Do you see God’s will as a dot or a circle? Jesserson Bethke explains his perspective on God’s will in his energetic and youthful way.

Props needed:

clear container that holds 7-10 tennis balls

tennis balls

rice (2 pound bag should be sufficient)

large foil baking pan or other clean container that you can dump the rice and balls in as you do the illustration

Set up:  To determine the amount of rice and tennis balls needed: Put as many tennis balls as will fit completely into the container.  Then pour in as much rice as possible, filling in all the crevices between tennis balls.  Dump into pan and separate out the tennis bags and rice into separate bags.

Rice represents all the little things that take up our attention/time – ask the students what these things might be in their lives.

Tennis balls represent the most important things – ask the students what the most important things are for them.

Put the rice first into the container and then notice that the tennis balls can’t all fit in. Then put the tennis balls in first and pour the rice around it.

Ask the students what they learn from this illustration.

Alternately, use big rocks, small rocks, and sand.

Create two teams, each with a whiteboard. Give them a word and the team has to guess the word they drew. Words that go with the lesson: wristwatch, timer, priorities, urgent, plan, activity, schedule, distract, rest.

 Verses about money matters are set to beautiful piano music.

This game is a kick-starter for a discussion on money, greed, priorities, friends, or hearing God’s voice. Point out the confusion that may have occurred with all the pairs going at once, crowding around the container, “blinded by money”, trying to hear their partner’s directions. 

PREP: 2 pennies per student and a bucket/cup. Divide your group into pairs. Issue each pair two pennies. Have everyone form a giant circle. Place a small can or container in the center. The object is for each person to drop their pennies in the container blindfolded, following the verbal direction of their partner, who may not touch them.

We are all special and God has a unique plan for our lives.

Less than 10 people create one machine. More than 10, you’ll want to divide into teams of 10 to 20 people and have each team create a machine. Make a human machine using all of your team members. Choose an appliance, machine or contraption of any kind, and act out all of its parts with all the members of your team. For example: if you were to choose an electric toothbrush, several people could lay down to be the handle, others would be vibrating bristles. The sky’s the limit. It’s best to let them come up with their own ideas. But here’s a few great ones:

A pinball machine (with a kid rolling around as the ball)

A ski lift (with kids being scooped up by kids with locked arms)

A washing machine

A car wash