to learn, and the lesson is so precious that it's worth the pain.
SLIDE 15
Application
So whenever we go through trouble in our lives, we know that God is always up to something good. God will only let bad things happen to you if it will help you in the end.
Maybe there's an important lesson that we need to learn, or maybe we can become friends with someone who is going through the same thing.
There’s always something good happening when things go wrong. So, we trust God and try our best to get something good out of the trouble.
SLIDE 16
Discussion Questions
Can you think of anything that feels bad but is actually good for you?
Why might God let us go through trouble if He loves us?
Point 2
SLIDE 17
Our second point is, God uses trouble to change us.
SLIDE 18
Game: The Shoe Game
Instructions
We'll start this point with a game. We’ll call it the shoe game!
We will have two teams, and each team will line up on an opposite wall.
Everyone on your team will take off ONE shoe and we'll make a pile of shoes in the middle of the room. Keep your other shoe on.
Teacher: let them take off a shoe and make a pile in the middle of the room. Divide them into two teams and have them line up on their opposite walls again.
You'll all have one shoe on your foot, and one shoe in that pile. Now, take a look at the shoes that your teammates are wearing, and try to remember what their shoes look like, because maybe you can help out your teammates by helping them find their shoes.
When I say go, the two teams will race to see who can put on all their shoes first, and touch their wall again. You win if everyone puts on their shoes and they're touching the wall.
Ready? Go.
Teacher: you may want to play multiple rounds of this game if time and interest allow.
SLIDE 19
Debrief
We played this game because it helps us to understand trouble. Normally, we don’t go around wearing one shoe, but if you’re playing this game, it’s worth losing a shoe for a bit.
Losing a shoe helps you to appreciate your shoes more. And in the game, you can practice being a good teammate, which can help you become better friends with the people around you. So, this game can actually change us and make us better.
SLIDE 20
Bible Reference
That's what we see in our Bible passage when it talks about going through trouble. The Bible tells us that God is using trouble to change us.
Let's read verse 10 again.
10 Our fathers on earth punished us for a short time. They punished us the way they thought was best. But God punishes us to help us, so that we can become holy as he is.
SLIDE 21
Explanation
Our verse tells us that God puts us through trouble to make us holy. What does it mean to be “holy?”
Well, the word "holy" means "heavenly." Holy describes all the stuff that heaven is made of. Heaven is perfect and without sin, and it's made of stuff that lasts forever. Most of all, heaven is the place where God lives, and God is the most holy, and in fact God makes things holy.
God makes us holy by taking away our sin. Then He calls us His children and welcomes us to His home in heaven. He wants us to start thinking like His children and living like His children. We need to think like people who belong to heaven. That's what it means to be a holy person.
It’s the greatest thing that we could become. That’s why God puts us through hard times – because if we can use the hard times to learn to be holy, it’s worth all the trouble.
SLIDE 22
Application
Let’s practice thinking like people who belong to heaven. That means practicing love, joy, and peace wherever we go. Learning more about the Bible will help us with those things.
Let’s also practice doing things that matter to God. That means being kind to everyone and doing our best to make a difference. If we keep thinking about heaven and chasing the things that last forever, then all the hard times we go through won't be so hard, and we’ll know that God has a great plan to use all of our troubles to give us the things that last forever.
SLIDE 23
Discussion Question
What is one way you can be more holy?
Conclusion
SLIDE 24
Let’s wrap up our lesson by going over the big ideas again.
Our big question today was: What’s the best way to go through trouble?
Our big idea today was: we need to go through trouble with faith. (What is faith again? Knowing things without seeing).
We will need to use faith to remember two things:
1. God is using trouble to help us, and
2. God is using trouble to make us into the people we need to be.
Main Activity (Part 2)
SLIDE 25
Eat the baked goods together. Package up any leftovers and send them home with the children.