Honesty

OBJECTIVE

The objective of the service module is to teach the children how to implement Christian service in our lives. In first grade, we are focusing on 4 virtues: humility, honesty, patience, and courage. Children will understand that practicing these virtues will reflect their Christian character and be a light to others. This is to begin to teach the students about some of the most important virtues they can instill in their future service.

In this lesson, children will understand the importance of being honest to God and others, and that not telling the truth could have consequences.

INTRODUCTION & HOOK - 10 Minutes

Please review the previous week's lesson. (5 minutes)

Option 1

Bring in two stuffed animals. Role play having the stuffed animals having a conversation. One stuffed animal is sad because they did a bad thing the other day. They lied to their mom and ate all the chocolate even though she told them not to. The other stuffed animal questions them on why they lied and didn't listen to their parents.

After the role play, ask the students if it was right for the animal to disobey their mom and then lie about it. Why do you think the animal didn't tell the truth? Ask the kids if they have ever been dishonest and lied about something, or fabricated the truth to avoid getting in trouble.

Option 2

Materials:

• 2 bowls
• Ice Cream
• Salt
• Chocolate Sauce or any other sauce
• Spoons

• (Scoop one scoop of ice cream in the first bowl) This is ice cream, (eat a spoon of it) so yummy
• Ice cream is GOOD, it's sweet, no matter what flavor it is, most times than not, you will just love it
• (Show the children the salt) Salt is not healthy for you. If you have too much of it, your body will not feel good. You might even feel sick.
• (Scoop another scoop of ice cream in the second bowl) Now we have another bowl of ice cream, but this time I'm going to sprinkle some salt on it. (Try the ice cream). It just tastes bad. Even though you don't see the salt anymore (show them the bowl), the ice cream is no longer GOOD.
• The second bowl of ice cream looks good, but when you eat it's bad That's the same as a lie. When we lie, we take something that is good, and make it bad. A lie might cover something you are hiding, and look good from the outside, but when you try it and get to the truth, you will realize that lying makes everything bad.
• Sometimes, when we resort to lying instead of telling the truth, we end up doing more lies to cover up the first lie. So instead of just the salt on the ice cream, we say let's add chocolate syrup, to really make the ice cream look good and delicious. But no matter what you put on the ice cream, you will always taste the salt. No amount of chocolate syrup, or gummy bears, or sprinkles will make the BAD TASTE go away
• Ask the kids to tell you what they think the word "honesty" means.
  • E.g., telling the truth, not hiding any part of the truth, faithful, etc...
• Ask the kids how they have been honest before.
  • Maybe they saw someone doing something bad and they decided to go tell the truth.
• Ask them to also define what the opposite of being honest is.
  • E.g., lying, hiding the truth (deceiving), stealing, cheating, etc...
• Ask the kids if they have ever been dishonest and lied about something, or fabricated the truth to avoid getting in trouble.

HOLY SCRIPTURE - 5 Minutes

Memory Verse: "And the truth shall make you free" (John 8:31)

Genesis 20:1-18- Abraham and Abimelech (see story summary in Content)

CONTENT (KEY POINTS) - 10 Minutes

• When you lie, no matter what you say after will never make the lie go away. You will either keep adding to the lie or get caught. And in the end you not only made yourself look untrustworthy, God will be sad with us too.
• A long, long time ago thousands of years before Jesus Christ was born, there was a man called Abraham who had a wife named Sarah. Both of them travelled to a far place called Gerar.
• He told the people that Sarah was his sister, when she was actually his wife.
• Abimelech, the king of Gerar, wanted to marry Sarah and take her from Abraham.
• That night, Abimelech had a dream where God appeared to him. God told him that he will be punished because he took a married man's wife.
• Abimelech told God, "I only took her because Abraham said that Sarah was his sister."
• God told him, "I know you that did not know and that's why I'm telling you to give her back to her husband Abraham and everything will be ok. If you don't give Sarah back to Abraham (who is a prophet and he will pray for you) I will make sure you die and your people will also die."
• Abimelech went back to Abraham to give him back Sarah.
• Abimelech asked Abraham, "Why did you lie to me?"
• Abraham told him, "I was afraid that you would hurt me if I told you that Sarah was my wife, so I told you she was my sister instead."

DISCUSSION (Challenge) - 5 Minutes

What happened when Abraham lied to king Abimelech? How did Abimelech react when he found out Abraham?

Remind the kids that no matter what the consequences are, they should never lie. One lie will lead to more problems. Abraham caused more problems by lying. He should have just told the truth about Sarah being his wife. Explain when we lie or hide the truth, we are afraid that we will be found lying and get in trouble. Not telling or hiding lies makes you free of any fears.

LIFE APPLICATION (Action) - 5 Minutes

It takes a lot of courage to always remember to be honest. God wants us to tell the whole truth and nothing but the truth. Try to be extra honest this week. If you make a mistake whether at school or at home, you have to confess the whole story and not hide any information just because you will get in trouble. A lot of times if we lie, it will make us miserable because we will always be afraid that someone will find out the truth and we will get in even more trouble. That "little" lie that you think was not a big deal will eat you up inside. So it's best for us to just tell the truth and be honest from the beginning God will be very proud of you for not lying.

ACTIVITY - 5 Minutes

Wrap a long strip of cardboard around each child's waist and cut it to size (like a belt). Have the kids cover it up with foil or duct tape to make it even stronger. Using another piece of cardboard to clip the ends together, have them write and decorate the word "TRUTH," and use it to fasten the belt (with tape, clips or staples) Explain to them that they have now wrapped themselves in truth (Ephesians 6:14) remind them that they should always be ready to say the truth and be honest because they are now wearing the belt of truth.

Activity:

Put each phrase in the proper column

SERVANT RESOURCES

Honesty for Kids: Free Printables

PARENTS CORNER

Practice with your children all about being honest and how being dishonest can actually affect your relationship with others. You can use this example while driving:

• Point out and say, "Oh look at that horse on the street." They will look and see there is no horse anywhere. A few minutes later you can point it out again. Do that one last time and you will see your child doesn't believe you because you lied about the same thing over and over. You can point out how you thought it was funny to trick them, but this caused them to not trust you anymore and not believe you because you weren't being honest (like the boy who cried wolf)

It's very important to build our relationship with others based on being honest, so that relationship becomes a strong relationship. Being dishonest can also affect your relationship with God. So it's best for us to be honest, in order to please the Lord.