PYCLs— PLAY CHARADES! (1) FEEL CERTAIN OF BEING LOVED! (3) BRING A FLOWER & TAPE MEASURE (4, 5)
CedarS Possible Younger Class Lessons for the Christian Science Quarterly Bible Lesson:
“Mind”
for August 21, 2022
by Kerry Jenkins, CS, House Springs, MO
kerry.helen.jenkins@gmail.com (314) 406-0041
PYCL #1: CONTINUE A SYNONYM PROJECT. MAYBE PLAY A CHARADES WITH THE SYNONYMS, BEATITUDES…
Feel free to go back to the last number of synonym lessons for discussion of different projects we have suggested here for a long term study of synonyms. They certainly don’t have to end with this week’s lesson on Mind. Maybe if your class is not oriented toward a long-term, craft-type project, you could think about how to act out the qualities of the synonyms.
Maybe you could play a game of charades with the topics all being synonyms that the “audience” has to guess from wordless clues. Do this with teams or with individuals. Everyone gets a chance to act out, and to guess. (I have seen this work pretty well with guessing Beatitudes too!)
PYCL #2: NAME ALL WHO KNOW, RECOGNIZE & THINK ABOUT YOU… PLUS, DIVINE BEING IS EVER MINDFUL OF YOU!
Have the children list all the people that know them, and actually think about them regularly. Think together about those that think about them once a day, a few times a day, a lot…Does anyone think about them all the time? Probably not even their moms think about them all the time. Maybe only they themselves are thinking about themselves that much! But our Golden Text and Responsive Reading (and quite a few citations in this lesson) bring up the idea that Mind/God actually is “mindful” of us, each of us. Spend some time trying to think of what that means.
Is God a “Being” in the sense of a person that is extending thought to truly “think” about every single idea in a personal way all the time? That’s a lot of people!!! I think that Mind embraces all reflections of Life, so not just people even.
How is it possible to be “mindful” of more than tens of billions of beings?
Humanly, with our understanding of limited thought, love, form, it is utterly impossible. But divine Being is consciousness itself that is the very source of all intelligence, existence, creativity. All of us other “beings” are not independent of divine Being.
We reflect it. So, like that reflection in the mirror we cannot do anything that isn’t already expressed by Mind. And so, in that way, Mind knows us intimately because we are how Mind is expressed, thought, lived.
This might be a bit “big” for the littlest but we can express this idea in simpler form by using mirrors and talking about how the reflection in a mirror always reflects what is in front of the mirror. A reflection cannot live separately from its source. A reflection gets everything from what is in front of the mirror.
You can make the children laugh by describing a situation where they walk away from a mirror, but their reflection stays behind to have an ice cream cone (or something). The point here is to help describe Mind’s knowledge of them, of Mind’s care and understanding of them because Mind made them!
No ‘person’ will ever consistently fill this deep desire to be known and understood, only infinite Mind/God can do this.
PYCL #3: SING OR RECITE PART OF PSALM 139 WHILE STANDING ON ONE LEG… FEEL A CERTAINTY OF BEING LOVED!
This is a variation on the second Pycl, but memorizing and understanding deeply even just part of the 139th Psalm which is citation B2/1-3,7-11,14,17,18. Even if we work on just memorizing a few verses together while in Sunday School. You can do this in creative ways, writing one verse on a card and having them do something silly like stand on one leg while they memorize that one verse.
Alternatively, the lovely hymn that includes some of these verses in our new hymnal might be an aid to memorization. (Hymn 599). I have found that even knowing a few verses of this inspiring and comforting Psalm has been helpful. Have some fun thinking together about how it might actually feel pretty great if we were separated from all human help to feel a certainty that we are known and cared for.
Do they think that this Psalm can be used literally?
Or, is it just meant for times when we feel sad and lonely or separate from society?
PYCL #4: READ AND DISCUSS THE STORY OF SAMUEL. [ON PURPOSE, BRING A FLOWER TO CLASS.]
What does it mean to “…let none of his words fall to the ground”? (cit. B6/1st Sam. 3:1(to1st.), 3-6,8-10,19)
Can we hear Mind speaking to us? How does Mind speak to us? What is our purpose?
Do we hear God’s direction better when we know our purpose and are willing to be obedient to that purpose?
Does this purpose have to be a “big thing”, or can it be our purpose, for example, to serve and bless others?
Citation S9/506:18 uses the word purpose to speak of how Mind intelligently & lovingly opens to us our purpose like petals of a flower. This isn’t a forced thing, but a beautiful and gentle thing! (You might even bring a flower to class.)
It is helpful to discuss how we hear God—through spiritual sense. This section includes one definition of spiritual sense in citation S10/209:31-32.
What does it take to “understand God”?
What does it mean to have a “constant capacity” for this understanding?
Does it mean we have to have a lot of understanding?
And citation S7/214:14 tells us how spiritual sense “conveys” impressions of Mind to man. Think about what that means. When we have these right impressions from Mind we find peace. This is a recurring theme, that peace is the result of being able to see what Mind’s creation is doing. We are not making things peaceful, we are listening and obeying and seeing Mind’s government in action.
You may want to share some of the things that Samuel did throughout his life as one of Israel’s great prophet leaders.
His whole life was about listening to God and sharing what he heard with others.
PYCL #5: BRING A TAPE MEASURE.
Read citation B16 (Matt. 6:25-28 Take, 29 even, 31-33) together from Jesus’ Sermon on the Mount. This is speaking of a kind of “taking thought” that means worry or anxiousness.
Do we sometimes worry about things that we really can’t or don’t need to change?
We might not even notice that we are doing this (especially as a little kid).
Notice the verse that asks if we can “add one cubit” to our height if we worry or think about these things?
Read this from a modern translation so it doesn’t use words like “cubit”.
Get out your tape measure out and have each child get measured against your wall. Then have them pretend to worry about something like when will they get to go to somewhere that they want, when will they be able to attend something they want, etc. After they have decided what they tend to think about too much, have them try getting measured again.
Did they grow taller through that thinking and worrying?
Have a good laugh and then talk about what they can do instead of worry.
Why is this passage included in this week’s lesson on Mind?
What are they encouraging us to do with this passage this week?
If we are tuned into the one and only Mind with our spiritual sense, there is nothing at all to worry about!
Have a great time in Sunday School this week!!
