Youth Group Lesson on Patience

Free Lesson on Patience

Written by Jennifer Hancock

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Imagine yourself on the first day of 6th grade and one of the big thrills of the day is finally getting a locker of your very own.

As you stand there staring in amazement at this giant (usually not) storage space that will get to be only yours for the next year!

You slowly walk up to the locker and you pull out the slip of paper with the combination.

You start entering the combination…but wait, is it two turns to the left or the right?

Am I supposed to go past the number I just entered?

You find yourself so excited to finally see the inside of your locker…but you can’t get in.

Patience is a problem for everyone. We all want to have what we want and exactly when we want it.

And in the case of our new locker owner, we find ourselves rushing to get what we want…rushing to get inside. A combination on a padlock requires exact numbers and a devoted series of twists and turns.

Here’s a free lesson with a fun opening game to help preteens be more patient.

OPENING GAME

SUPPLIES

Two combination padlocks

Post-it notes or scraps of paper

Colored dot stickers

Here is a higher energy game (depending on how competitive your preteens are) to play about patience.

HOW TO PLAY THE GAME

The first step in this game is to write down the correct padlock combinations on a piece of paper and place in your pocket (you will need this if the preteens can’t figure out their combination).

Before preteens arrive place a sticker on the back of each padlock.

Hide the padlocks in your room/church (our preteens love to play this game on a large scale so we utilize the entire church).

Next, write the combination numbers on separate pieces of paper and place the same colored sticker that corresponds to the padlock.

Then hide the papers throughout the room/church.

Not only do the preteens need to find the padlocks and the three pieces of paper containing the combination numbers, they have to figure out which order to put the numbers in order to unlock the padlock.

Divide your group into two teams.

Tell the teams that they will race each other in finding the padlocks and combinations and the first team to open their padlock is the winning team.

Say: This game showed us that we need to be patient in order to achieve what we want.

Every day we are faced with situations where we need to be patient.

Many times these situations are out of our control.

We can’t make things happen just because we want them to happen NOW.

SMALL GROUP DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Have you ever been impatient about something?

What types of things do you get impatient over?

When you had finally found all of your papers you still had to struggle with which order to place the numbers in order to open the padlock. Did you find yourselves becoming more and more frustrated the more times you tried to open the padlock?

Did you find yourselves becoming frustrated with the others on your team because you felt that you could do a better and quicker job of opening the padlock?

Do you think that slowing down could have helped in this situation?

TEACH

Say: Combination padlocks have numbers which have to be entered exactly the correct way.

You can’t overshoot a number or fail to make it to a number or you will face the consequences… the consequence of not being able to open the lock.

You also have to play close attention to what you are doing to be sure you bypass the first number in order to get to the second number but don’t bypass the second by the third.

It is important to be patient and aware when trying to open a combination padlock.

James 5:7 (NIV) states, “Be patient, then, brothers and sisters, until the Lord’s coming. See how the farmer waits for the land to yield its valuable crop, patiently waiting for the autumn and spring rains.”

As mentioned in this passage, a farmer waits patiently for his crop to grow.

It doesn’t happen overnight.

Nature needs to play its part in helping the crops grow.

The same goes for us as we try to rush through our lives rather than slowing down and having the patience in order to get things done.

The dictionary offers this definition of patience: “the capacity to accept or tolerate delay, trouble, or suffering without getting angry or upset”.

How many of you find yourselves getting upset the longer you have to wait for something?

Going along with having patience is the fact that God wants us to be patient and listen for His instruction.

Do you think God could have opened the padlock?

Of course he could.

Do you think God could have helped you open your padlock if you had slowed down and asked Him for help?

Isaiah 30:18 (NLT) shows us how God has an abundance of patience for us.

It says, “So the Lord must wait for you to come to Him so He can show you His love and compassion. For the Lord is a faithful God. Blessed are those who wait for his help.”

God is full of patience.

He waits and waits for us to turn to Him and ask Him for help.

God is always there and willing to help… all you have to do is slow down, take your time, talk to God, and be patient.

CLOSE

Have preteens get into groups of three of four and have them discuss some situations that would have ended up differently if they had been patient and talked to God first.

Also have them share about how God can help us during those impatient times in our lives.

Have a preteen in each group lead their group in a closing prayer about having patience and waiting.

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