Youth Curriculum, 12-14-25
Announcements:
This December, we invite your family to celebrate the season of Light with us! On December 21, our Finding the Light in the Darkness Solstice Sunday service will include a beautiful Winter Solstice Spiral Walk led by Dances of Universal Peace, beginning in darkness and moving into the light. We’ll also enjoy a Winter Solstice Sound Bath & Celebration with Soluna Soundworks. Then on December 28, we continue the season with Birthing the New Light, a Christmas-themed service from a New Thought perspective. Youth and teens will be invited to share holiday music and receive gifts from the spirit of Santa after service on the final Sunday. We look forward to celebrating this magical season together!
Curriculum:
December Theme: Celebrating the Light and the Dark
Week 2 Value: Living in the Dark – December 14, 2025
Affirmation: “I celebrate my own creative darkness.”
Curriculum Overview
This week, youth explore the often-misunderstood gift of darkness — not as something scary or empty, but as a sacred space of imagination, incubation, and inner listening. Just as seeds rest quietly in the soil before sprouting, the darkness in our lives can hold ideas, dreams, and wisdom waiting to emerge.
Youth discover that darkness is part of the Creative Process: the quiet moment before the insight, the stillness before the movement, the mystery that allows growth to take root. As we honor traditions and cultures that view darkness as sacred, young people begin to understand how creativity and transformation often start in places we cannot yet see.
Spiritual Lesson
Many spiritual traditions recognize darkness as a place of renewal and creation. In Science of Mind, darkness symbolizes the womb of Divine Potential — the hidden realm where new ideas and possibilities form before they become visible.
This week invites youth to rethink their relationship with darkness. Instead of seeing it as the opposite of light, they learn to see it as its partner. Darkness offers quiet, depth, rest, and imagination. It is where we dream, reflect, and gather strength.
Youth are encouraged to notice the “dark” moments in their own lives — times of stillness, uncertainty, or quiet — and see how these moments often lead to new insights, courage, or creativity. Darkness becomes a place of inner wisdom, where the unseen begins to grow.
Spiritual Practice: Listening in the Dark
In a gentle guided meditation, youth close their eyes and imagine they are sitting in a safe, warm cave filled with soft darkness. This darkness feels comforting — like a blanket or the night sky.
They breathe slowly and listen:
Inhale: “I listen deeply.”
Exhale: “I grow from within.”
As they sit in this imagined darkness, they notice thoughts, feelings, and inner whispers that may have been hidden by noise or busyness. They are reminded that true creativity often begins in quiet, unseen places.
Active Listening: Book/Music/Video
For Younger Children (Ages 4–7)
- Book: The Dark by Lemony Snicket
- Music: “Twilight” – Richfield
- Optional Story: A simple tale about seeds sleeping in the soil, preparing to grow.
For Older Children & Preteens (Ages 7–12)
- Book: The Night Tree by Eve Bunting
- Music: “Shadows” – Lindsey Stirling (instrumental)
For Teens (Ages 13–16)
- Reading: This Thing Called You – excerpt on the Creative Process and the unseen realm
- Music: “Light On” – Maggie Rogers
Creative Expression: Creative Darkness Art Session
In this week’s art experience, youth explore how beauty emerges from the dark by creating expressive, textured artwork using charcoal, metallic pastels, and deep-toned papers. They are invited to experiment with shadow, contrast, and shimmering highlights as a way of visualizing what is growing unseen within them. Some may choose to illustrate a seed beginning to open, a night sky forming new stars, or a symbol of an inner strength or dream that is quietly taking shape. Through the artistic process, youth discover that darkness can be a rich, creative space—one that nurtures possibility, depth, and imagination.
Connecting: Honoring What Grows Unseen
To close the lesson, youth gather in a circle and place their artwork at the center. One by one, they turn their pieces over and share, if they feel comfortable, something in their lives that is “growing in the dark”—a dream they are nurturing silently, a moment of quiet that brought them clarity, or a feeling or idea that is beginning to take form. This shared reflection helps them recognize that everyone carries hidden potential and creative mystery. By honoring what grows unseen, youth come to understand that darkness is not a place of fear but a sacred space where transformation begins.
December Call to Action
This month, youth and teens are invited to take quiet moments at home to reflect on:
• What darkness is nurturing something new within me?
• What light is beginning to dawn in my life?
• What am I ready to release this year?
• What am I rising into as I welcome the new year?