Click below to download the Cornerstone Connections leader’s guide and student lesson. This week’s resources also include two lesson plans and a discussion starter video which offer different ways of looking at the topic. Each lesson plan includes opening activities, scripture passages, discussion questions, and real-life applications.
An icebreaker or something to get people focused as you begin.
With a bag of 9-inch balloons, give each person in the group one balloon to inflate and tie off. On your signal, each person needs to tap the balloon higher than their heads. The object is to keep the balloon from touching the ground. See how long everyone can "keep it up," that is, their own balloon. If your group is small, it’s usually easier. The larger the group, the more difficult it will be.
You can add more of a challenge by giving everyone in the group two balloons. Keeping two up at the same time is understandably more difficult. Want to try giving each person three balloons?
Another way to make it more challenging is to have participants try to knock other people’s balloons to the floor. One other wrinkle you could add (with much noise) is to have people step on balloons that reach the floor in order to pop the balloons. In this case, having one’s balloon touch the floor doesn’t disqualify a person from continuing, but having one’s balloon pop does take that person out of the action.
Play a 5-minute countdown video to lead up to Sabbath School. When people arrive at Sabbath School, is anything happening? Is anyone else there? If nothing’s happening, many will turn around and walk out. Heaven forbid that a youth is the very first person to enter the room! On the Youth Sabbath School Ideas website you can download a 5-minute countdown video with the music for "It’s Your Love," a song written specifically for Youth Sabbath School. The lyrics begin at the 3:16 point of the countdown with background music from 5:00 to 3:16. Hearing the music and the lyrics can help participants get more familiar with a new song that you can add to the repertoire for your Youth Sabbath School. The lyrics are at the end of this PDF.
If you play a 5-minute countdown video, keep in mind these important factors as a leader:
TRANSITION: As we consider today’s lesson, "God Provides," anticipate that it’s easier to talk about this subject than live through it, especially when we’re the ones being tested. You’ve probably already been tested on this, and you can expect that you will be tested again. But Scripture can help us see how others have faced this in the past, both with success and with failure. We can discover how to apply this successfully to our own lives by looking to Scripture and by truly testing what we learn from it over time.
