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

Taking It Home: Saving the World

Part of Amazing Grace

If I do not have love, I am nothing.

— adapted from 1 Corinthians 13:2

IN TODAY’S SESSION… We talked about the power of individual action and kindness. We did Ethics Play and heard a story about a single snowflake that made a big difference. We made art built on the idea of universal love, heard about the butterfly effect, and created a round-robin story. For Faith in Action, we performed random acts of kindness.

EXPLORE THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Talk about…

  • Family experiences. Who in your family has done a random act of kindness? Who remembers a random act of kindness that someone did for them?
  • The saying about the straw that broke the camel’s back. Has anybody in your family ever said, “That’s the last straw?” What was going on at the time?
  • Universal love. Is it easy to feel a sense of love and kindness for everybody else in the whole world? Why or why not?
  • The Ethics Play situation done by your Amazing Grace group. Does the family agree with what the star decided?

EXTEND THE TOPIC TOGETHER. Try…

  • Some family acts of kindness. Surprise some other people by doing some random acts of kindness.
  • A family round-robin story. Start with these words: “I sneezed. It was just a little sneeze, but…” Then let everybody in the family add one sentence at a time. Keep going around and around the family until you have a whole story.
  • Remembering someone you have ignored. Many people have a friend or a family member they have been meaning to call or to see or to send a letter or e-mail. What about your family? Can you think of such friends or family members? If so, stop putting them off. Get in touch. They will probably be very pleased.

MYSTERY AND ME

When did you do something that had a result you did not expect? Were the reasons for that result mysterious, or can you explain them? Was the result good or bad? If you are journaling, write the story of what you did and what you learned from it. Then meditate about it. That means to think deeply about the story to see if it tells you anything more. If your group talked about random acts of kindness for Faith in Action, write about that, too. Plan to do more random acts of kindness and write about them in your journal later.

A FAMILY RITUAL

Talk each day about the right and wrong you have experienced. Did you each do something good you want to share? Is there somebody in the family you want to thank for a virtuous act? Is there something you wish you had not done that you need to talk about? How can you make tomorrow a better day?

A FAMILY GAME

Find some Ethics Play situations in your lives. These are situations with tough ethical choices. In other words, it is tough to know what the right thing to do is. So figure them out together. There might not be a perfect answer, but there will be a best answer.

FAMILY DISCOVERY

Identify the kindest person your family knows. Who is it? Why is that person so kind? Do other people respond in kind ways to the person?