As you look in the mirror, what do you see? (Note: the teacher can actually bring a mirror to class) Do you see a GIRL (female)? ______ Do you see a BOY (male)? ______
What else do you see? Do you see hair? skin? eyes? a nose? ears? a mouth? What else?
Where did these things come from? Where did your eyes come from? your ears? your nose? your skin?
What are these things for?
Your eyes are for ____seeing__________________
Your ears are for ___________________________
Your nose is for ____________________________
Your tongue is for___________________________
Your mouth is for ___________________________
Your teeth are for___________________________
Are people’s eyes different? Do they come in different colors? Are people’s noses different? Do they come in different sizes and shapes? Is every face different? Is your face different from every other face? Do people have different kinds of hair? Does hair come in different colors? Do some people have curly hair and other people have straight hair? Is everyone’s height (how tall) the same? Is everyone’s weight (how heavy) the same?
Everyone is different and nobody is the same! What would happen if we all looked exactly the same? As you would walk down the street, everyone would look exactly like everyone else! Can you think of any problems this would cause?
What if all of the cans in the grocery store all looked the same. What problems would this cause? How would you know what to buy? Every can needs to have its own NAME (peas, corn, beans, tuna fish, etc.) and every can needs to have its own LABEL so that we know what is on the inside. Is the Lord Jesus Christ living in your heart? If He is, then you need to PUT A LABEL ON YOURSELF JUST AS THE LABEL IS ON THE CAN. In this way others will know that Jesus is IN YOU: "That if thou shalt ____________ with thy mouth the Lord J__________" (Romans 10:9). If Jesus is really YOUR LORD, then other people should know about this. What would happen if all the believers stopped CONFESSING? That would be like all of the cans in the grocery store taking off their labels! We would say to the cans, "We do not know what is in you!" People would say to believers, "We do not know who is in you!"
The same God that has made every snowflake different is the same God that has made every person different. No two people are alike. Some people might look alike (such as identical twins), but every person is different from every other person. Have you ever noticed differences between two people who are identical twins?
Every person is very unique and special. When you were born there were probably about 10 other babies who were born in the same hospital at about the same time you were. As your parents were about to leave the hospital, do you think they said something like this: "Nurse, all of these babies look about the same. Just give us one of them. Any one will do!" No, this is not usually how it works! There is only one baby that the parents want! That baby is very special to them and the other babies are very special to their parents.
God has created each one of us differently, and we are very special to Him! If you were to see a flock of sheep, they might all look alike to you. But to the shepherd each sheep is different. He knows his sheep very well and he is able to tell them apart. He has even given a name to each one! When we become a believer, we do not become lost in a crowd. Every believer is special to God. God is the Good Shepherd who knows each of His sheep by name: "He calleth His own sheep by _______________" (John 10:3).
Do people all wear the same clothes? Do people wear different clothes with different colors and different styles? Is there anyone else in your Sunday School class who is wearing exactly the same clothes that you are? Do boys dress differently than girls (see Deuteronomy 22:5)? Do boys wear their hair differently than girls (see 1 Corinthians l1:14-15)? Today there are some boys who look and dress like girls and there are some girls who look and dress like boys (and the same is true for men and women). Is this pleasing to God? How did God make us (circle the correct answer, but first READ GENESIS 1:27):
- God created them UNISEX (one sex)
- God created them MALE and FEMALE (two sexes)
Let’s LOOK, DRESS, and ACT the way God made us!
Can you think of any place where all the men wear the same clothes? Do policemen all wear the same clothes? Why? Do soldiers all wear the same clothes? Why? (We do not want to shoot our own men!) Do players on the same football team all wear the same clothes? Why? (We do not want to tackle the wrong man)
Believers should all wear the same clothes also. We should all put on the garments of love, the garments of kindness, the garments of forgiveness, etc. (see Colossians 3:12-14). Should all believers have the same kind of armour on (Ephesians 6:11-17)? _____
Even though soldiers all dress alike and wear the same uniform, every soldier is a special individual and every soldier is given a special number (identification number). He is the only soldier that has this number. Football players have the same uniform, but do they each have a different number? Would it be confusing to the fans if two players on the same team each had the same number? ______________
Every person is different, but every person is a PERSON. There are many things that we share in common with other people. We all have a heart. We all have a brain. We all have a soul. We all live on the same planet. We all breathe air. Can you think of other things that we share in common with all people? Every snowflake is different and no two are exactly alike. But can you think of something that every snowflake shares in common with every other snowflake?
As you look at yourself in the mirror you need to ask yourself, "What does this person know?"
There are many things that you know. You know your own name:
____________________ |
______________________ |
____________________ |
You know your age: You are _________ years old. You know where you live:
________________________ |
________________________ |
________________________ |
________________________ |
You know who lives in your house with you. You know what grade you are in (Grade ____). You know how to add: 5 + 4 = ____. You know how to subtract: 88 - 7 = ______. You know how to read because you have been reading these notes!
There are some things that we all know. For example, probably everyone in your Sunday School class knows who the President of the United States is. Probably everyone knows how many states belong to the United States. Probably everyone knows who the first man was.
There are some things that no one in the class knows except you. Can you think of something that you know that probably no one else knows in your class? For example, someone might have a stamp collection and he might know certain things about stamps that no one else knows. Someone else might like to study birds and this person might know things about birds that no one else knows.
There are some things that no one knows except God. Who is the only One who knows the day of your death? _______ Who is the only One who knows the day when Christ will return (Matthew 24:36)? ____________________________
As you look at yourself in the mirror, you need to ask yourself, "What does this person feel?"
Do you know the warmth of people that care?
Do you know the burden of despair (when you start feeling down and start losing hope)?
Do you know what it is to get all excited about something?
Do you know the fire of anger or the chill of fear?
Can you think of a time when someone really cared for you in a special way? Can you think of a time when you were down in the dumps of despair? Can you think of a time when you were all excited about something? Can you think of a time when you became very angry about something? Can you think of a time when you were frozen with fear?
Why do you feel these ways (mad, sad, glad, joyful, fearful, tearful, etc.)? When such a feeling comes over you, what can you do about it? There are some things you can do and there are some things God must do. Suppose your father were driving on an icy highway with heavy traffic in the middle of a winter storm. In such a situation a person might become afraid of getting into an accident. There are some things that your father can do (drive carefully, drive slowly, etc.). There are some things that only God can do (protect you and give you a safe trip according to His will).
People feel different ways about things. Not everyone feels the same about the same thing. For example, one person likes strawberry ice cream and someone else does not. Do you? ______ One person might hear the sound of a bird in the woods and another person might miss it altogether (or not pay attention to it). One person might fall down and hurt his knee and really cry and scream. Another person might fall down in the same way and get right up and see the blood but not cry at all. Everyone is different.
As you look at yourself in the mirror, you need to ask yourself, "What does this person need?" As you think about your needs you will learn that the living God has all that you need. Even if no one else could help you, HE CAN?
I need food to eat, air to breathe and clothing to wear. I need sleep and I need shelter (a roof over my head). I need protection from danger. Can you think of anything else that a person really needs to live and survive?
Sometimes we might not feel that we get everything we need. We might wish we could have certain foods or clothes. We might want to live in a better house. But compared to most of the people in the world, we would probably be considered RICH!
Does the Heavenly Father know what your needs are (Matthew 6:32)? _____ Is He able to feed you (Matthew 6:26)? _____ Is He able to clothe you (Matthew 6:28-30)? _____ If we put the Lord first in our lives, will He see to it that our needs are met (Matthew. 6:33)? ______ It we take care of God (by putting Him first), He will be sure to take care of us!
As a. person I need to be loved and I need to love. But sometimes I might feel sorry for myself and say something like this: "No one loves me and I don’t love anybody?"
Everyone has a need to be cared for. What would you think of a tiny baby bird that was not cared for by the mother bird? What would you think of a kitten that was abandoned by its mother? People need that tender loving care and attention, too!
David once said, "When my ________________ and my __________________ forsake me (abandon me), then the __________ wi1l take me up" (Psalm 27:10). "God so loved the world" (John 3:16). Does that include you? _________ Because He loves, I can love: "We love ___________, because He first __________ us" (1 John 4:l9). Not only do we love God, but who else do we love (1 John 3:14-16)? ______________________
I need to be me! God never asked me to be someone else. He asked me to be me!
As person I need to be both INDEPENDENT and DEPENDENT. 1) INDEPENDENT--as an independent person I must be myself! I can’t be another person. I must live my own life and I must make my own decisions and I must stand on my own ground. I must make my own decision to be saved (my parents cannot make this decision for me). No one else can believe on Christ for me. Once I am saved, I must work out my own salvation (no one else can work it out for me)--see Phi1ippians 2:12). In the future I must stand before Christ as an individual. I will not be lost in the crowd because "every one of us shall give account of himself (not somebody else) to God" (Romans 14:12). 2) DEPENDENT--as a dependent person I NEED HELP! Without Christ I can do ____________(John 15:5). No man is an island to live all by himself. We live in a world filled with people (a society) and we need other people and other people need us. We depend on other people and they depend on us. Can you think how people need each other and depend upon each other? (our food, clothing, car, electricity, etc.) But most of all, we depend on the Lord.
As a person I need to be valued and appreciated. Sometimes we might feel very unimportant. We might feel that we are of no value to anybody, but this is not true. God thinks that you are valuable enough and important enough to die for you! God paid a great price to save you! (Usually when we go to the store we do not pay a great price for something unless we think It is valuable). Did Jesus want us to know that we are valuable to God (Matthew 10:29-31)? ____ God says that be1ievere are "HIS INHERITANCE" (Ephesians 1:18). This means that we are very precious and valuable to Him!
As a person, I need to grow and deve1op. To grow up I must change. I cannot stay the same. There is only one Person who does not need to grow and who does not need to change. Who is this Person (Malachi 3:6)? _______________________
We must remember that growing takes time. The body is growing all the time, but how long does it take you to grow 14 inches? Your physical appearance is changing all the time, but the change is so slow that we do not even notice it. But as we look back at our own pictures taken one year ago and two years ago arid five years ago, we see that we really have changed.
We also must remember that our body is changing physically. As a person grows older the body changes in different ways. For example, as boys get into the 7th or 8th grade their voices begin to change (and usually become lower). Girls have physical changes also. These changes sometimes make us happy and sometimes they make us sad. Sometimes these physical changes can make a person moody or restless or even rebellious. Why is this so? These changes are taking place in me and certain things are happening to my body. How do I feel about these changes? Sometimes I might feel unsure or insecure about them. I may not understand what is happening to me or I may not, like what is happening to me. I may not know what to do about it. I may feel self conscious about it (I may feel that everyone thinks my low voice is funny). I am realizing that I am too old to be a baby and too young to be a teen (See pages 2 and 3 of these notes).
In Christ I can find the freedom that I need to grow up and to be everything that I should and can be (Ephesians 4:13-15). Jesus said that He can make a person FREE INDEED (John 8:36).
God has answered all of my needs! He has what I need! I am P ___________ and N _____________; yet the Lord thinketh upon _______: Thou art my H ________________" (Psalm 40:17)!
Is just one sheep important to the shepherd (Luke 15:3-7)? _____ Is just one person important to God, the Great Shepherd? ______ Are YOU important to God?
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