To most of the world the word 'seminary' refers to a college that prepares students to be priests, ministers, or rabbis. To LDS teens around the word 'seminary' is a 4 year program for high school students with the objectives to study the scriptures "to help youth understand and rely on the teachings and Atonement of Jesus Christ, qualify for the blessings of the temple, and prepare themselves, their families, and others for eternal life with their Father in Heaven." In some areas seminary class is held in the early morning before school, sometimes as early as 6:00 a.m. For others it is a home study seminary. For those of us living in the Western US where there are quite a few LDS teens, seminary is called 'release time'. This means that students are actually released or excused from one class period of their normal school day to attend a religion class in a building adjacent to, but not on, the high school campus. Here in Lake Oswego the class is held at our church building which happens to be right across the street from Lakeridge High School. Since September I have had the fun privilege of teaching Old Testament during the first period (7:35 - 8:50 a.m.) of the day to 14 wonderful high school students.
Friday morning we had a lesson about David and Goliath. I based my lesson on this poster
After attacking Goliath with a slingshot and marshmallows, the kids posed by this 'life sized' reproduction of the Philistine Giant Goliath!
We've got some pretty tough giant killers!
And they look so cute!
Don't worry Emma, Thomas will beat up that giant for you!
When James gets on Christian's shoulders they become Goliath sized!
After our fun giant slaying activity, the kids made a list of the modern day 'Goliaths' they face like immorality, drugs and alcohol, bullying, dishonesty, negative media influences, immodesty, peer pressure.....and on and on. Then we talked about the things they can use in their lives as 'stones and a sling' to help defeat these modern Goliaths. Some of their weapons are the scriptures, prayer, the Holy Ghost, and parents. But my favorite was when Emma added "each other" to the list of possible weapons. How true! Peer pressure is often thought of as a negative thing but it can be positive too. What an amazing force for good they can be as they face the Goliaths of the world with strong faith and good courage knowing that the Lord God is with them as he was with David so long ago!
My life is blessed as I start my day with these enthusiastic youth as we study the scriptures together.
FUN!!! Did you draw Goliath? He is amazing.
ReplyDeleteGeorge found someplace on the internet where you can download a regular drawing and they print it out to any size you would like on multiple sheets. Goliath was 80 sheets of paper! George is always so good to do things like this for me and figure out how to make it awesome!
ReplyDeleteJan, George just corrected me on a minor point...on the internet he found the instructions to print out a 'tiled version' of a large print.....now I'm technically correct! He printed it out himself.
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