Tapestry of Faith: Amazing Grace: A Program about Exploring Right and Wrong for Grade 6

Faith In Action: Personal Sole Search

Part of Amazing Grace

Activity time: 10 minutes

Materials for Activity

  • 8.5" x 11" paper, one sheet for each youth
  • Pencils
  • Music player and background music

Description of Activity

This activity returns to the subjects of the opening play-spirituality, soul, and conscience-and asks youth to explore their own inner selves in the days ahead.

Say that for youth to put their Faith into Action successfully, they must know their faith. This means in part that they must know themselves as spiritual beings. They must understand their consciences fully. In other words, they must successfully search their own souls. This activity will help them do that by using soles with an "e" instead of souls with a "u."

Ask the youth each to take off one shoe. Distribute paper and a pencil to each, and ask that they draw their own sole with an "e" by tracing around it on the paper. They may include heels and toes if they wish (and if they have room) but the only part they need is the sole.

Then say you are going to give the youth two or three minutes to think and explore their souls with a "u" while you play some quiet music. Before they begin, they should remember some of what the Guru in the play said about feeding the soul with spiritual materials and about developing conscience. As the music plays, they should decide on one to three things they should do to further develop their own understanding of souls, spirituality, and conscience. Maybe they will decide they should meditate or experience music more often. Maybe they should talk with somebody about how to solve a problem involving right or wrong. Maybe they will commit to attending worship services with their families or reading about spiritual matters. They should decide on these things by themselves, without paying attention to one another's ideas. When they are done, they should write down their ideas on their paper soles.

When individual youth have finished writing, ask them to sit quietly so others can do the same. When all are ready, tell them to fold up their papers so they're small enough to place in their shoes. Tell them to place them inside their shoes, on the soles, and to put their shoes back on. This way nobody but them will see the paper and they will be reminded of what they said when they remove their shoes later.

Ask them to act on what they wrote in the days ahead. See if they can think more deeply about spirituality, understand their souls better, and develop their consciences more before your next session of Amazing Grace: Exploring Right and Wrong. At that session, you will ask how they made out, and they can tell the group as much or as little as they like.

Including All Participants

Assist any youth with limited mobility as necessary in making a sole drawing.