Tag Archives: water

Game Ideas, Object Lessons

An Overflowing Cup

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overflowing_cup

“My cup runs over.” A cup is used quite often in the Bible to represent a person’s fate, a person’s destiny. The cup could be one of blessing or of judgement. Is your cup empty? Half full? Overflowing? In a place where water was scarce an overflowing cup implied abundance. This weeks lesson is great for summer in that the youth will get a little wet while learning about what is means to be filled to overflowing with the blessings of God.

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Games Using Water and Cups

  • Filler Up – Divide the youth into pairs. Partners stand six feet apart. One person gets a cup with a ping-pong ball in it and the other a water gun. At you signal, those with the water pistol must race to squirt enough water into the cup to make the pin-pong ball float. Keep a bucket of water nearby for easy refills.
  • Bottle Fill Relay – Each team appoints one member to lie face up with head toward the starting line, holding an empty pop bottle on his or her head. One member from each team fills a cup (made of nonbendable material) with water, runs to the bottle, and pours in water until it is gone. He or she then runs back, and the next contestant runs out with a cup of water as soon as the first player crosses the starting line.
  • Water Cup Derby – Divide into teams. Each team member will fill a cup with water from a shared water bucket, put it over their head and run to a team soda bottle (or bucket) and poor it in. The team that finishes first gets 5 points, but the team that has the most water in the bucket gets 10.
  • Leaky Cup Relay – Give each team a plastic cup or sturdy paper cup with holes punched in it. The first person on a team fills it up and passes the leaking cup over his or her head. The person who receives it must pass it under his or her legs to the next person – Over, under, over, under and it reaches the end of the line. At the end of the line, the last youth must run and dump any water that is left in the cup into a 5 gallon bucket and then run to the front of the line. After a given time, whomever has the most water in their 5 gallon bucket wins.
  • Jumping Water Splash – Give each youth a plastic or paper cup full of water. While two players twirl a large jump rope, jumpers one by one are to attempt three consecutive jumps. They are to do this while holding onto their cup of water and trying to do let any water spill. The youth that has the most water left is the winner. You can keep playing until only one person has water left in their cup.
  • Gargling Charades – This is kind of like charades, but each youth is given a cup of water and must use the water to gargle a given Christian Song while their teammates try to guess the title of the song.

TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

MAKE IT SPIRITUAL

  • What is the purpose of a cup?
  • When the Bible talks bout filling our Cup, what does the cup represent?
  • With what does God fill our cup?
  • Did you trust your team mates to try to aim only for the cup, or were you worried they’d “accidentally” miss? What role does trust play when we come to God asking our cup to be filled?
  • Was there a trade-off between trying to be quick vs trying to be accurate? How might this apply spiritually?
  • What happened when your cup was emptied?
  • What is the meaning of the phrase “My cup runs over”?
  • Why is a clean cup important?

MAKE IT PRACTICAL

  • What are some things youth try to fill the emptiness in their lives with?
  • What are some things that youth try to quench their thirsts with in life?
  • Are there some things dirty a person’s cup?
  • What is the solution for a leaky cup?
  • Why does God fill our cup to overflowing?

MAKE IT PERSONAL

  • What is it that fills your cup?
  • What things are most important to you?
  • How do you spend all your time?
  • What activities fill your day?
  • Are you a clean vessel waiting to be filled?
  • What changes do you need to make so that your life overflows with the blessings of God?

SCRIPTURE

  • Romans 15:13 – “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.”
  • Acts 14:17 – “Yet he has not left himself without testimony: He has shown kindness by giving you rain from heaven and crops in their seasons; he provides you with plenty of food and fills your hearts with joy.”
  • Ephesians 5:18 – “Do not get drunk on wine, which leads to debauchery. Instead, be filled with the Spirit”
  • Psalm 42:1-2 – “As the deer pants for the water brooks, So my soul pants for Thee, O God. 2 My soul thirsts for God, for the living God; When shall I come and appear before God?”
  • Matthew 5:6 – “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.”
  • John 4:13-14 – “Jesus answered and said to her, ‘Everyone who drinks of this water shall thirst again; 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall become in him a well of water springing up to eternal life.'”
  • Revelation 7:16-17 – “They shall hunger no more, neither thirst anymore; neither shall the sun beat down on them, nor any heat; 17 for the Lamb in the center of the throne shall be their shepherd, and shall guide them to springs of the water of life; and God shall wipe every tear from their eyes.”
  • Psalm 63:1 – “O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water.
  • Psalm 116:13 – “I will lift up the cup of salvation and call on the name of the Lord.”
  • Luke 1:53 – “He has filled the hungry with good things but has sent the rich away empty.”
  • Psalm 23 – “The Lord is my shepherd, I lack nothing. He makes me lie down in green pastures, he leads me beside quiet waters, he refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his name’s sake. Even though I walk through the darkest valley, I will fear no evil, for you are with me; your rod and your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely your goodness and love will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”

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Object Lessons

Autumn Leaves

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In the autumn season, the leaves on the trees start changing colors. Depending on where you live you can see vibrant red, orange, yellow and brown leaves. And there still might be some green ones around as well. Soon they will detach themselves from the tree and fall to the ground. So we also call this season the Fall. But the leaves also serve as a spiritual object lesson.

What You Need

  • Collect a variety of autumn leaves, at least one for each youth, of different sizes, shapes, colors.

What to do

  1. Display the leaves.
  2. Have each youth select a leaf that represents him or herself in some way.
  3. Ask the youth to describe every detail about their leaves to a partner. Have a couple of volunteers share the description with the group as a whole. You could aso have them tell the life story of the leaf in a creative way. What things has it endured? What things did it get to see / enjoy from its perch on the tree, how it lived through the seasons, and finally how it fell and ended up here.
  4. Ask each youth to display the leaf and share one thing about the leaf that is also true of them.

Observations for discussion

Every leaf has a life story. Leaves are temporary, different shapes, scarred, different colors, alive, dead, attached, detached, dry, moist, light, heavy, different sizes, different leaf patterns and veins, different ages, they change, some are blown away, others cling to the tree, some are brittle, others are flexible, rough, smooth, piled up, alone, they bring shade, reach for the sun, draw from the root, etc.

TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

MAKE IT SPIRITUAL

Psalm 1 teaches us some lessons about trees, and says we are like trees. Read Psalm 1 from the Bible.

  • How does God describe the wicked in Psalm 1 and how is similar to the Autumn leaves? (Like debris blown away by the wind, unable to stand, they will die.)
  • How does God describe the Righteous in Psalm 1 and how is this similar to a tree planted by the water? (Blessed, happy, delighted, like leaves that do not doesn’t wither)
  • What truths can we learn from Psalm 1?
  • What is the difference between them that leads to the different outcome?

MAKE IT PRACTICAL

  • What are the ways that youth draw closer to God, to be refreshed and strengthened by Him, to grow strong and fruitful, to not whither, but be full of life? Why is it important?

MAKE IT PERSONAL

  • What will you do this week to draw closer to God, to be refreshed and strengthened by Him, to grow strong and fruitful, to not whither, but be full of life?

SCRIPTURE

“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. Not so the wicked! They are like chaff that the wind blows away. Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment, nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous. For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked will perish.” – Psalm 1

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Game Ideas

Water-fall

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Game Description
In this outdoor water game, youth must perform a task while precariously balancing a bucket of water over their heads.

Game Materials
One bucket of water for each team of youth. You also might want to have a tarp or beach towels upon which youth can lie down.

Optimal Group Size for Game
This game can be played with only two youth on a team. The larger the team the easier the game becomes.

Game Venue
Best played outdoors.

CAUTION
You will want to exclude girls in skirts or dresses from this game as well as those wearing clothes that might become semi-transparent when wet. Youth should be prepared to get wet. If in normal clothes, before playing have youth remove anything that could be damaged by water from their pockets.

Game Preparation
None

Game Play

  1. Split the group into teams.
  2. Instruct each team to form a circle and then lie on their backs with their legs raised together in the center of the circle.
  3. With everyone in place, balance a bucket of water on the feet of each team of youth, stabilizing it until they can keep it stable on their own.
  4. Once the bucket is stable, inform the teams that they have 3 minutes to take their shoes off without spilling the water or dropping the bucket.
  5. Start the clock and the first team to successfully take all their shoes off without spilling the water or dropping the bucket wins.

Take it to the Next Level

  • What strategies did you have for stabilizing the bucket of water?
  • How were you able to free team members up to perform the necessary tasks while still supporting the bucket of water?
  • In what ways is the bucket like the objectives or goals of an organization or group?
  • What are some of the objectives and goals that you must support in a church, youth group, or organization?
  • How can working as a team support the goals and objectives yet also free people up to perform necessary individual tasks and responsibilities?
  • What are the potential consequences when there is too little manpower to support the goals and objectives of an organization?

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