TO LIVE BETTER

 

memory verse for this unit

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Mark 12:30-31a, NIV*).

objectives of this unit

This unit will help your students:• Learn to express their love for God by giving their whole life to him• Evaluate how they speak and make sure their words honor God and their neighbors• Understand that God wants us to use our day of rest to praise him• Learn the significance of honoring their parents• Learn to submit their thoughts to God and not to let violence guide them• Understand that God wants them to stay pure in his eyes• Know that stealing is a sin and that it carries lots of consequences• Understand that lying has many consequences• Understand that it is important to avoid envy.

the reason we teach this unit

Please allow adequate time as you prepare for each of your sessions. Nazarene Discipleship International (NDI) desires these children's discipleship lessons to both engage the teacher in personal discipleship as well as to be children's disciple makers. The pre-adolescent and early adolescent age is an age of discovery. They want to express their ideas. They are physically and mentally “mature” enough. They enjoy doing new activities. They enjoy discussions that require complete answers. They do not like “yes” and “no” answers anymore. They enjoy working as a team. They enjoy listening to stories, especially stories about Jesus. As a teacher, encourage them to daily discover their life in Christ. Challenge them to do God’s will. When considering the characteristics of the development stage of your students, we include some tips to improve the dynamics of your class. Inspire your students with the stories of heroes of the Bible. Take the opportunity to teach them to memorize the Word, songs, and inspiring stories. Ask for their participation in the search of biblical passages, preparation for the classes, telling the Bible stories, doing dramas, looking for maps, doing puzzles, writing on the board or making posters about the lesson. Encourage them to participate with questions and answers to their classmates. Encourage them to imitate the biblical characters. It is an excellent time for them to form good habits such as daily reading of the Bible, prayer, attending church, giving their tithes, talking to others about Jesus. Offer opportunities for students of this age to help others and to accept Jesus as their personal Savior. Do extracurricular activities, lessons are not only taught or learned in the meeting room. Always ask for the help of other adults.

Due to the changing values in many parts of the world, we may find ourselves living in a spiritually poor place. In addition, there are various ways to live your life that are taught, many of them are not of God and are dangerous. Your students may be bombarded with messages that show disobedience and anarchy as enticing things. It gets harder and harder to control students’ reactions to what they see. Frequently, we hear that the police have had to come and intervene at schools due to student riots and violent acts. We all need to know that God left firm instructions for his children to life a holy life. These lessons will help teach that God hopes that his children are good. This is why he gave us the Ten Commandments as a guide to attain this goal. The Ten Commandments clearly specify the rules of conduct that the chosen people of God should follow to live in harmony, peace and prosperity. Jesus said that he did not come to abolish the law, but to fulfill it. (Matthew 5:17) Also he told us to obey God because we love him not simply because we have to. When your students learn to love God with all their heart, and their neighbor as themselves, they are also following the Ten Commandments.

* Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com The “NIV” and “New International Version” are trademarks registered in the United States Patent and Trademark Office by Biblica, Inc.™