Youth Curriculum, 9-17-23
Announcements:
Youth & Family is beginning a Back To School Spiritual Tool add-on series to our in-class lessons for the month of September. Parents will receive a tool to work on with their child each week to ensure a great start to their school year and have an opportunity to share their successes in our next Parent Circle.
Curriculum Overview
Youth are invited to look beyond the roles we play or the ways we show up in life and see ourselves and others as colorful expressions of Love.
2023 Theme: Living Out Loud!
September Monthly Theme: Love Out Loud
Week 3 Value: Love Thy Neighbor
Affirmation: I see every being as a divine expression of Love!
Spiritual Lesson: Love Thy Neighbor
We might be a brother or a sister, a friend, a student, or a teacher. We might be called musicians, artists, writers, or actors. These are just labels for how we show up in life, yet we are SO much more than these words or actions.
How often do we acknowledge someone for who they are and not what they do? While it’s fun to pretend or dress up occasionally and recognize others when they do the same – it’s also important to look beyond the costume and see them with the eyes of LOVE to the heart of who they are. Beyond the labels, the rolls, and the masks, we are all people living our lives to the best of our ability. Expressions of Love and Life here to be the best us we can be.
Active Listening: Book/Music/Video
Meditation: Five Minutes of Self Love guided meditation
Book: Wangari’s Trees of Peace by Jeanette Winter (7+)
Book: I am Peace – A Book of Mindfulness by Susal Yirde (3+)
Music: “I Love Myself So Much!” from CSL Teen Camps
Creative Expression – Back To School Spiritual Tool #3 – Seeing with the Eyes of Love
Today and beyond – your invitation is to look with the eyes of Love. Open your heart with compassion for those around you who may be less fortunate and share your good. Or, if you are on the receiving end of some measure of goodness, receive with a heart wide open and a genuine smile.
Youth came up with an idea to do a community outreach project and write in each other’s “stroke book,” complementing our friends on a God-quality they noticed in class.
Connecting/Spiritual Practice: God’s Eyes
Youth discover the amazing different ways we each see the world. We take turns rummaging through a mystery box filled with different items. By touch only, we decide on an item, make up a fun story about the item, and then reveal the object. We listen and watch with wonder at the creative energy we each have.