Telling the truth
| AIM |
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To explore the importance of telling the truth. To think about why people tell lies and why some tell the truth. |
| PREPARATION / RESOURCES |
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Try to think of an incident when you have told a lie that you are able and willing to share and explore with the children. The ideas below can be presented in one block, or broken into smaller sections and looked at in depth over a number of sessions / days.
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| PRESENTATION |
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Share with children an incident which involved you, or someone you know, telling a lie. Putting yourself in this position will make the idea less shocking or scary to address for the children - it will help them to see we are all capable of making bad choices! Encourage the children to think about why you might have told the lie, and in doing so to think of why people tell lies. If they are struggling, it might help if you give them some reasons and they then try to create a context from the following reasons: I don't want to let someone downMove on to thinking how the lie told could / did affect other people. Finish by thinking about whether there was a solution to what happened. Did you end up telling the truth? Were there any feelings of regret? Would you do the same thing again? Our life is a series of choices that we have to make. In an ideal world we would not find ourselves in a position where we want, or feel we need, to tell lies but sometimes it happens. If we are brave the best thing to do is tell the truth. If we can't face doing that we may have to face some hard consequences further down the line. The Bible tells us about the importance of honesty, for example in Proverbs 12:22 'The Lord hates liars but is pleased with those who keep their word.' It can be worrying to think about our bad decisions. Many of us will have made a decision to tell a lie, but we need to remember that we can say sorry and try harder to do the right thing next time. God is all for second chances - the greatest reminder of this is that he gave us the gift of Jesus Christ his own son to forgive us for all the wrong that we have done and to show us how to be brave. |
| MUSIC |
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From The Complete Come & Praise, BBC Publishing No.45 'The journey of life' No.31 'Can you be sure that the rain will fall?' |
| PRAYER |
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Loving God, Help me to speak the truth and to live an honest life. Give me courage to make good choices and turn away from lies and doing wrong. Help me to ask for forgiveness when I have done wrong and to forgive others when I have been upset. Amen |
| OTHER IDEAS TO CONSIDER AND DEVELOP |
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