Choices
Choose with Care Lesson © Jenny Jenkins 2015 www.valueslessonsnz.com
Have the slogan 'Choose with Care' displayed in a prominent place.Other 'choices' lesson ideas are listed as subpages at the side or bottom.
Introduction
Everything you do starts out as a thought or idea, which you choose to act on.
Some things you choose to do are good and some are bad, but they all begin as thoughts inside your mind.
Sometimes you have good ideas but you decide not to do them.
Often there's also bad ideas that you choose not to do.
You make choices, and these choices lead to other choices.
These choices change who you are right now into someone different;
Someone a little kinder, or someone a little meaner.
Someone a little more truthful or someone more likely to tell lies.
Someone a little more helpful or someone a little more lazy.
Even little choices are important. They help to make us who we are.
Lesson: The Right PathWho has been on a hike through the bush or up into the mountains? Did you ever find that your track (or trail) split and went in two different directions? Then you had to make a choice about which direction to go. One track will keep you heading where you want to go, while the other leads you off in the wrong direction or even gets you lost. So, you had to be very careful about which track to choose. Our lives are like that track. Does anyone know how?We are given many different choices every day. We will come across a lot of moments when we will need to make decisions about how we will live our lives. We often don't realise it, but some of these little decisions are really important. They can even change our lives. There may be a choice to exaggerate or tell the truth. To forgive or to stay angry. To steal or be honest. To share or to be selfish. To cheat or to fail a test. It is very important that we choose the right path. That path may not be the easiest one for us to take, but it will always be the best path for us. We need to be careful not to choose the wrong way. It may seem easier or more exciting, but will only lead to problems and sadness in our lives.
The decisions we make in life are very important. Once we make a wrong choice, perhaps to lie to our mother, are we more or less likely to do it again?
Wrong choices can quickly become bad habits. Bad habits are like traps; easy to get in to but hard to get out of. Does anyone know a way to get out of a bad habit?
Getting rid of a bad habit is a bit like walking through a clean home with dirty shoes on; you have to go back over where you've been and wipe each muddy footprint off the floor. It's the same when you do something wrong. You have to find a way to make it right again, to clean up the mess. If you chose to lie to your mother, what do you have to do to make it right? (Take ideas.)
If we choose to do the right thing then we will live a happier life. We will like ourselves and others will trust us. If we choose to follow our bad desires or what others want us to do then we may have all kinds of problems. Any time you come to a choice, choose the path that will lead to a happy life. Don't just blindly follow what everyone else is doing. (Point to the slogan) Choose with Care.
This Week's Challenge Try to make every conscious choice a good one. Report back on how it made you feel as the week progressed. Does it get easier or harder to keep making right choices?
Begin the Next Lesson with Revision
1. How does each of our actions begin? (As a thought or decision.)
2. If we make a good choice, are we more or less likely to choose that again? (More likely.)
3. Once we make a wrong choice, are we more or less likely to do it again? (More likely.)
4. How is making choices similar to a forked track? (Where you end up depends on a small choice at the start.)
5. Where might bad choices lead? (Bad habits, additions) Where might good choices lead? (Liking yourself, peace, happiness, etc.)
6. How do you get out of a bad habit? (Remind them of the muddy footprints. By making things right for each bad choice.)
7. What was this weeks challenge? How are you finding it? When you make a right choice, how do you feel inside?
Poster
Print out this image as a poster: https://img1.etsystatic.com/136/1/11189024/il_340x270.856014311_b0zk.jpg
Image sources http://www.bloglet.com/gallery/career-path/career-path1.jpg http://citizensjournal.us/is-it-really-possible-to-be-just-friends/one-couple-two-paths/