Youth Curriculum, 6-7-26

Announcements:

CSL Youth & Family is looking for a Family Event Organizer to help us explore fun community events to participate in or help create simple connection opportunities for our families and youth. This role is flexible and supportive—assistance with event setup, planning, materials, and/or day-of support is available, making it an easy and collaborative way to help our community grow and connect. Please reach out to our youth director, Adrienne.

June Theme: Higher Deeper Love: Expanding the Heart of Humanity
Week 1 Value: I Want to Know What Love Is
Affirmation: I celebrate all of me as the fullness of Love.

Curriculum Overview:

In Week 1, youth and teens begin exploring Love as more than an emotion—it is the spiritual essence that connects, heals, and transforms. Together, they examine how Love can be present in moments of joy, success, challenge, disappointment, and uncertainty. Through reflection, mindfulness, and creative expression, youth discover that Love is not something they must earn, but something that is already present within them.

Building on the understanding that every person is an expression of Divine Love, youth learn to embrace both the comfortable and uncomfortable parts of themselves with compassion. They begin developing the capacity to meet life with greater acceptance, self-awareness, and kindness.

Spiritual Lesson:

Love is the very nature of Spirit and the truth of who we are.

Youth explore the idea that Love is not limited to happy feelings or pleasant experiences. True Love includes self-compassion, acceptance, respect, trust, and care. They discuss how every emotion carries information and how meeting those emotions with kindness allows us to grow rather than judge ourselves.

Using Ernest Holmes’ teaching that “There is but one ultimate impulsion in the universe. This impulsion is love,” youth discover that Love is the creative force behind all life. As they learn to recognize Love in themselves, they become more capable of extending it to others and the world around them.

Spiritual Practice: Heart-Centered Breathing & Emotional Awareness

Youth participate in a guided heart-centered breathing meditation. With a hand placed gently over their heart, they practice slow breathing while noticing thoughts, feelings, and sensations without judgment.

They are invited to reflect on both a joyful experience and a challenging experience, observing how Love can remain present in each. This practice helps youth develop emotional awareness, self-compassion, and a deeper connection to their inner wisdom.

Active Listening: Book / Music / Video

Younger Children (Ages 4–7)

• Book: Listening with My Heart by Gabi Garcia
  Encourages self-love, kindness, and understanding emotions.
• Music: Love Is Something If You Give It Away (Children’s Version
  Introduces the idea that love grows when it is shared.
• Video: The Invisible String Read Aloud by Patrice Karst
  Explores connection, belonging, and unconditional love.

Children & Preteens (Ages 7–12)

• Book: The Boy, the Mole, the Fox and the Horse by Charlie Mackesy
  Explores courage, vulnerability, friendship, and self-acceptance.
• Music: Count on Me by Bruno Mars
  Celebrates support, connection, and caring relationships.
• Video: The Power of Yet by Carol Dweck
  Encourages self-compassion and growth through challenges.

Teens (Ages 13–16)

• Reading: Excerpts from All About Love: New Visions by bell hooks
  Explores love as a practice rooted in care, respect, trust, and responsibility.
• Music: Love Myself by Hailee Steinfeld
  Encourages self-acceptance and personal empowerment.
• Video: The Power of Vulnerability by Brené Brown
  Examines courage, authenticity, and wholehearted living.

Creative Expression: Love Shield

Youth create a personal “Love Shield” representing the parts of themselves they are learning to embrace.

The shield may include:

Personal strengths, values and qualities, dreams and aspirations, challenges they are learning from, symbols, colors, and affirmations that represent self-love

At the center, they write:

“I celebrate all of me as the fullness of Love.”

Connecting: Circle of Compassion

Youth gather in a circle and complete the sentence: “One thing I appreciate about myself is…”

Group Response: “You are worthy of Love exactly as you are.”