TOPIC
Students will reflect on why the Spirit needs to incarnate. What is the purpose of our lives?
Prepared by: @Susana
OBJECTIVE
At the end of this lesson Youth will have learned:
Cognition: God has a plan for us and if you don’t look at a higher purpose you may feel God is unfair. No matter where we are, God’s plan is for us to reach true happiness.
Feeling: Tranquility, Serenity
OPENING:
Opening prayer and short round kids tell about their week
LAUNCH LESSON
Game: This game can be used with Kids and Youth
Draw two lines on the floor, a start line, and a finish line, around 15 – 20ft apart. Tell students whoever gets to the finish line first wins.
Distribute a life story for each student.
Life stories example: WhyAreWeHere-LifeStories.docx
Ask students to line up in the starting line and give different life stories to each one of them
- Whoever went to elementary school, walk one step forward
- Whoever went to high school, move one step forward
- Whoever has a college degree, move one step forward
- Whoever traveled to at least 1 foreign country, move one step forward
- Whoever is healthy move 1 step forward
- Whoever is beautiful move 1 step forward
- Whoever is a millionaire move one step forwardNow let’s start the race and whoever reaches the final line first, wins!
You expect students to complain that it is NOT FAIR! If not, ask students if the game was fair?
The game is not fair, because apparently, you did not have choices in many of these steps. Either you could not study or you did not travel much. Or you did not win the lottery! So, if God is just, why aren’t we born exactly the same way?
If time permits, then play Game of Perspective
EXPLORE LESSON:
If students don’t know about the Spirits Book, talk briefly about the book and explore these questions:
Spirits Book, question 132:
132. What is the purpose of spirit incarnation?
“God imposes incarnation as a tool to reach perfection. For some, it is a means of making amends, while for others it is a mission. Every spirit must experience the difficulties of physical existence to reach perfection, therein lies their atonement. Incarnation also requires a spirit to contribute to the work of creation. To fulfill this purpose, spirits assume physical bodies in harmony with the material state of each world to accomplish the missions that have been appointed to them by God. Through these missions, they contribute to the general good while also achieving their own advancement…”
133. Is incarnation necessary for spirits who have followed the right path from the outset?
“All spirits are created simple and unaware, and learn through the trials and tribulations of corporeal life. God is just. Our Creator could not create some spirits happy, without their having experienced pain or without their having made an effort, in other words without any merit.”
(Educators: our starting line was the same for all of us, it is because our previous and current choices that make us to faster or slower to the finish line)
Extra:
679. Are there any individuals who possess enough worldly goods for survival to render them exempt from the law of labor?
“Perhaps from material labor, but not from the obligation of making themselves useful according to their means, and developing their own intelligence and that of others, which is also labor. There are individuals to whom God has granted sufficient means that are not restricted to earning their income by the sweat of their brows. In that case, their obligation of being useful to their fellow beings is all the greater because they have at their disposal a much greater amount of free time for doing good.”
Reference: The Spirit’s Book
SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION:
ASK ALL: Do you think it is fair that you were born or live in this country while others were born in places where there is no water or enough food or safety?
ASK FEW: Have you ever felt that life is not fair? (Educators: hint Maybe it is not about what you want, but what you need to grow. How do you think a person who doesn’t have enough to eat would feel about your complaint?)
ASK FEW: Why are we here? Do you have specific answers? (Educators: hint to tell students most of us don’t know the specifics but we know we are here to grow closer to him in knowledge and love.)
The point is, if we see life only from a human and material perspective, it seems kind of random and purposeless. But if you take God into consideration, you understand that God did not create us without a purpose. God has a plan for us but he cannot make us follow His purpose, we have choices!
CONCLUSION:
Today we discussed “The purpose of our lives”
And learned that “God has a plan for us! We need to look at our lives as opportunities to draw us closer to God. We have different lives because we had and have different choices and if we are seeing differences we don’t understand, that is probably because we are looking “too close”. We incarnate to learn how to grow in love and knowledge!”