Option 1: Popular Influences
Supplies:
• Poster board or large sheets of paper
• Red and green sticky notes
• Multicolored pens or markers
Place large poster boards or sheets of paper around your room. Label each with one of the following headings:
- Social media
- TV, movies, and videos
- Music
- Books
- Podcasts
Provide the students with multicolored markers or pens and invite them to visit each sign. Instruct them to write comments on each sign. The goal is to describe, define, and illustrate each of these types of popular culture. (For example, on “movies” they might write titles, genres, and their thoughts on certain movies; on “social media” they might write Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, pictures, insults, political views, etc.) They may also wish to estimate how many hours per week they spend on each item listed.
After your students have contributed to each poster, provide red and green sticky notes and ask them to add additional comments on the pros (green) and cons (red), attaching the sticky notes to the appropriate sheets.
QUESTIONS
- How much influence do these types of media have on our lives?
- Are the influences predominantly positive or negative? What are the pros and cons?
- How do you choose which kinds of media to spend your time on?
- While Solomon was a very wise man, he didn’t always make the best choices when it came to the influences he allowed in his life. How is that similar to our lives today?
Option 2: Balancing Act
Supplies:
- Masking tape
- Marker
- Two empty buckets
- Weighted objects to place in the buckets, such as rocks, sand, or water
- Scale
Place objects weighing a total of 5 pounds into one bucket and label it “God Time.” Place objects weighing a total of 15 pounds into another bucket and label it “Leisure Time.” Make a 10-15’ masking tape line on the floor. Then ask the kids to walk a straight line, toe to heel, arms outstretched, holding one bucket with the left hand and one with the right.
Variation: Let the students adjust the weight in the buckets to represent their own time spent with God in devotions or nature vs. their free time spent on other activities.
QUESTIONS
- How did it feel to walk with a different amount of weight on each arm?
- How easy or difficult was it to walk in a straight line?
- How is this activity similar to the balancing act that is real life?
- What are your favorite ways to spend time with God?
TRANSITION
These days our phones and computers track our screen time. Some of your screen time may overlap with your time with God. You may read the Bible and your Sabbath School lesson online, or follow your youth group on social media.
What happens when you compare the amount of time you spend learning about and talking with God compared to free time spent in other ways? We are influenced by the ways we choose to spend our time and attention. We are also influenced by the people in our lives. Even wise King Solomon was not immune to these facts.
Let’s open our Bibles to 1 Kings 11:1-13 and see what distractions led King Solomon far away from God’s plan.
OPTIONAL OPENING ACTIVITY FOR THE BIBLE STUDY GUIDE
Read today’s passage: 1 Kings 11:1-13.
You might remember from English class that alliteration occurs when words begin with the same letter or sound. (Examples: Peter Pan, Brooklyn Bridge, monsters of mayhem, date with destiny.)
Here are some examples of two-word alliterations:
- Solomon was “Bathsheba’s baby” (2 Samuel 12:24)
- Solomon was also “David’s descendant.”
- Solomon was a “victim of vanity.”
And here are some examples of three-word alliterations:
- Solomon was the “Bible’s bewitched boomerang.”
- Solomon was “David’s discerning descendant.”
Based on our chapter for today, what alliterations can you think of?
