Lesson Overview:
Steve and I decided this week to focus on “fear” with our youth group. Well!! There are so many amazing ways to teach your youth about fear and to get them to open up! Here’s a quick overview of our lesson plan:
- 45 minutes – Start with 4 “fear” games
- 15 minutes – Go into a discussion time by sharing Psalm 34 and asking 4 probing questions about fear
- 5 minutes – Wrap up with prayer
- 5 minutes – End with a funny video about overcoming fear
I’ve also prepared a free PDF download of this lesson, so you can print it off! Just click here to download:
Warm-up Games:
We ended up playing 4 games with them in the beginning. We had 12 youth in attendance, so we split them up into 3 teams of 4 people each, and I kept points throughout all the games to see who the winning team was.
Game 1: The Box of Fear!
Preparation:
- Cut one side of a box out, so that all your youth can see what’s in the box
- On the opposite side of the box, cut a hole into the cardboard, big enough for a hand to fit through.
- Tape a plastic bag over the “hand-hole”, and make a horizontal and vertical slit in the plastic so that you can stick your hand through, but can’t see what’s inside the box.
How to play:
- Send one person from each team out of the room. Place something disgusting inside the box so that the rest of the youth can see what it is.
- Call the three players back into the room. Tell them they have to stick their hands through the hole and feel whatever is inside. They should think to themselves what it is, but don’t say what they think it is until all three players have had a chance to feel.
- Once all three have felt the insides of the box, ask each of them what they think it is.
- I gave points according to who got closest (for example, 1 full point if they got it right, 1/2 point if they got close) – I’m pretty lenient on points 🙂
- Then we revealed what they’d been touching and I had them go wash their hands. I also made them use hand sanitizer after they washed!
- We played three rounds of this game, each time sending a different 3 “feelers” out of the room.
What to make them feel in the box:
- First, I used rotting compost from my kitchen…that was disgusting!! The viewers loved it!
- Second, I made a quick “slime” by mixing water, flour, and green food colouring – that was super hard for the feelers to guess.
- Third, a teddy bear. This was the funniest by far! They could barely keep their hands on it for a split second, before they were jumping back. Because they’d already watched the other things that we’d placed in the box, they thought they were touching a dead animal, and it seriously freaked them out!
Other options I had thought to use:
- Olives in olive oil (slimy!)
- A plant
- A box of live crickets (from the pet store)
- A live guinea pig (harmless, but would have been shocking to have it move when the kids stuck their hands in!)
Game 2: Egg Head!
Preparation:
- Hard boil up to 10 eggs
How to play:
- Depending on how many eggs, teams and players you have, have teams send up either 1 or multiple players to play this game.
- Show them the bowl of eggs. Tell them they’re all hard boiled except for 1 raw egg.
- Say on the count of 3 that they have to crack the egg on their forehead.
- Watch to see who hesitates – the youth that don’t hesitate get a full point for their team! Whoever hesitates – no points!
- The catch to this game is that all the eggs are cooked, so no one will get raw egg on their face. But it’s all about overcoming their fear! So we’re just basing points on cracking that egg on your face fearlessly!
Game 3: Blind Taste Test!
Preparation:
- Take some different canned foods or baby food purees. Put a spoonful into small cups. Put a plastic spoon in each cup for “feeding” the taste testers later on.
How to play:
- Have each team nominate someone from their team to be a taster
- Get the tasters to blindfold themselves and sit down at a table.
- Then have someone from each team be the “feeder” and sit down across the table from their teammate.
- Put the first cup of food in front of the feeders, with a plastic spoon, and have them feed a bit of the food to the taster.
- Once everyone’s tasted, have them guess what they just ate. Allocate points based on how close they were!
What to make them taste:
- First, I used a bit of tuna in each cup.
- Second, I gave them a spoonful of baked beans.
- Third, a bit of cranberry sauce.
Some other ideas:
- Baby food purees (this would be even better, because then they can’t use “texture” to help them figure out what they’re eating)
- Sardines!
Game 4: Icy feet!
Preparation:
- Have one bucket per team, half-filled with water
- Just before the game starts, empty two bags of ice into each bucket of water
- Place an equal amount of coins in each bucket (at least 20 per bucket)
- Have at least 1 towel per bucket, spread out beside each bucket.
- Place a small plastic bowl beside each bucket to collect coins.
How to play:
- Get a volunteer from each team. They’ll see the buckets of ice, but they won’t know what they have to do. Tell them you need volunteers that are mentally strong and can endure pain!
- Set a timer for 2 minutes.
- Tell them they need to stand with both feet in the bucket. As long as they are standing in the bucket, they can reach down with one hand and pull one coin at a time out of the bottom of the bucket, and place the coins into their assigned bowl.
- If their feet get cold, they can step out of the bucket temporarily onto the towel. However, they can’t reach into the bucket to collect coins when they’re standing on the towel, so it will slow them down!
- See how many coins they can collect in 2 minutes.
- This game is hilarious – we had four youth attempt this game – two of them only got 7 coins out in 2 minutes, one got 10 coins out, and one brave soul got 14 coins out!
Scripture:
After the games were done, we got our chairs into a circle and read Psalm 34 together.
Psalm 34 – A psalm of David, regarding the time he pretended to be insane in front of Abimelech, who sent him away.
1 I will praise the Lord at all times.
I will constantly speak his praises.
2 I will boast only in the Lord;
let all who are helpless take heart.
3 Come, let us tell of the Lord’s greatness;
let us exalt his name together.
4 I prayed to the Lord, and he answered me.
He freed me from all my fears.
5 Those who look to him for help will be radiant with joy;
no shadow of shame will darken their faces.
6 In my desperation I prayed, and the Lord listened;
he saved me from all my troubles.
7 For the angel of the Lord is a guard;
he surrounds and defends all who fear him.
8 Taste and see that the Lord is good.
Oh, the joys of those who take refuge in him!
9 Fear the Lord, you his godly people,
for those who fear him will have all they need.
10 Even strong young lions sometimes go hungry,
but those who trust in the Lord will lack no good thing.
11 Come, my children, and listen to me,
and I will teach you to fear the Lord.
12 Does anyone want to live a life
that is long and prosperous?
13 Then keep your tongue from speaking evil
and your lips from telling lies!
14 Turn away from evil and do good.
Search for peace, and work to maintain it.
15 The eyes of the Lord watch over those who do right;
his ears are open to their cries for help.
16 But the Lord turns his face against those who do evil;
he will erase their memory from the earth.
17 The Lord hears his people when they call to him for help.
He rescues them from all their troubles.
18 The Lord is close to the brokenhearted;
he rescues those whose spirits are crushed.
19 The righteous person faces many troubles,
but the Lord comes to the rescue each time.
20 For the Lord protects the bones of the righteous;
not one of them is broken!
21 Calamity will surely destroy the wicked,
and those who hate the righteous will be punished.
22 But the Lord will redeem those who serve him.
No one who takes refuge in him will be condemned.
Discussion Questions:
We explained that, today, we are focusing on fear, and discussing that.
So first question: What is fear?
Some possible thoughts that our youth group discussed:
- Fear is thinking that possibly you won’t get what you want
- Or it is thinking you will get something you don’t want
- Fear could be knowing something bad is going to happen and not liking it
- Fear is like in the game where you don’t know what you’re touching, but your mind makes it up
Psalm 34 offers some clues:
- the feeling of fear makes us feel desperate (verse 6)
- When we fear, we feel like we need help (verses 5, 17)
- It could make us feel brokenhearted or like our spirits are crushed (verse 18)
What do you fear?
Some thoughts we discussed with our group:
- Things going on at school (exams, marks)
- Things/situations going on at home (family struggles, relationships)
- Being short
- Not knowing if the future would work out, especially in the case of refugee or immigrant families whose permission to be in a country is in jeopardy sometimes.
- Security – wanting a good job, a nice home, enough money – and not knowing if it was possible
Psalm 34 offers some clues:
- Look at the intro to this Psalm – this whole Psalm was written by David at a time when he was so scared, that he pretended to act insane!! Even great people in the Bible had crazy fears that made them do crazy things!
Is fear good or bad? Is it a sin? What should we fear?
Some thoughts from our class:
- Fear is like a fire. It could burn your house down. Or it could cook a good steak. It isn’t good or bad in and of itself, but depending on how it’s used, it could be either
- Fear could be good if it stops you from doing things like jumping out of a window, or stealing something (fear of getting caught)
- But fear could also be bad if it stops you from doing something you should do, or something that God wants or calls you to do
Psalm 34 offers some clues:
- It says we should fear the Lord (verse 9)
- And then David goes on to explain what “fearing” the Lord actually means, and how we can do it
- We need to trust him (verse 10)
- Our speech: Don’t speak evil or tell lies (verse 13)
- Our actions: Do good, seek peace, and work to maintain peace (verse 14)
- And then verse 15 is a promise: God watches over those whose actions are right, and he listens to their voices!
- Also, the Psalm says that when we fear the Lord, he can free us from all our other fears! (verse 4)
Prayer:
It’s really nice to be able to pray for fears, especially if some of your youth shared some of their fears with the group during the discussion.
Wrap-up & Main Takeaway:
Just before you end the group, show them this video (Killer Karaoke) – where the contestants have to keep singing, no matter what fears they face!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IVXeLqNqc-A
The main takeaway after watching the video that we shared with our class was this: In the video, the contestant just had to keep singing no matter what happened to her. Isn’t this a great reminder that no matter what we face in life, Psalm 34:1 says:
I will praise the Lord at all times.
I will constantly speak his praises.
So no matter what happens, no matter what you fear, just keep praising and worshiping and praying to the Lord! He will “rescue you from all your trouble”! (verse 17)