Today, we’re going to go over a Bible lesson that will help your teen students feel more comfortable talking to God.
Teenagers often feel uncomfortable talking to strangers or kids they don’t know well.
How much more awkward might it feel talking to the Almighty? Yet a relationship with the Most High, like any other great friendship, involves conversation.
In this fun Bible lesson using tongue twisters, students will learn not only why it feels awkward to speak to God, but what to focus on to obliterate those weird feelings.
Activity Materials
- Tongue Twisters (listed below)
- Candy prize for winner, winners (or all, depending on your budget)
- Small basket, like a collection plate basket
- Printer paper
- Marker pens
Tongue Twisters
Print out these tongue twisters or write them down on paper. Cut up these tongue twisters, fold them, and put them in a basket for choosing:
- White eraser? Right away, sir!
- Tim, the thin twin tinsmith.
- Sure the ship’s shipshape, sir.
- Strange strategic statistics.
- The sinking steamer sank.
- Sam’s shop stocks short spotted socks.
- Shy Shelly says she shall sew sheets.
- Mix, Miss, Mix!
- Fat frogs flying past fast.
- Lesser leather never weathered wetter weather better.
- What noise annoys a noisy oyster? A noisy noise annoys a noisy oyster.
Lesson
(Bold sections are what you should say out loud to your class)
Did you ever have a day so awful that you just wished God would come down from the clouds in heaven, sweep you up, and you could just”¦go up to heaven for a little vacation?
Did you ever have friends get mad at you? Have people ever made fun of you? Have you ever gone on Facebook to see that someone was being mean? Trying to provoke you into a Facebook fight? Have you ever had friends who were trying to pressure you into doing things that you knew were wrong?
And while it was going on, did God feel like a far-off person who sat up in the sky and just kind of”¦stared at you?
We know that being a teenager is high stress. We’re going to teach you how to get away from the stress and feel a newly found sense of freedom from it.
That last thing I mentioned – feeling like God is a far-off and staring individual, we’re going to start there. Because nothing could be farther from the truth. God loves you more than the best dad. He loves you for you. He hears everything you say to Him – and to others.
He knows the drill, that you’re not perfect. Jesus said in Mark 2:17, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.” Jesus came for the stressed out, the anxious, the picked upon, the pressured. You will never have a better friend.
Jesus doesn’t bite and He does hear”¦you can talk to Him without breaking out in hives – and actually enjoy yourself. Let’s try an experiment that shows how things can go.
Ask for a volunteer who either wants to have public speaking as part of his/her job someday or at least doesn’t mind it.
Have that student reach in the jar without looking, pull out a Tongue Twister, and try to repeat it THREE TIMES. If the student says the tongue twister without stumbling three times, she holds on to it and sits down. If she doesn’t get it, she sits down and may give it to a volunteer who also wants to try it. Keep passing the tongue twister until someone is able to say it THREE TIMES. The person who finally says all correctly gets to keep it and sit down.
Go to the next volunteer. Let that person pick a new tongue twister from the basket and try to repeat it THREE TIMES. Repeat the process above until everyone has picked and/or tried a tongue twister.
Have a prize for the person who has retained the most tongue twisters at the end.
When you’re saying a tongue twister, you might feel some of the same feelings as the first few times you try to talk to God”¦and I mean really talk to him.
– You might stumble over your words a bit.
– You might feel like you got it all wrong or you’ll get it all wrong with what you say.
– It might feel really awkward.
– You might feel stupid or like you want to laugh”¦or like people would laugh at you if they saw you talking to God.
God is huge. He is ancient. He did create the universe. There is a split between the natural and spiritual realms because we mess things up, and He never does.
If you’re new to Christ or you haven’t been paying attention to Him for a while, you might be thinking, “What do I say to this Person if I talk to Him for real?” Or “How do I do it and not break out in hives?”
Guess what? Some of the most important people in human history have asked the very same question. In Luke 11, we find Jesus’s own disciples watching Him off in a distance.
“What’s he doing over there, all by Himself?” one of them probably asked.
“He’s talking to God,” another answered. “The usual.” And it’s quite likely they all just stared”¦ And thoughts probably ran through their heads:
– “When I talk to God, it doesn’t feel great. I feel small and awkward and stupid.”
– “The way He does it, it has to be fun, or He wouldn’t do it so much. “
– “I would like to talk to God and not feel awkward and stupid. I would like to talk to God the way that He talks to God.”
We’re calling this lesson “How to talk to God (& not break out in hives & actually enjoy yourself) because speaking with the Creator of the Universe is supposed to be fun! Hello! It’s supposed to be joyous! It’s not supposed to feel like a tongue twister!
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