top of page
The Most Important Thing To Pray About

Unit 7 / Lesson 2

The Most Important Thing To Pray About

Click for slides

Teacher's Prep

  • Songs

  • Games

    • Target Practice

      • Game concept:

        • This game resembles a carnival game in which people throw balls at milk bottles. Players will have one minute to knock down as many targets as they can.

      • Materials:

        • One table per group of five

        • One nerf gun and several nerf darts per group of five. You may substitute nerf guns with any kind of projectile, e.g. balls. Ideally, balls should have some weight to them, as the point is to knock down the various targets.

        • Ten disposable drinking cups per table (styrofoam or plastic). They are light and easy to knock over

        • Painter's or masking tape to mark lines to stand behind

      • Setup

        • Before the class, set up the cups into three separate targets per table: a large, medium and small target

        • Please see this diagram for how cups should be set up:

        • https://drive.google.com/file/d/199QbKoes7lUhgpIEMONp5CR6AuX4TNdc/view?usp=sharing

        • The large target will be a pyramid of six cups, the medium a pyramid of three cups and the small a single cup.

        • Arrange the cups at the far edge of a table, so that when they are hit, they will fall off the table and onto the floor. 

        • Use the tape to make lines for players to stand behind as they try to knock down the cups. Have three lines per table at various distances to the cups, so they can choose an easy, medium, or hard line.

    • Color Grab

      • Provide sheets of paper in three colors, so every child can have 5-6 sheets of paper in assorted colors to scrunch into balls for the game. If you want to save paper, you can cut up paper into halves or even quarters. The balls will end up smaller, but the game will still run fine.

        • Note: it is important to have three different colors for the paper balls.

      • Get two large baskets or other containers for the children to store their paper balls. The purpose of the container is for paper balls to be dropped off to be counted for a final score.

    • Human Tic Tac Toe

  • Rice Krispies Squares (Main Activity)


    Intro

    SLIDE 1

  • Gathering

    • How was your week?

    SLIDE 2

  • Intro Activity: Target Practice

    • Instructions

      • Teacher: see the setup instructions in the Teacher's Preparations section.

      • We will start our time together with a game! It's called target practice!

      • We will form groups of five people each. If you have less than five, some of you will play twice.

      • Each of you will have one minute to knock over as many cups as you can. One person will throw (or shoot) at a time, but your teammates can help you to get things to throw.

      • You will stand behind one of the three lines in front of each table when you are throwing things. The front line is the easiest, and the back line is the hardest, so if you want more of a challenge, you can try a line that is further away. 

      • We'll play five rounds so that you all get a chance to throw.

      • Let's form our teams, and I'll let you know when to start!

      • Teacher: count down to begin a round. For each round, give them one minute, timed with a stopwatch. Between rounds, have them reconstruct the pyramids, so that there is a large, medium, and small pyramid toward the far end of each table. Extend the time of rounds as needed

    SLIDE 3

    • Debrief

      • We played this game because it gets us thinking about what's important. If you want to knock down the most cups, the big pyramid is the most important one, so it’s probably best if you focus on that one first. Afterwards you can work on the medium sized pyramid, and then you can aim for the smallest one last.

    SLIDE 4

  • Relevance

    • This game helps us to understand our Bible lesson today. Today, we're learning about prayer.

    SLIDE 5

  • Big Question

    • Our big question today is: what are the most important things to pray about?

  • Big Idea

    • Our big idea is, we should pray that God will be honored and obeyed.

    SLIDE 6

  • Bible Reference

    • Let's watch a cartoon about a time Jesus taught His disciples on prayer. (We watched this last week, but it’s worth watching again)

    • Today we'll just be focusing on a few of the verses that Jesus said, so let's read those verses again.

    SLIDE 7

    • Matthew 6:9-11 (CEV)

      • 9 You should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, help us to honor your name. 10 Come and set up your kingdom, so that everyone on earth will obey you, as you are obeyed in heaven. 11 Give us our food for today.


    Point 1

  • SLIDE 8

  • Our first point is, we should pray that God will be honored.

    SLIDE 9

  • Game: Color Grab

    • Instructions

      • We'll start our point with a game! We'll call it the Color Grab!

      • Here's how it works. We'll form two teams, and the two teams will be on opposite walls. Once you’re at your wall, I'm going to pass everyone a few sheets of paper. It doesn't matter how many sheets of paper you get, or what color they are. You're going to scrunch up each piece of paper into a tight ball, and throw it into the middle of the room. 

      • Once we have a lot of balls in the middle, we will do a relay race! Your team will send one person at a time. That person will grab one ball from anywhere, and stick it in your team's basket. Remember, you can grab just one ball. Then you'll tag the next person in line, and they will run out and grab a ball, and put it into the basket, and so on. Hopefully you'll all get a chance to run a few times. Try to be quick because you only have five minutes to get as many balls as you can into your basket.

      • Teacher: form two teams, and provide each team with paper to form into balls. Have them throw the balls into the middle, and try to have the balls equally distant from each team so that neither team has an advantage. Run the relay race. After five minutes, have teams count up the balls, and see how many they were able to get. You may want to play two rounds of the game depending on interest.

    SLIDE 10

    • Debrief

      • In the game we played, we were all on a team, and we were all working with our teammates. When we went out to get a ball, it wasn't just for ourselves, we were doing it for our whole team. So, we were part of something bigger than ourselves.

      • That's how it's like when we pray too. Let's read what Jesus said about prayer.

    SLIDE 11

  • Bible Reference

    • Matthew 6:9 (CEV)

      • 9 You should pray like this: Our Father in heaven, help us to honor your name.

    SLIDE 12

  • Explanation

    • This is the first thing that Jesus wants us to pray about. We need to pray that God would be honored. We want to honor God, and we want everyone to honor God.

    • Honoring God means giving Him the respect and love that He deserves.

    SLIDE 13

    • This is the most important thing we could pray about.

    • Most people pray so they can ask God to fix their problems. Most people want God to give them things, or to take away the things that bother them.

    • But just like we learned last week, God already knows what we need. We don't need to tell Him anything, and we don't need to convince Him to help us. He has already promised to take care of us!  So, we can trust Him to take care of us even if we don't get around to praying about the things that really bother us.

    • However, it's more important to pray that God would be honored. This is because when we honor God, we can have a good friendship with God, and when we are friends with God, we will have everything we need, and He will help us make the best choices.

    SLIDE 14

    • When other people honor God, He promises to help them too. 

    SLIDE 15

  • Application

    • So, what can we do to bring honor to God? Jesus told us how:

      • Make your light shine, so others will see the good you do and will praise your Father in heaven. (Matthew 5:16)

    SLIDE 16

    • The point is, when we do all kinds of good things, people will notice, and they will give God the respect that He deserves.

    SLIDE 17

    • Remember that in our color grab game, there were a bunch of different colors for the balls? In real life, there are all kinds of good things we can do, and every kind of good work can bring honor to God.

    SLIDE 18

  • Discussion Question

    • Let’s pause for a discussion question.

    • What is one good thing you can do, which can help people respect God more?


    Point 2

    SLIDE 19

  • Our second point is, we should pray that God will be obeyed.

    SLIDE 20

  • Game: Human Tic Tac Toe

    • Instructions

      • We'll start this point with a game of Human Tic Tac Toe.

      • For this game, we'll need a bunch of chairs in the middle of the room, so everyone please go to the side. I'll set up some chairs while you watch the video on how to play.

      • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hwDNL0pQ8o&ab_channel=YouthMinistryGreatGames

      • Instructions for teacher:

        • Follow the instructions in the video. Set up nine chairs in the middle of the room. Have all the children find a partner that is about as fast as them.

        • One partner joins team X, and the other partner joins team O. Number teams off so that when you call a number, one person runs to the chairs.

        • Before each round, each person not on a chair has to be touching a wall.

        • The optimal (but boring) strategy is for a team to sit only in the column of chairs closest to their wall. If teams start scoring in the column closest to their wall, you can say that having three people in that column doesn’t count.

        • If you don't have at least 8 people to play the game with, you can just play regular tic tac toe on a whiteboard, or another puzzle type game, or even try a simple jigsaw puzzle.

    SLIDE 21

    • Debrief

      • We played this game because it's about fitting into a bigger plan. There are rules for how to win, and if we follow the rules and do our best, we'll have the best chance to win.

    SLIDE 22

    • That's what it’s like to obey God. God knows the best way for us to do things, and the more people follow His rules, the better it is for everyone.

  • SLIDE 23

  • Bible Reference

    • That's what the second half of our Bible passage is getting at. It teaches us to say this to God:

    • Matthew 6:10-11 (CEV)

      • 10 Come and set up your kingdom, so that everyone on earth will obey you, as you are obeyed in heaven. 11 Give us our food for today.

    SLIDE 24

  • Explanation and Application

    • So, we pray that God would be obeyed. We want to obey God, and we want other people to obey God, so that we can all live the greatest life. That's how earth becomes a bit like heaven–when we are following His directions. 

    SLIDE 25

    • Once we understand how important it is to obey God and honor Him, we will be ready to pray for the things we need. Then, we will know how to pray for the right things. 

    SLIDE 26

    • The last bit of our passage is a prayer for the things we need. It says: "Give us our food for today." The Bible teaches us to ask not only for food, but all kinds of things.

    • We know that if we are following His plan and trying to honor and obey Him, He will always give us what we need. He might not give us everything we want, but He will make sure that everything will be good for us in the end.

    SLIDE 27

  • Discussion Question

    • Let's pause for a discussion question!

    • How can God help you to honor and obey Him better?

    • Spend time praying for each other.


    Conclusion

    SLIDE 28

  • In conclusion:

  • Our big question today was: What are the most important things to pray about?

  • Our answer that Jesus taught us was, we need to pray that God would be honored and obeyed.

  • If we’re trying to honor and obey Him, God will take care of us, and He will always give us what we need.


    Main Activity: Rice Krispies Squares

    SLIDE 29

  • Today, we are making Rice Krispies squares!

  • Rice Krispies squares are great, because we can work together, follow a recipe, and if we do things right, we will get something really yummy. As long as we are trying to follow the recipe, we can always ask for help, and we know that someone will help us.

  • That’s just like what we learned. As long as we are doing our best to honor and obey God, He will give us all the help we need.

  • Teacher: make Rice Krispies Squares with the class

© 2025 Purple Curriculum. All rights reserved.

bottom of page