[PYCL: Show how Love will always be there for you!]
CedarS PYCLs–Possible Younger Class Lessons for:
"Love"
The Christian Science Bible Lesson for February 3, 2013
by Kerry Jenkins, CS, House Springs, MO (314) 406-0041 [Bracketed inserts by Warren Huff]
[PYCL Point 1: Impart “the clearest idea of Deity”! Make a synonym book or poster!]
Mrs. Eddy tells us that “Love imparts the clearest idea of Deity.” (517:13 S&H) So this week's lesson is a great way to bring us all closer to God! Draw the kid's attention to the fact that we are working our way through the synonyms for God in the Bible lessons these days. Why do you think that we study each name for God separately if they are all names for God? What if we were studying elephants in school and all we read about them was that they have good memories? Would that tell you everything that you need to know about elephants? Is that an important quality of elephants? The synonyms are similar (obviously not exactly, they aren't as limited in scope as this example, but I think it gets the picture across) in how they reveal different elements of God to us. Do you want to make a synonym book? You could cover the last couple of weeks as a review. You could make them out of colored construction paper and staple them at the “spine” or center. The ones that can write can put the synonyms at the top of each page. You can write them for the little ones. What qualities are you going to include? Do you want to draw a picture that represents these synonyms? With the smaller kids let them draw scribbles or whatever and have them tell you what they are drawing. You can write a sentence below the drawing if it is relevant. Don't worry too much about the “final result”. It's more about the process with littler kids, and this is an opportunity to think about the synonyms and have them put their thoughts on paper, even if the thoughts don't look like much to us. As I've mentioned before, sometimes it's interesting to talk about the fact that we can't really draw a picture of God. But we can draw things that represent ways that God is expressed. We could draw a mom hugging a child for Love, or even hearts (they are easier). We could draw a plant growing green, or a dog jumping for joy, for Life. You could choose to bring in stickers if you can find ones that are illustrative. The littler ones like to use stickers. You could also choose to do posters for each synonym and put them up to share in the Sunday School, or have each class add their thoughts to the posters so they are a compendium of different age groups.
[PYCL #2: Show how Love is there for them, as for Isaac, Rebekah, the servant, the leper…]
What does it mean that Love never fails? What does it say about us? The smaller children won't know what “fail” means so talk about this word in a context that means something to them. Perhaps failure for them is not being able to construct something out of Lincoln logs, or Legos, or having a block structure fall over (trust me, I know this first hand). That sounds silly to us, but it is significant to them. We can help them to see that Love is there with them giving them ideas, encouragement, patience. Maybe Love doesn't build the Lincoln log building for them, but Love is certainly giving them what they need, even if it is patience to try again later when they aren't so frustrated or asking for help without crying. With the kids who are a bit beyond flipping out over Legos, you can talk about what failure means to them and how Love is there for them in real, tangible ways. Look at the stories in this week's Bible lesson to see how Love was there for Isaac, Rebekah, the servant, for the leper that Jesus healed. Talk about another aspect of this lesson, using spiritual sense to discern Love's presence in our lives. (Section 5 is handy here.) Also in citation S22 Mrs. Eddy makes it clear just what it is that enables us to demonstrate “with scientific certainty, the rule of healing”, or the rule of success vs. failure.
[PYCL #3: Put pupils into Rebekah’s & into Issac’s sandals. Wash dirt out with water.]
It is always fun to look at the Bible stories as they are presented in the subject. Ask them what they think Rebekah felt like when she was asked to leave her family and travel to be the wife of a complete stranger? Why did she agree? What qualities was she expressing? What would they feel like if someone asked them to do this? (I realize we don't deal in arranged marriages these days, but it is still a worthwhile question.) Talk about the story of the wells. Why were wells particularly important? What would they do if they worked hard to achieve something and then some bullies came and took what they'd made? Why did Isaac just keep moving from one well to the next? Maybe Isaac knew that just as the well draws on a deep water table and constantly springs up with fresh water even in a dry land, so God's love for him would follow him wherever he went and supply him with all his needs. You can talk about citation S13 where Mrs. Eddy talks about pouring in truth through “flood-tides of Love”. What if you brought in a dish, like a small custard cup and set it in a pan and put some dirt in the small cup and then had the children pour water from a pitcher and watch how the “flood-tides” of water wash the dirt right out of the small cup? That might be a helpful illustration of how flood-tides of love and truth can bring about a healing, replacing all the lies of sickness or unhappiness, etc. with truth and love.
[PYCL # 4: We are drawn to Love from afar, & guided by angels each step of the way!]
I also enjoyed how the story in the second section describes man as being “drawn” toward God. [Jer. 31:3, B5] There are many references to this in this section. Citation B8 also speaks of how God will bring all Her sons and daughters from far away. And citation B6 tells how God has sent an angel before us to prepare the way. All this leading, guiding and careful tending show us ways to see Love's activity in our lives. Obviously the story of Abraham's servant being led to Rebekah is central to this section. We are known by God, each of us with a purpose that is holy. This is worth discussing and pointing out. Citation S8 uses a lovely illustration of how the sun can be hid by the clouds, and just so, we may lose sight of our own “holy purpose” as we let it be obscured by mortal sense. But this obscurity cannot last! This is also a good opportunity to visit the subject of angels. You could certainly look up her definition in S&H and also what she says about them in Miscellaneous Writings [306:22]
Have a great Sunday!
