15
"What is the Golden Rule?”
Big Idea
Love others like you love yourself
Materials Needed:
1. Medium sized mirror 2. Large empty picture frame (frame only, nothing on the inside)
Setup:
None.
Lesson
1. Review the big idea from last meeting's lesson: "Your words are a sword, use them for good!" Ask the question, "Can my words hurt others?" and have the children repeat the big idea a few times, doing the motions below as you say each word.
Words: hold fingers of one hand to lips and pull away, spreading fingers as you do
Sword: mime swinging a sword to the right
Use: mime swinging a sword to the left
Good: mime holding a sword up in air in a triumphant pose
2. Explain the following:
Today, we're going to talk about the Golden Rule. (Write "Golden Rule" on the board.) What is it? Some of you may have heard about it before, but before we say exactly what it is, we're going to spend a few minutes looking in a mirror.
3. Ask for a volunteer to come up front. Hold the mirror at eye level for the child, with the mirror facing the group of children. Have the child stand in front of the mirror and, for about a minute, make as many silly faces in front of it as she can think of. Afterwards, have the child answer the following: "What did you see in the mirror when you did your silly faces?"
Instruct your volunteer to return to her seat. Explain the following:
When we look in the mirror, we see reflected back to us what we look like and what we're doing. If we make a silly face, we'll see a silly face in the mirror. If we smile, it'll smile back. If we stick our tongues out, it'll stick its tongue out back at us.
4. Ask for two more volunteers to come up front. Have them stand facing each other, with their sides facing the rest of the children. Inform one child that he will be a "human mirror." Whatever the other child does, he has to do as well. Inform the other child to do various activities in the mirror slowly, so the human mirror can keep up with her. Hold the empty picture frame between the two children to represent the mirror, and instruct the children to begin the activity. After a few minutes, instruct them to return to their seats.
Explain the following:
The human mirror is just like the regular mirror. Whatever the person did on one side of the mirror, the other reflected back. But here's something to think about. What would've happened if the one looking in the mirror decided to punch the face she saw in the mirror? (Allow a child to respond.)
With the human mirror, if the person looking in the mirror decided to punch the face she saw in the mirror, she'd also get punched in her own face! That's because the mirror does whatever the person on the other side of it does.
If she'd thrown a rock at the human mirror, she'd get a rock thrown back at her. If she'd spit at it, she'd get a face full of spit, too. And, assuming the human mirror could talk, if she called the human mirror a dirty name, she'd get called a dirty name right back.
The Golden Rule is something that would really help someone who is in front of a human mirror. What is it? Well, Jesus taught about it, so let's check out the Bible to see what he said.
5. Ask for a volunteer to come up front and read Matthew 7:12a from the Bible: "In everything, do to others what you would want them to do to you." (NIrV). Have your volunteer sit back down and explain the following:
In this verse, Jesus describes what we call the Golden Rule: only do things to other people that you'd want done to you.
Do you see how this would help in front of the human mirror? If you didn't want to get punched in the face, you wouldn't punch the mirror. If you wanted people to smile at you, you'd smile really big in the mirror. And if you wanted to hear kind words, you say kind things to the mirror.
Now, human mirrors really don't exist, but they help us understand why the Golden Rule is one of the most important rules. We should treat everyone we meet like we'd treat someone on the other side of the human mirror. We should treat them like we'd want to be treated.
Another time, Jesus explain the Golden Rule like this: "Love your neighbor as yourself." (Matt. 22:39, NIrV). Treating others like we'd want to be treated is the same as showing the same love to others that we show to ourselves.
On the board, under "Golden Rule," write "Love others like you love yourself." Ask "What are some ways you'd like to be treated?" Allow the children to respond, and record their answers on the board. Explain the following:
We've described a bunch of nice things we'd like done for us. As Jesus taught, and according to the Golden Rule, if we'd like these things, we need to be willing to do them for others. We need to love others like we love ourselves.
7. Explain that the big idea from today's lesson is: "Love others like you love yourself." Ask the question, "What is the Golden Rule?" and have the children repeat the big idea a few times, doing the motions below as you say each word.