Sunday 6th September
Matthew 18:5-20
Just for fun
You’ll need 5 everyday day objects and one messy object.
Sit in a circle and turn the lights off. Explain that you are going to pass some things round the circle. Make it clear that everything is harmless and the aim is to get each item round the circle, passed from one person to the next, without any noise. Start with the everyday objects and then introduce the messy item after about five things.
Once each item has been passed around you could get your children to guess what it is.
Craft
You’ll need magazines and newspapers, A3 paper, glue, scissors, thick marker pens.
Sit your children down and ask them if they can think of ways in which they can avoid gossip situations, or ways that they can be positive about people when other people are running them down. Try to bring out the point that we need to say positive things about people, and spend time with people who are positive.
Give each group a pile of papers, glue, scissors and paper. Ask them to make a collage of as many different types of people as they can – different body shapes, ages, jobs, skin colours, and so on.
All areas of society can be affected by gossip, and everybody hates it when they know that they have been gossiped about. We need to try to say only positive things about people. Ask the children to write around their collage “Say positive things about people, or don't say anything at all.”
Activity for the whole family
Adults should think of three or four things about themselves. All but one of these should be an exaggeration of the truth.
For instance, “I am 23 and a bit”, rather than, “I am 33”.
Ask the children to listen to the statements of the adults and see if they can guess which one is the actual truth.
Then see if they can unpack the exaggerated statements to determine what the original fact was. You can use this activity to lead into a discussion about gossip.
Why do people exaggerate?
How easy was it to spot the exaggerations in the leaders' sentences?
Could these sentences have lead to gossip?
Do you think that some people exaggerate on purpose? Why?
Why do people gossip?
Do you think gossip can be a good thing, or is it always bad? (You may need to define gossip for the younger children.)
How do you feel when you know people are saying nasty things about you?
Do you have any examples of where people have gossiped about someone, and what they were saying hasn’t been true?
How can false or nasty gossip hurt people?
How does gossip spread?
Should Christians join in with gossip?
How should we react when we hear people gossiping?
Prayer
Say, write or draw your own prayer. Try to think of one thing you want to thank God for, one thing you are sorry for and one thing you would like to see happen.
