As your students enter the classroom today, have them answer the following question on the whiteboard: “What would you change about your life if you could?” Students don’t need to feel vulnerable in this—the answers can be lighthearted (examples: I wouldn’t share a room with my sibling, or my mom wouldn’t make anything with peas in it ever again.) After everyone has written at least one answer, read through some of the answers and give anyone who wants to the opportunity to explain why they would change this if they could.
We all go through changes in our lives—everything from the weather to the latest trending video to the fact that we grew two inches in the past year. Some changes are to be expected and others come as a surprise.
- In general, do you like or dislike change? Why? (Answers will vary. Let them share freely on what and why change may be a pleasant or unpleasant thing. Use this as an opportunity to gain insight into your students’ spiritual level without mentioning spirituality at this point.)
In the past five years, many people have experienced significant changes—both inside and outside the U.S. While some of these events were expected, many of these changes were unexpected.
- Many people’s lives were changed due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Some lost loved ones, others lost their jobs, and many people transitioned to working or attending school from home.
- The United States has had two presidential elections and two administration changes in the last five years. Election cycles often bring about new leaders and policies.
- There have been many natural disasters in the United States, such as the recent hurricanes in the eastern part of the country and recent fires in California. These disasters have caused many people to lose loved ones and homes.
- Many global wars have begun in the last few years, such as the conflicts in Ukraine, in Gaza, and in Sudan.
These are just a few of the ways the world has changed recently. Although the world may not have changed much for some people in the last five years, many others have experienced the impacts of these changes. After all, many major events have happened!
- How have your lives changed in the last five years? Have any of you experienced unexpected changes? How did those changes affect you? (Do not force students to respond; accept all reasonable responses.)
- When changes come, how do you deal with them? Are you able to take it in stride or do you have a tendency to fight change? (Answers will vary.)
- Why might we find change scary at times? (Answers will vary but may include: we aren’t sure how things are going to be after the change; we don’t like losing control over certain areas of our lives; etc.)
When change comes to us, we can like it or dislike it, accept it or fight it. But what about when we need to change and just can’t seem to do it? We’ve all got something in our lives that we want to change but don’t seem to be able to. Today we’re going to talk about a man who needed some big changes in his life. Let’s see what happened.