"God As My Compass"
KIDS ages 6-11. Let's discover the invisible compass God gave us!
Each child develops differently. This lesson is for Kids 6-11. Feel free to use the lesson that best fits your child’s needs!
PURPOSE
Children will learn about the gift of their conscience, original mind. And the beauty of letting God live in their hearts. Let’s discover our internal compass!
MATERIALS
Box, wrapping paper, tape, compass.
INSPIRATION
“If you study yourself, you will notice that your conscience knows everything about you...The conscience loves us and its mission is to transform us into eternal sons and daughters of God.” -Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon
“...God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” -1 John 4:16
"Your inner knowing is your only true compass." - Joy Page
ATTENTION GRABBER
COMPASS: (Wrap a small box nicely beforehand) Give your child the gift. Have your child unwrap the ribbon and wrapping paper to reveal a box with a compass inside of it. Explain to the child that God gave us a special gift- the gift of our conscience.
INTRODUCTION
God created you, through your mom and dad, and God wants to live inside of you. God wants to be a part of your life and live in your heart protecting you- helping you make positive choices every day. Choices that will guide you towards true joy! To help in this, God gave us something called our conscience, or original mind. It is our invisible compass. Let’s discover more about it together.
*LEARNING MOMENT*
Optional: Watch this video together at the start or end of the lesson:
WATCH VIDEO: How Does a Compass Work?
READ TOGETHER:
Have you ever experienced knowing you should do something but having a hard time getting yourself to do it?
For example, you know you need to get dressed, brush your teeth and get ready in the early morning to get to school on time but your body is so tired and just wants to rest. As a result, you get ready slowly following your body’s desires and miss the school bus! This can happen to anyone.
Humans are God’s most special creations because He gave us both a physical body AND an internal mind. God gave each one of us an invisible compass to guide us!
Look at the compass together- What does a compass do? It helps us know which way to go, just like a GPS in the car.
Whether we’re trying to make decisions at school, on the bus, at soccer practice, home or church- it is our conscience that should be our guide. God gave us this internal compass to help us guide our decisions. (Sometimes this may be referred to as your mind, heart, soul or spirit).
“If you study yourself, you will notice that your conscience knows everything about you...The conscience loves us and its mission is to transform us into eternal sons and daughters of God.” -Dr. Hak Ja Han Moon
Did you know that inside of a compass there is a magnet? And that magnet spins freely until it aligns itself with the magnetic field of our planet? Fascinating! Just as a compass aligns with the earth’s magnetic field- we want to align our conscience with God our Creator.
When we invite God, our Heavenly Parent, to be the center of our lives and live within our conscience- we can live in the way we were meant to- making decisions centered on God!
It’s not always easy to know which decision is the best one. One simple way to find out is to consider how your decision will impact others. For example, you’re questioning whether to take a piece of candy from your brother’s Halloween jar without asking. Is this choice something that is good for others or selfish for you? If you're struggling with a decision and you think "Well, it may not be that bad" ask yourself- If 100 people made the same decision- what kind of impact would it have? Or how would you feel if someone did that same action to you?
Once we know what our compass is telling us, we have to make a decision to follow it, even if it’s difficult. (Like making that extra effort to ask your brother if you can have a piece of his candy or maybe even offering to trade one of your own for one of his.) It’s up to you. And you’ll learn that when your compass is aligned with God and you make a good choice- you will have a warm fuzzy feeling inside your heart.
What do you think are some ways we can align our invisible compass to God? We can strengthen our conscience by applying spiritual practices to our life. We can create habits like: reading God’s Words, going to church, loving others, praying and caring for nature.
All of these practices help us to come closer to our Heavenly Parent and strengthen and develop our spirit using our conscience as our guide. After all-
“...God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.” -1 John 4:16
DISCUSSION
Use these questions to dig deeper or stimulate additional ongoing conversations:
What does a compass do? How is your conscience like a compass?
How do you feel when you follow your conscience and make good choices?
How does it feel when you do not follow your conscience and make a bad decision?
What are some reasons you are grateful God gave you a compass (conscience) to guide you?
Can you share about a time it was hard to follow your conscience? What was it like? What could you do in a situation where it’s hard to know what’s right and wrong?
What are some ways we can align our thoughts and actions with God, strengthen your conscience?
Why is it important to pray, go to church or learn about God’s Words?
CONCLUSION
God loves you and wants to give you the best life possible! God, our loving parent, wants us to be happy, fulfilled, successful and healthy both physically and internally. We are so special because God didn’t only give us a body but also a spirit. Let’s strengthen our invisible compass and center it on God so that we can make the best choices every day. Even small positive choices can lead to big positive joys in our lives. Every choice we make is important and so we want to align our lives with God, our Heavenly Parent. He can give us strength and help us live the happiest life!
PRAYER
Dear God, thank you for loving and creating me, through my parents. Thank you for giving me a super cool invisible compass. I’m grateful to have a conscience, original mind, that can guide my life and help me make positive choices. Help me to strengthen and grow my Spirit centered on you. We love you and thank you.
Use these activities together with your child over the next month to create ongoing conversations. Click on the red links:
VIDEOS
SONG VIDEOS
God is for Me | Maker Fun Factory Music Video | Group Publishing
Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket - Always Let Your Conscience Be Your Guide!
CRAFTS
JOURNAL
Draw your invisible compass and give it a superhero name! Draw and write about the compass God gave you and things you can do to strengthen your compass. Share about why aligning your compass with God is awesome!
Draw yourself + draw God above you at the top of the page. Add in words and pictures of things and practices that can help you to align yourself with God, your Heavenly Parent.
GAMES
Role Play: Act out different scenarios together not listening to your conscience vs. listening to your conscience.
EXPERIENCES
Pros + Cons- Teach your child to make a pros + cons list to help them process out a challenging decision.
Condition: Make a promise as a family for a certain amount of days to do something new together that can help strengthen our conscience. Through repeated commitment it can develop into a positive habit! Possible examples include: family prayer time, random acts of kindness, a new chore or listening to Godly music in the car.
PARENT RESOURCES
"God In My Heart" SOL Parent Blog coming soon!
“What is Conscience” by askabish
