Unit 7 / Lesson 1
Two Mistakes In Prayer
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Teacher's Prep
Songs
Teacher: if your children's program normally includes songs, you may want to consider singing these:
O The Deep, Deep Love of Jesus. Cross Culture Norway VBS
We can Trust Him (Psalm 33:4). Rocky Railway VBS
These songs can normally be found on YouTube or Facebook as music videos with accompanying actions
Games
Intro Game: Red Solo Cup Behind the Back
Disposable plastic cups (Red Solo cups work great)
If your class is large, aim to have two cups per group of ten.
Pom-pom & Straw Challenge
Materials:
Drinking straws (one per child)
Pom-poms, or cotton balls (seven per group of five)
Tables (one per group of five)
Game concept:
See this website for a visual:
https://www.weareteachers.com/minute-to-win-it-games-for-kids/
Munchies original snack mix (the one with a variety of chips); or
Chicago Mix popped corn (a mix of cheese flavored popcorn and caramel popcorn)
With their straws, students will blow seven pom-poms across the table and off the other end.
After the pom-poms are off the table, they will put them back in the middle of the table for the next person on their team.
When all the students are done, their team wins.
Snacks and Sharing
Provide snacks and bowls for them to enjoy as they chat about their weeks for five to ten minutes.
Suggested snacks:
Munchies original snack mix (the one with a variety of chips); or
Chicago Mix popped corn (a mix of cheese flavored popcorn and caramel popcorn)
Post these discussion questions below on a screen, a whiteboard, or a piece of paper:
What is your favorite food?
What is something that scares you?
What is a job you could see yourself doing when you grow up?
What is something you're thankful for?
Photo Booth (Main Activity)
Materials:
Cardstock (multiple sheets per child so they can make multiple decorations)
Felt pens
Bamboo skewers
Tape
For ideas, you can search “photo booth props” on Google
The main idea is for them to create their own decorations and take pictures with them together.
To make it more fun, you may want to prepare some extra large props, e.g. a frame or large props made out of foam board.
Intro
SLIDE 1
Gathering
How was your week?
SLIDE 2
Intro Game: Red Solo Cup Behind the Back
Instructions
We'll start this lesson with a game! We'll have two teams, and each team will have two plastic cups.
Everyone on your team will take turns dropping the cup behind their back. If it lands right side up or upside down, you’re done, and you can pass the cup to someone else on your team. If the cup lands on its side, just pick it up and try again.
You have two cups so your team can have two people at a time doing the challenge. You win when everyone on your team has finished the challenge.
Help each other out -- pick up the cup for each other, and cheer each other on.
Teacher: you may want to do a demonstration for how to drop the cup behind your back. Play two or three rounds of this game depending on time and the level of interest.
SLIDE 3
Debrief
We played this game because it's about working together, helping people out, and being patient even when things aren't going your way.
Those are all skills we need for being good friends with people. Our game makes us practice being friends.
But did you know, we're also supposed to be friends with God too? The greatest friendship we can have is a friendship with God.
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Relevance
A lot of people make mistakes that make it hard to be friends with God. If we can avoid these mistakes, we can be better friends with God. We will be better at working with Him, and He will do amazing things with us.
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Big Question
Our big question today is: what are some mistakes that people make in their friendship with God?
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Big Idea
Today we'll talk about two mistakes that people make when they pray.
The first mistake is praying to impress people.
The second mistake is forgetting what God is like.
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Bible Reference
We’ll see this in our Bible passage. It’s a passage where Jesus teaches His followers how to pray. Let’s watch a video in which someone reads Jesus’ words straight from the Bible.
YouTube: Jesus' simple teaching on prayer - Matthew 6:5-15, by CartoonBible
Point 1
SLIDE 8
Our first point is, it's a mistake to pray to impress people.
SLIDE 9
Game: Pom-pom & Straw Challenge
Instructions
We'll start our point with a game! It's called the Pom-pom & Straw Challenge. We will have teams of five people each. Each team will have a table, and each table will have seven pom-poms on it.
When it's your turn, you'll put all the pom-poms right in the middle of the table, and then you will use the straw to blow all the pom-poms off the table. When you’re done, set up the pom-poms in the middle of the table for the next person.
When everyone on your team is done, you win!
Teacher: demonstrate how to blow pom-poms off the table, and then replace them on the table when you are done.
SLIDE 10
Debrief
We played this game because it's about focusing on one thing. We need to blow the air at the pom-poms and not anything else. We don't blow air at our friends or the walls or the ground. We just need to just focus on one thing.
Our relationship with God is like that. Some people get distracted when they pray. They’re supposed to be praying to God, but they can be distracted by everyone else.
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Bible Reference
That’s what Jesus was talking about in the first half of our Bible passage. Let’s read what Jesus said again:
Matthew 6:5-6 (CEV)
5 When you pray, don't be like those show-offs who love to stand up and pray in the synagogues and on the street corners. They do this just to look good. I can assure you that they already have their reward. 6 When you pray, go into a room alone and close the door. Pray to your Father in private. He knows what is done in private and will reward you.
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Explanation
So, Jesus told us there's a wrong way to pray! Back in those days, people would sometimes make a big show of their prayers. Sometimes people would stop right at a busy street corner to pray. They would get a lot of nice comments, because everyone thought those people were so godly.
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Jesus explained, if you're just trying to impress people when you pray, God won't listen to your prayers. The best way to stop trying to impress people is to pray when nobody's looking, and nobody can talk about how great you are.
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Application
It works like that for us too. Maybe you've never prayed on a street corner. But, if you ever pray in front of anyone, you'll probably feel like using big fancy words to impress people. We need to remember, if we're just trying to show off in front of other people, God won't listen to us because our heart is in the wrong place.
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The easiest way to pray right is to go away from people. Then we won’t have to worry about what people are thinking. After we have gotten better at focusing on God, we’ll be able to pray properly even when we are in a group and people are listening to us. Most importantly, God will listen to our prayers when our heart is right.
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Discussion Question
Now let's pause for a discussion question.
What is something you'd like to pray about?
Why is it better to pray alone sometimes?
Point 2
SLIDE 17
Our second point is, it's a mistake to forget what God is like.
SLIDE 18
Activity: Snacks and Sharing
Instructions
Let's start our point with some snacks and chatting. We'll form groups of about three people each, and we'll answer some questions about ourselves. While you're chatting, I'll come along with some snacks.
Here are the discussion questions:
What is your favorite food?
What is something that scares you?
What is a job you could see yourself doing when you grow up?
What is something you're thankful for?
Instructions for Teacher:
Have the discussion questions visible somewhere (on a piece of paper or a whiteboard)
Distribute bowls of snacks to each group
Give them five or ten minutes to chat, depending on how much time you have for your lesson
SLIDE 19
Debrief
Let's come back together in a big group!
The reason we started off with chatting was because it’s a way to make friends. We make friends by talking about the things on our minds and hearts. That's how we can understand each other. But, imagine talking to a person who already knew everything about you, and you didn’t need to tell them anything. That's what it's like when we're talking to God.
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Bible Reference
Let's read the second half of our Bible passage again.
Matthew 6:7-8 (CEV)
7 When you pray, don't talk on and on as people do who don't know God. They think God likes to hear long prayers. 8 Don't be like them. Your Father knows what you need even before you ask.
SLIDE 21
Explanation
Jesus was talking about people who don’t know God. Back then, most people worshiped more than one god. Those gods weren't real – they were just made up by the imaginations of other people. When people made up those gods, they imagined that the other gods were just like human beings, but more powerful.
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People imagined that the other gods didn't care about them, forgot things sometimes, and got angry for no reason. People thought that if they said the right words and said things a lot of times, they could get the attention of the gods, and they might want to help them.
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Jesus reminded us that the real God is not like that at all. The real God cares about you a lot, even more than you care about yourself. The real God also knows you completely, even better than you know yourself.
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The real God is your Father, and He is a good Father who always takes care of His children, and He always does what is best for us. When we remember what God is like, we will pray in a different way.
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Application
We won't spend all of our time talking about the things we need because He already knows what we need. We're not telling Him anything new! We won't spend our time begging Him to help us because He's our Father, and He will always do the best thing for us.
It’s not wrong to talk about the things on our minds. Sometimes it really helps to just say what we are thinking so that we know He hears us. But, actually, God doesn’t need us to explain anything. Sometimes the best way to pray is to not say anything at all. You can just go to God, and think about Him and His words in the Bible, and you don’t need to ask for anything. You can just remember that even if you don't ask for a single thing, God will know exactly what you need and what you're thinking, and God will still take care of you. Then you will be able to move on and pray about more important things, which we will learn about next week.
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Prayer
Let's practice this prayer where we don't say anything to God. We'll take two minutes right now, and in those two minutes, don't say anything, and don't ask for anything. Just think about God and think about His words, and remember that He knows what He is doing, and He will always take care of you, even if you don't say anything.
Teacher: set a timer for two minutes.
Conclusion
SLIDE 27
Let’s wrap up our lesson by going over the main points again,
Our big question today was: what are some mistakes that people make in their friendship with God?
We talked about two mistakes people make in prayer:
Jesus taught us it's a mistake to try to impress other people, so it helps to pray by ourselves sometimes so we don’t have to think about other people.
It's also a mistake to forget what God is like. We need to remember that God knows us completely. We also need to remember that He is our Father, and He will take care of us even if we don’t talk about the things we want. Then we can spend our time focusing on the more important things He wants us to pray about, which we will learn about next week.
Main Activity: Photo Booth
SLIDE 28
Today we’ll end our lesson by making a photo booth!
Sometimes for parties, people get decorations, and they go to a photo booth and take silly pictures for fun.
Today we are going to make some decorations and then take pictures with each other!
Maybe these photos can help remind us of what we learned about prayer, because in a photo, there's no sound. We don't need to say anything, and we still understand each other.
Instructions for teacher:
Provide materials to make small props:
Cardstock
Felt pens
Bamboo sticks
Tape
Suggest various props for them to make, or assign props to different individuals or groups.
Mustache
Hats or Crowns
Rockets
Funny glasses
Neckties / a bow tie
Birds
Hearts
Stars
Toward the end of your time together, take pictures.