Taking It Home for Sunday, February 10, 2013

Spirit Play (4-5 year-olds): 

This week children worked with the story, "Drop of Honey,"an Indigo promise story – Insist on a peaceful, fair, and free world for all. In this story, a queen learns that it’s important to attend to even the small stuff with the intent to contribute to a peaceful, fair and free world. Her first reaction to spilling a drop of honey from her rice cake is that it was not her problem. Ultimately, it led to disaster in her kingdom. We want the kids to leave this week with a sense that the little things they can do to be kind and fair with one another are important!

Wondering Questions:

I wonder which part of this story is the most important?

I wonder which part you like the best?

I wonder where you are in this story?

I wonder if there is a part of the story that we could leave out and still have a story?

I wonder if you have ever tasted honey?

I wonder if you have ever not wanted to do anything like the queen?

I wonder where the Spirit of  Love and Mystery is in this story?

I wonder if this lesson reminds you of any of our other Unitarian Universalist Promises?

Grades K-2: Wonderful Welcome

Taking It Home, Session 4: The Gift Of Kindness

So many gods, so many creeds,

So many paths that wind and wind,

While just the art of being kind

Is all the sad world needs.

 

— Ella Wheeler Wilcox, American poet (1850-1919)

IN TODAY'S SESSION...

 

When children opened the Wonder Box today, they found a Golden Ruler. This symbolizes the Golden Rule, one of the most famous of Jesus' teachings: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." The children learned that versions of the Golden Rule exist in many different religions. According to Rev. Sophia Fahs' telling of the story, "The Very Short Rule," contemporaries of Jesus expressed frustration at having to remember so many rules. Many were poor and had to work very hard for a living. They did not have the time or education to remember all the rules in their faith. Jesus taught that even following all the biblical dictates would not necessarily make someone a good person, but following the Golden Rule contained the essence of a faithful life.

EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Talk about...

 

How the Golden Rule applies in your family.

EXTEND THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Try...

 

Put the Golden Ruler your child(ren) brought home on the refrigerator for everyone to see. See who can say "the very short rule" while standing on one foot.

A FAMILY RITUAL

Tell the family you will all keep alert for people being kind. When someone is caught being kind, they get a hug from the family member that "catches" them. For example, if someone cleans up the living room without being asked you can say, "Hey, I caught you being kind! You get a HUG!" Or, when someone sees an opportunity for kindness, they can grab the Golden Ruler and say, "Hey, let's treat others as we want to be treated." When siblings are bickering might be a good time to do this. They might even try it standing on one foot.

Grades 3-5: Windows and Mirrors

Taking It Home, Session 4: Building A Community Of Forgiveness

The practice of forgiveness is our most important contribution to the healing of the world.

 — Marianne Williamson

IN TODAY'S SESSION...

We affirmed the value of forgiving people who break the rules of a community. We explored the idea of expressing righteous anger when we have been hurt by someone, seeking that person's sincere apology, and then letting go of the anger by offering sincere forgiveness. The practices we used in this session can be used in daily life.

EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Talk about...

Ask your child what they found most meaningful about their religious education session today—having this conversation directly afterward tends to yield the most information. You might ask, "What do you think about forgiveness?" Ask them whether and how they have been hurt by someone whose apology they seek. Ask them what it would take for them to forgive that person. Ask them what practices they learned today that might help them. Share about a time you have sought forgiveness when you knew you had hurt or wronged someone. Share about at time you forgave someone else. Be honest about how forgiving and seeking forgiveness have been challenging or rewarding for you.

EXTEND THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Try...

Have each member of the family write a forgiveness letter to someone else. Invite everyone to prepare by writing their feelings of hurt or betrayal first, then writing an imaginary apology from the person who hurt them. These writings should stay private; it may be a good idea to rip them up.

Then, each person writes a sincere letter of forgiveness, or a letter that says they want to forgive the person (but are not yet ready). If there are young members of the family who haven't learned to write yet, ask them to talk about forgiving someone who hurt their feelings. Share the forgiveness letters with each other. Affirm that forgiveness is important for a healthy family.

FAMILY DISCOVERY

Find out online what a group called the Worldwide Forgiveness Alliance (www.forgivenessalliance.org/day.html) does to promote forgiveness, including a day in August for local celebrations of forgiveness and a web page of " forgiveness heroes (www.forgivenessalliance.org/heroes.html) ."

Middle School: Riddle and Mystery

Taking It Home, Session 4: Thinking of God

What we are is God's gift to us. What we become is our gift to God. — Eleanor Powell

Tell the truth, have you ever found God in a church? I never did. I just found a bunch of folks hoping for him to show. Any God I ever felt in church I brought in with me. And I think all the other folks did too. They come to church to share God, not find God. —Alice Walker, The Color Purple

Talk about the quotes. Does the first seem to work just as well if you substitute "Great Mystery" or another word or phrase for the word "God"? What do you think about the second quote? Why do you come to church?

WHAT WE DID TODAY

Today's Big Question is "Does God exist?" We talked a little about the national motto on American money — "In God we trust." We learned about some words connected with God ideas, and we heard the God ideas of some young UUs from Maine. We made a UU tent for WCUU, and talked about the different God beliefs we might find under such a tent. We ended up thinking about our own private "yes" or "no" answers to questions about God.

ANSWERING TODAY'S BIG QUESTION

What do family members and friends have to say about the question: "Does God exist?" Do members of your immediate family share the same ideas about God? How about your extended family? Different family members might define the word "God" differently or might use another word to describe something in the universe that is larger than us. Does your family include theists, who believe in God? Atheists, who say there is no God? Agnostics, who say they do not know? Do you pray as individuals or as a family? Do the different parts of your family talk with one another about God? Think about the family members whose ideas you think you know. Do any of them agree, or are they all different? Does that matter? What does matter about God beliefs? (Being comfortable with your own beliefs? Accepting that other people have different beliefs?)

SHARED SEARCH

Go together to a place where you or someone in your family experiences a sense of the holy or sacred, or very special place that makes you or they think about God, the eternal or the Spirit of Love. That might be your church. It might be a lake, or a mountain that fills you with awe, or maybe a place in your house where a family member prays or meditates.

TOUR YOUR TOWN

Drive or walk together around your community. Look at the different places of worship or religious buildings. Which say something about God on the outside? How do their messages make you feel? Do you want to go in? Stay away? Why?

PHOTO CHALLENGE

Photograph something in your house that makes you think of God. Maybe it is a book, like the Bible. Remember, thinking about God is not the same as believing that there is a God. Everybody has to think about God sometimes, because the idea of God is all around us.

FAMILY FAITH IN ACTION

Can your family think of a Faith in Action project that has something to do with God? Maybe it is as simple as telling a few other people that you are in a religion where people are free to have their own God beliefs. What else can you think of?