The Loaded Plate It's Your Move Work Zone and High Way Set Up: Before the meal set up the LCD projector, and then show the DV8 clips & slides to start the lesson. (12 min) Announcements: (Included in the DV8 slides) Crop Walk is next week, Oct 3 -Please work on donations! If you want, bring something for Karly's Bake Sale - proceeds go to Crop, Soda Shop & Breakfast Oct 10 After the DV8 portion The Loaded Plate Say: Have you ever been to a restaurant where you've seen the menu many times before? You can smell the deliciousness when you pull into the parking lot. You patiently wait for a table, while all around you the tasty offerings wiz by. Your biggest problem is there's so many temptations that it's hard to decide. You finally get a table and immediately a plate is delivered with chips, or bread, or salad. You've no sooner eaten a few bites when your meal arrives and instead of clearing your plate the waiter deposits you dinner right on top of what you were eating. It's your favorite and still looks and smells great. So, you dig in! A few bites later, the waiter is back with desert and deposits it right on top of everything else. How much better would this dinner have been if you'd had time to clear your plate? Tonight we are going to talk about prayer and how it's like taking time to clear your plate. Prayer is a conversation with God. At the very least, it's a time to get your thoughts straight and decide what really matters in your life. Imagine trying to have a meaningful conversation when others are talking to you, you're taking a test while texting three people, singing in the choir, listening to the teacher give you the assignments for the next week and explaining to your parents why you haven't been able to keep your grades up at school. Just as you need to communicate effectively to be a good student, our walk with God is only as strong as the communication between you and Him. Prayer is God's desired way for us to obtain the things God has in store for us. James 4:2 says, "You do not have because you do not ask." Do you ever wonder why you never seem to know the will of God for your life or why you always seem to be just missing the mark? Maybe you haven't seen answers because you haven't cleared your plate and asked God. It might help to look at prayer as the spiritual maintenance we all must perform on our lives.   Moving In  Work Zone & High Way  Time Enough Needed: Tongue twisters sheets Have the youth form groups of six or seven.  Say: Have a seat at one of the tables. Each group will spend some time reciting the tongue twisters we will give you. Pick a leader at your table. The leader starts the game by saying "one brown bear". Then one at a time everyone else around the table must repeat the same thing. The leader then adds to the list "one brown bear, a couple a ducks". Everyone else must repeat the list. This continues until someone messes up. Then the leader starts over at the beginning. Your goal is to get through all of the tongue twisters with your whole group once.  - One brown bear. - A couple a ducks. - Three fat hens. - Four fast hares. - Five fancy fillies frolicking free - Six Sicilian sailors solemnly sailing the seven seas. - Seven boxes of biscuits, a box of biscuit mix, a biscuit mixer  - Eight egotistical egomaniacs eagerly eating Eggos. - Ninety-nine Netherland ninnies nightly knitting nighties - Tom threw Tim ten thumbtacks Begin the activity. After a few minutes, call "time."    Break into Journey Groups   Quality Time Needed: Half sheets of paper and pens ASK: - Why weren't you able to complete the activity? - How did you feel as you tried to complete the activity before time was called? Explain. - How did you feel when time ran out? Explain - In order for your group to complete all of the tongue twisters what kind of commitment would you have to make? - How is this activity like trying to form a relationship with God? Say: I know we talked about prayer a few months ago and this lesson will use some of the same activities. But, it's important to go over some things again and again. It refreshes the thoughts you formed last time we did a study on prayer. Now, please form pairs. When I say "go" you'll each have one minute to share as much as you can with your partner about what you did last summer. After each group member has had a chance to share, distribute paper and pens to each person. Say: Silently write down what you remember about your partner's summer. Then give them all a few more minutes to ask questions or confirm the information on their paper.   ASK: - How much did you learn about each other in the first minute? - Did you learn anything new in the second minute? Why or why not? - What might you learn about each other if you had five minutes a day to spend talking together?   Moving Up Work Zone & High Way  Work Zone breaks into boy/girl groups Clear the Plate  Say: Contemplation has been part of spiritual discipline for years, but good luck convincing a teenager to shut down the incoming channels to stop, clear the plate, and find God's voice in the quiet of a spare moment. But consider: Quiet times don't have to be just one more thing to do. They come in all shapes and sizes. Teenagers who don't have two minutes for a prayer still find time to take a shower. Why not pray while showering. As you lie in bed waiting for sleep to come why not take a few moments to change your worries into prayer. As you drive or ride to school think about what the day holds for you and offer that as a prayer. These are all pockets of time that can be redeemed by praying and by listening. By praying at everyday moments we all can invite God into our daily lives. God speaks, to those who listen and if your "plate" is clear it will be much easier to understand His response.   ASK: - What were some of the quiet times just mentioned? - Would these quiet times fit in your life? Why or why not? - What three words would you use to describe your prayer life? Why did you choose those words? - What do these words say about the importance of prayer in your life? - How much time do you think Christians should spend in prayer each day? - What are the positives and negatives of spending a long or short time in prayer?   Moving On Work Zone & High Way  God Get Me Out of This One and&ldots; Say: Sally knew she shouldn't have snuck out of the house with Jimmy-he had always been trouble. She had lied and told her parents she would be spending the night with her friend Jane. Just after they arrived at another friend's house the cops came and were contacting minor's parents. Now she was panicked-"God, if you get me out of this one, I promise never sneak out again."   ASK: - Is it fair of Sally to ask God for help? - How do you think God could answer her prayer? (God answers all prayers that fit His plan. He could give her strength to face the consequences...) - How would you react, if you were God? (Prayer isn't designed to be insurance and for God to get you out of a tough spot.)   Moving Out Work Zone & High Way Quiet-Time Answers Needed: a box of tissues, a bag of treats, masking tape Stand in front of each person and have him or her say "Hear my prayer." Give youth each a tissue or a treat depending on weather they're wearing a necklace or not. After going around the circle ASK: - How did you feel when you received a tissue? A treat? - Who knows how I decided to give you a tissue or a treat? - How is this experience like or unlike getting answers to your prayers to God? - What do you think a tissue answered pray means? Treat answered? Say: Let's say you clear your plate at least once a day to embrace the spiritual discipline of a time of prayer. You take something before God and ask for guidance or a solution. And then you end up wondering whether we'll get a tissue or a treat. How important is it to have a clear plate. Will you have room for God to give you His answer without it getting mixed up with everything else? Let's talk more about how God answers the prayers we offer during our quiet times. Form pairs. Give each pair a two-foot strip of masking tape. Tell pairs to use their masking tape to make a mask on one partner. The mask should express how they feel while waiting for an answer to their prayers. Have them carefully and kindly apply the tape directly to the partner's face. After two minutes, have partners who designed the masks describe the masks to the large group.   ASK: - How do you feel when you're waiting for an answer to your prayer? - Do you think God always answers your prayers? Why or why not? (God answers all prayers that reflect His will. If your prayer is not in line you may need a different perspective.) - What happens when we bring a request to God? (You've gathered your thoughts and aligned them with His will.)    Moving Out (Time Filler) Work Zone & High Way  Games Work Zone: Egg Chicken Dinosaur The goal of this game is to work your way up by beating other players at Rock-Scissors-Paper to the "position" of king or queen. Everyone starts out as an egg. You find another egg and play Rock-Scissors-Paper. The winner "grows" into a chicken who finds another chicken to play against. Whoever wins "grows" into a dinosaur. The loser returns to being an egg. Once a dinosaur you must find another dinosaur to play against. If you lose you step down to a chicken. The next step is becoming a prince or princess, which of course means playing against another prince or princess. If you win you become a King or Queen and stand off to the side. If you lose, you return to a dinosaur. The game is played until there is one egg, chicken, dinosaur and prince or princess. All other players will be kings or queens. The fun in all this?: Eggs waddle on the ground in a little ball, chickens walk bent over while flapping their wings, dinosaurs standing up with both claws raised high above their heads. Princes/princesses "prance" around holding an imaginary scepter while kings and queens stand off to the side victoriously.   High Way: Phone Tag Needed: Cell phones, num-nums "It" texts three people in the room with one message that says "Go" and two more that say "No". When "It" finishes texting all three, he or she says "Go". The person with the "Go" text tries to get the num-nums in the center of the group before receiving another text form anyone in the group or otherwise. The person present in the room who sent the "tag" text gets the num-nums if the tag text beats the player.  For fun the "No" players can fake an attempted grab. This should take a bit of paying attention&ldots;   Return to the gym for the closing   Closing Work Zone & High Way Gather in a closing circle. Print "Clear Your Plate" Cards Matthew 6:9-19 1 Timothy 2:1-4 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Psalm 46:10 Matthew 6:31-33 Say: When people are busy, sometimes we say they have a lot on their plate. And most of us are plenty busy-our plates are full. Everyone's plate is the same size. That is, we all get twenty-four hours in a day; how full our plates are is up to us. We decide what's important enough to earn a spot on the plate. For many of us, making time to get to know God better seldom gets onto the plate. We don't get around to it. It's simply not important enough to us. This week I'd like you to see your plate in a different way. Begin by making some time to clear your plate, load it up with prayer and then add everything else.   Close in Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, help us to make time for You just as we make time for other parts of our lives. We know that sometimes we don't see clearly and fail to see Your word. Help us to let others see You clearly in us. In Jesus name we pray, Amen   Say the UMYF Benediction and turn out into the world.  Gather for this lesson: DV8 stuff, Scripture cards, tongue twister sheets, half sheets of paper, pens, 2 boxes of tissues, a bag of treats, masking tape, num-nums, Electronic Device Covenants