Lesson Objective:
Understand what God expects of you
Lesson Outcome:
By the end of the lesson, the children will have tried to understand what God expects of them and written their own prayer.
Resources:
Micah and Amos Quotes
Decorated Prayers
Introduction
- List good things – Children to make a list of things that they have done recently that they feel are good. Share with the rest of the class. List on board, those that children feel would be good in God’s eyes. Why do they believe God would see them as good?
- What does God expect of me? – Using the list, mark off those that children think God would expect them to do as a good person, and those that might exceed God’s expectations. Discuss further with class
Main Teaching
- Display Micah 6:8 (Micah and Amos Quotes) – “What does God require of you, but to do justice, to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?”. Discuss this passage, what does it mean? What does God expect of us? Take the words “justice”, “love kindness”, “walk humbly” and display them on the board. Discuss what each little phrase means:
Justice – to be fair to others and to think about others’ needs
Love kindness – to embrace good will in others, to show love to others, to do-as-you-would-be-done-by.
Walk humbly – To do as God would want (lead a good life of justice and loving kindness) without showing off
Activity
- Option 1: Re-write the Micah Passage – Together as a class or individually, children to come up with a modern version of Micah 6:8. An example could be:
What does God want you to do in your life? God wants me to be fair to all living things and treat them the way that I would want to be treated. God wants to me appreciate the land in which I live in and work with other people to make it better. God also tells me to never take anything for granted, for God is the One who created me and everything around me. - Option 2: Create own Prayer – Showing a decoarated version of a prayer, children to copy or write their own version of the modern Micah passage, using calligraphy style writing and carefully considered images.
Plenary
- Amos 5:24 (Micah and Amos Quotes)– “Let justice roll down like waters and righteousness like an every flowing stream”. Discuss this passage and relate it to the previous passage, thinking about why it is important and what it means to us.