Leader Guide
Game
- Aim for God’s Will Pattern
- Six medium-size round containers—such as waste baskets or beach buckets.
- Construction paper in two different colors—3 sheets of one color per child, or per team
- Two boxes to hold the paper “balls”
- Masking or painter’s tape
Arrange the containers as shown in the diagram, with the one in the center representing God’s Will and the others representing My Will.
Crumple each sheet of construction paper into a ball; then place one color of balls in one box and the other color in the other box.
Mark or tape two lines and set up the game per the illustration.
That was an amazing Bible story, wasn’t it! Jesus died on the cross for us and then rose again from the dead to give us new life! Remember when Jesus was praying in the Garden of Gethsemane? Why was He in such agony?
He had a big decision to make. He could choose to keep on living His life, or He could choose to obey God and die on the cross to pay the punishment for our sins. What did He choose to do? He chose to do God’s will.
God the Father didn’t force Jesus to die on the cross—Jesus willingly decided to obey God and give up His life for us.
Does God force us to obey Him? No.
Sometimes we choose to do what we want instead of what God would want us to do. God created us and loves us, and He knows our future—so His will is best for our lives. Let’s play a game where we aim for God’s will—represented by the container in the middle. It’s not easy, though. Are you ready?
Divide the children into two teams. Give each team its own color of paper balls to throw. The teams stand single-file behind the line, facing the group of containers. Teams play at the same time. The first player of each team tosses three balls, aiming for the container in the center representing “God’s Will,” rather than the surrounding containers, representing “My Will.” Each time a ball goes into the “God’s Will” container, two points are scored. For every ball that goes into a “My Will” container, a point is subtracted. Balls that don’t go into a container score zero points. Play until each player has thrown three balls. Total all the points by counting up the balls of each color in the containers; the team with the most points wins. Play more rounds if time allows.
That was hard, wasn’t it? What did it take to hit the mark? Pay close attention and focus.
In real life, we all miss the mark, no matter how hard we try.
Read Romans 3:23:
For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.
The only person who always hit the mark and obeyed God’s will every time was Jesus. He chose God’s will even when it meant dying on the cross—and because of that, we have forgiveness when we miss the mark!
