OPTION 1: GIVE ONE, PICK ONE
If the teens in your Youth Sabbath School were to pass on any words of wisdom to a younger person about to start their teen years, what would they say? Start by putting a few one-liners on a screen or board in your Sabbath School room, then ask the participants to add their own. Give them a few minutes to think about it. After each person has added a phrase of their own to the list, allow them to modify it if they want or even add a second one. Let them know that halfway through Sabbath School, you’ll take a vote on which of these phrases sounds the wisest. (Make sure not to forget about it!)
Here are a few sample phrases to help get them started:
- Stay out of trouble.
- Have fun!
- Find out what you really believe on your own—don’t just believe everything you’ve heard from other people.
- Make friends with the kind of people you want to be like.
- Try something new.
- Hakuna matata!
- When you fail at something, don’t fall apart; learn and go forward.
OPTION 2: I’VE NEVER…
Arrange some chairs in a circle and ask a volunteer to sit in the middle of them. If you have three or fewer participants in your class, have one person stand in front of the others in a half-circle. If you have 10+ people, divide them into more than one group/circle.
The person standing in the middle of the circle or in front of the others makes a statement starting with “I’ve never…” and then completes the sentence by filling in something they’ve never done before. Anyone else in the group who also hasn’t done it either must stand up and find different a place to sit than where they were sitting before. Whoever is left standing by the time everyone is done scrambling for a new chair goes and stands in the center of the circle or up front, and makes another statement starting with “I’ve never…” and the game begins again.
Here are some examples of statements your participants could use:
- I’ve never been more than six feet tall.
- I’ve never eaten Ethiopian food.
- I’ve never been to the country of Israel.
- I’ve never been a millionaire.
- I’ve never played in an orchestra.
- I’ve never organized a community service project.
- I’ve never taught Youth Sabbath School.
- I’ve never had a sibling.
- I’ve never preached a sermon.
You can come up with many more if you want!
TRANSITION
As we consider our lesson for today, keep in mind that it might be difficult for you to identify with Moses since none of us here is 120 years old! We’ve probably all had the opportunity to hear some words of wisdom from someone older than us, however. It’s not always easy to listen to wisdom when we hear it—the Israelites certainly struggled with it in Moses’ time. But perhaps we can be different today and learn from the wisdom and instructions God gave them through Moses prior to his death on the edge of the Promised Land.
