Scripture: I Kings 19:19-21, 2 Kings 1:1-2:18
Learning Objectives:
- Students will learn sometimes God may ask us to leave everything we have and follow Him.
- Students will learn it is important to learn from older, wiser godly people.
- Students will learn eventually we have to become a teacher/mentor for others, pointing them to God.
- Students will learn how to compare advice to the scriptures.
Guiding Question: How can students learn to recognize godly advice?
Materials: None needed
Procedure: Review the story of Elijah and Elisha with the students. Emphasize the importance of learning from older and wiser godly Christians as they will often have advice about situations you may be currently dealing with. They will also be eager to point you to God in every situation. Explain that it is important to learn from people who are wiser and more experienced than us. Often these people are also older than us. We still need to compare everything they say to the Bible to make sure they are giving godly advice. If their advice is godly, we should strongly consider following it.
Have a number of adults of different ages visit your class. They should be prepared to offer students a bit of advice, the scripture they think supports it and a short true story that explains its importance. (2-3 minutes total) Have students interview the various adults. Adults should not give their scripture away immediately. The adults can help students learn how to check the advice they gave by scripture by sharing what tools they used to find the verse that goes with their advice. Challenge students to use tools to find other verses and see if they do apply. For advanced students, you might want to have someone slip in a piece of bad advice and see if students can pick it out from the rest. (Please note that any volunteer working with children – even on a temporary basis should be screened and safety procedures followed.)
Additional Questions: How can students create godly advice to give to others?
Supplemental Activity: Have students create advice based on scriptures for various situations that they could give others to support them and encourage them in God’s work.