(15 minutes)
Supplies Needed: Small candy pieces, medium-sized candy pieces, seven giant marshmallows, two plastic cups
Teacher Note: Additional activities for today’s lesson can be found on the Bible Study Manager page for this lesson. Look for the tab labeled “Extra Resources.”
Teacher Note: Today’s My Mission Activity includes an object lesson. You will need two plastic cups and two different sizes of candy. Bring from home very small candy pieces (no bigger than a pencil eraser), medium-sized candy pieces (no bigger than a dime) and seven giant marshmallows. Read through and practice the object lesson before class so that you will have the right amount of candy to make the lesson effective.
Gather your students at a table. Return to them their copies of the Exodus Book Page Eleven resource page and ask them to turn the page over. On the back, instruct them to list five things (objects, people, ideas, etc.) that they feel are most important in their lives. They will not have to share their answers with anyone. Once they are finished, instruct them to look at their lists. Is God somewhere on the list? If God is on the list, is He first?
God wants us to love Him more than anything or anyone else. Their mission this week is to be aware of anything in their lives that they are making more important than God. Idols are things or people that we put before God in our hearts. Some examples include television, video games, money, being popular, celebrities, or even family. Discuss the place that those things can have in our lives, but stress that nothing should become more important than obeying God and putting Him first.
When we obey the first two commandments and make God the most important part of our lives, one way it shows is by how we spend our time. Set out the two plastic cups and the different candies. Tell your students that these cups represent the time that we have each day. The candy represents the things we do each day.
The small pieces of candy represent our everyday activities. Because we spend a lot of time asleep, put a handful of the tiny candies into the cup. Because the students go to school on the weekdays, put some tiny candies into the cup for school. The medium-sized candy represents things that we don’t have to do every day, but we still make time for them. Who watches television or plays video games? What about spending time with friends? Put some of the medium-sized candies in the cup for these activities.
Because God is so big, the seven marshmallows represent spending time each day with God. Remind the students that we need to make time for God seven days a week. Try and put the seven marshmallows into the cup. By now, the cup should already be too full for all of the marshmallows to fit. What happened? The students filled up their day with so many other things that now there is not enough time for God each day. How can we fit Him in?
Pick up the other cup and tell the students that you will do this activity again. But this time, spending time with God will be first. Put the marshmallows into the second cup. When we put God first, it is amazing how all the other activities will fit right in. We will have time for fun activities like playing video games or hanging out with our friends. Add the medium-sized candies to the cup and shake it a bit so that the candies fall around the marshmallows. Your time at school will also fit in around God. Add the tiny candies and gently shake the cup so that everything fits. Isn’t it incredible that everything fits when we make God the first priority in our day?
Ask the class how they can keep God first every day. We should all spend time with God every day by reading our Bibles and praying to Him. Remind your students that their mission for this week is to be aware of what they are making more important than God. Encourage them to ask God to show them what idols they have in their hearts.