What Would You Say? Bible Story: Bottom Line: Memory Verse: Life App: Basic Truth:

Bible Story Outline Week 3 What Would You Say? (Choose Your Words Carefully) Proverbs 12:18 SETTING UP THE STORY Words have power We ll be looking at a verse in the book of Proverbs God made King Solomon one of the wisest men who ever lived, and Proverbs is where a lot of this wisdom is written down Proverbs is a collection of wisdom about how we can live the way God wants us to A lot of the proverbs are sayings that use picture words Proverbs 12:18 THE POWER OF WORDS When we say things without thinking, our words have the power to cut like a sword Our words can hurt people in the same way a sword can cut and hurt a person When we use our words wisely and carefully, they can heal Words can cut like a sword, or they can heal; choose your words carefully THOUGHTLESS WORDS When we aren t careful with our words, we can hurt others like a sword If we don t stop to think about our words, it can quickly get out of control That s true ANYTIME we use words WORDS OF HEALING Words can also heal When we re upset, words can calm us down, make us feel better WRAPPING UP THE STORY Words have the power to hurt or to heal God wants us to use our words to help and encourage, not to tear down and destroy Sometimes we might feel like using words to hurt someone When you re upset, it s easy to say hurtful things to people without thinking about it It s important to control what you say so that your words are helpful, not harmful BL: Choose your words carefully. Jesus sent us the Holy Spirit to help us Pray and ask God for help Salvation Message 2018 The rethink Group, Inc. All rights reserved. www.thinkorange.com Adapted by Ginghamsburg Church 2019 2

What Would You Say? Bible Story: What Would You Say? (Choose Your Words Carefully) Proverbs 12:18 Bottom Line: Choose your words carefully. Memory Verse: God s power has given us everything we need to lead a godly life. 2 Peter 1:3a (NIrV) Life App: Self-control Choosing to do what you should even when you don't want to Basic Truth: I need to make the wise choice. 1. Countdown 2. Announcements 3. CG:Transition Slide then Host Opener (5 minutes) SFX: Play high-energy music as kids enter. CG: Theme Slide Host is on stage, welcoming the kids as they enter. Optional CG (Media Package): Countdown Video HOST: Hey, friends! I m glad you re here at [your environment s name] today. This month we re talking about how to update our operating system with self-control. CG: Self-control Slide Self-control is choosing to do what you should even when you don t want to. If you want to be able to do that, you ve got to update the way you react. Instead of just doing what you FEEL like doing, you stop and think about what you SHOULD do. Self-control can keep you from hurting yourself and others. It can keep you from saying or doing something you might regret. That s why God wants us to keep our cool! You know what sometimes makes me lose my cool? An Autocorrect Fail! CG: Autocorrect Fail Slide Hold up your phone. You know like when you re speaking out loud to tell your phone or your tablet what you want your message to say, but then you look at your message after you ve sent it and it looks nothing like what you had in mind? Sometimes the phone changes the text to something you never meant to say. Those texts can be pretty ridiculous... and pretty funny, too! In fact, I have an idea. I bet you could help me fix some text messages to some people. Since I always get autocorrected and end up sending the wrong thing, maybe you could give me some pointers. Who s in? (Pause for response.) Okay, let me give each of your Small Group Leaders a copy of my messages. Hand an Autocorrect Sheet (on a clipboard, if possible) and a pen to each Leader. I m afraid autocorrect made these texts pretty confusing. You ll work with your small group to see if you can figure out what I MEANT to say, and then you ll fix it. We ll start with message one. Leaders, when I say, Go, you ll listen to your group and write what it SHOULD say under the bolded words. Raise your hand when you think you ve got it, and I ll call on you to tell us the answer. Don t move on to the other messages yet. Just do number one for now. 2018 The rethink Group, Inc. All rights reserved. www.thinkorange.com Adapted by Ginghamsburg Church 2019 3

My first message is to my friend who wants to go to the movies today. I actually have plans after church, so I need to go later tonight. Let s look at what I sent. CG: Autocorrect Slide #1a Read the message from the screen. Hey! Incredibles would loop to go to the moon, but I have planes this Avengers! Maybe we could go sometime after dinosaur tonight? Yeah, that s not what I meant to say. Let's see if you can correct my Autocorrect Fail. Ready? Go! SFX: High-energy music Call on the first group that raises their hands. Get the Leader to say the correct answer into the mic. LEADER: Hey! I would love to go to the movies, but I have plans this afternoon! Maybe we could go sometime after dinner tonight? HOST: You got it! CG: Autocorrect Slide #1b Boy, what a difference a few words can make! Okay, now how about message two? This is one I sent to my neighbor. CG: Autocorrect Slide #2a Read the message from the screen. I just wanted to lettuce you know that I found your Mississippi dog. He must have goblin loose because the gator was open in your baboon. Can you correct my Autocorrect Fail? Ready, set, go! SFX: High-energy music Call on the first group that raises their hands. Get the Leader to say the correct answer into the mic. LEADER: I just wanted to let you know that I found your missing dog. He must have gotten loose because the gate was open in your backyard. HOST: Great job! CG: Autocorrect Slide #2b Thanks for clearing that up. Okay, we have one more message to fix. Here s the text I sent to [Storyteller s name], our Bible storyteller. CG: Autocorrect Slide #3a Read the message from the screen. Hey! Jumbo shrimp wanted to take out you that I can t plate for today s Bible chili! You are such a grande latte with soy milk Storyteller. I always have so much French fries with you! 2018 The rethink Group, Inc. All rights reserved. www.thinkorange.com Adapted by Ginghamsburg Church 2019 4

Wow! I guess my phone thought I was hungry with all those food words. Can you correct my Autocorrect Fail? On your marks, get set, go! SFX: High-energy music Call on the first group that raises their hands. Get the Leader to say the correct answer into the mic. LEADER: Hey! Just wanted to tell you that you that I can t wait for today s Bible story! You are such a great Storyteller. I always have so much fun with you! HOST: That sounds much better! CG: Autocorrect Slide #3b Thanks, everybody. I think I need to go back and send some corrected texts now. Don t you? Leaders, I ll take your sheets. All of you can stand up now and get ready to sing to our awesome God! Worship Leaders enter. Host collects the Leaders sheets and pens, and he exits. 4. Praise and Worship (10 Minutes) End with CG:Transition Slide 5. CG: Word Video and CG:Transition Slide 6. Bible Story (15 Minutes) CG: Blank Bottom Line Slide Worship Leaders exit. Storyteller enters, holding up his phone. 2018 The rethink Group, Inc. All rights reserved. www.thinkorange.com Adapted by Ginghamsburg Church 2019 5

SETTING UP THE STORY STORYTELLER: Hey, everyone! (Hold up your phone.) I ve got to admit, I was a little confused when I saw [Host s name] s text about jumbo shrimp. It made a LOT more sense the second time. Thanks for clearing that up! It s true, though. Words have power. Just by changing a word or two, you can completely change the meaning of an entire message. Words are powerful! Once again, we ll be looking at a verse in the book of Proverbs. (Hold up Bible.) Proverbs is a collection of advice and wisdom about how we can [Basic Truth] make the wise choice and live the way God wants us to. A lot of the proverbs are sayings that use picture words. They give us pictures of things in life that can help us to understand the truth of what God wants us to know. Today s verse is like that. It s Proverbs 12:18. Here s what it says. Open the Bible to Proverbs 12:18 (NIrV) and read. CG: Proverbs 12:18 Slide (leave up) The words of thoughtless people cut like swords. But the tongue of wise people brings healing. THE POWER OF WORDS STORYTELLER: Wow. That verse makes it super clear. Our words have a lot of power! When we use words thoughtlessly when we say things without thinking our words have the power to cut like a sword. That doesn t mean that our words magically turn into a sword and cut someone. It s a word picture. It means that our words have the power to hurt people in the same way a sword can cut and hurt a person. Think about a time when someone said something mean to you maybe they made fun of the way you were dressed or something you said, or maybe they laughed at how you played a sport or a video game. How did you feel? It hurt, didn t it? Almost like you had been cut by a sword. The good news is, the second half of this verse is also true. The tongue of wise people brings healing. When we use our words wisely and carefully, they can heal. When we say nice and encouraging things to people, our words have the power to make them feel better, to cheer them up, or to help them be brave. Think about a time when someone said something nice to you and how that made you feel. Words have power. They can cut like a sword, or they can heal. That s why it s so important to [Bottom Line] choose your words carefully. Let s see what that looks like.? I need two Leaders who have their phones with them to help me out. Bring up two Small Group Leaders with phones. Instruct them to stand on opposite sides of the stage. THOUGHTLESS WORDS STORYTELLER: We played a game about texting earlier. Our two Leaders here are about to show you how thoughtless words can cut like swords. [Leader s name] and [Leader s name], I want you to show us what you d look like if you were sending mean texts back and forth. Really play it up. Give us an Academy Award-winning performance here. Ready? Go. CG: Text Typing Slide (repeatedly, to match the Leaders) The two leaders animatedly pretend to be angry-texting. Encourage them to really play it up, bigger and bigger. He s like: Seriously? And she s like, Oh, really? And he s like, Oh, yeah? Well, how about this? And she s like, I can t even! 2018 The rethink Group, Inc. All rights reserved. www.thinkorange.com Adapted by Ginghamsburg Church 2019 6

(To the two Leaders) Whoa! Remember, you re just pretending! Okay, that s good. Thanks. (To audience) You could see how the angry and hurtful texts were affecting each of them, right? They got more and more hurt. As they got hurt, they tried even harder to hurt the other person. When we aren t careful with our words, we can hurt others like a sword. And if we don t stop to think about our words, it can quickly get out of control. That s true ANYTIME we use words not just in a text message. Maybe you ve had that happen to you when you got in an argument with your brother or sister. Usually it s a fight about something that s not even really that important. But what starts out small turns into a big fight, and then you start yelling louder at each other, and then you start to say even MORE hurtful and mean things that you really don t mean. That s the power of hurtful words. That s what happens when you don t [BottomLine] choose your words carefully. WORDS OF HEALING STORYTELLER: But Proverbs 12:18 tells us that words can also heal. Let s take a look at what that might look like. (To the two Leaders) Let s see you two make it better. Phones up, and you can read it out loud to tell us what you re sending. [Leader One s name], you can go first. CG: Bible Story Text Message #1 Again, the two Leaders will pretend to text. This time, they ll say their texts out loud as they send them. (If your Leaders can t see the screen, you can write what they should say on index cards.) LEADER ONE: (Reading from the screen) Hey! I heard you weren t having a good day today. I just wanted to let you know that you re awesome. STORYTELLER: Good job, [Leader One s name]. Don t forget to send it. Cue Leader One to press send on his phone. [Leader Two s name], your turn. CG: Bible Story Text Message #2 LEADER TWO: (Reading from the screen) Thank you so much! I didn t make the soccer team, and I m just really sad and embarrassed. Thank you for being a good friend. Nod to Leader One to cue him to go next. CG: Bible Story Text Message #3 LEADER ONE: (Reading from the screen) No problem. Hey, my older brother is really good at soccer. Maybe we can practice with him and get better, and then maybe you can make the team next season. Nod to Leader Two to cue her to go next. CG: Bible Story Text Message #4 LEADER TWO: (Reading from the screen) That would be so cool. You rock! My day is better already. I m going to get my ball and start practicing out back! STORYTELLER: That was so great! Let s all say, Awwwwwwwww. [Leader Two s name] could have felt really hurt and upset about not making the team, right? But [Leader One s name] calmed her down and made her feel so much better with just a few words. [Leaders names], thanks for helping us out today! Dismiss the two Leaders to their seats. 2018 The rethink Group, Inc. All rights reserved. www.thinkorange.com Adapted by Ginghamsburg Church 2019 7

WRAPPING UP THE STORY STORYTELLER: Just like it says in our verse from Proverbs, words have the power to hurt or to heal. God has given us a way to communicate with others using words, but He wants us to use those words to help and encourage, not to tear down and destroy. If we re honest, sometimes we might feel like using words to hurt someone. Maybe they said something that hurt you. Maybe you re frustrated because something isn t going your way. Maybe you didn t get invited to a friend s birthday party. Maybe you can t do something fun right now because you have to do your chores or homework first. When you re upset, it s easy to say hurtful things to people without thinking about it. It s important to control what you say so that your words are helpful, not harmful. CG: Bottom Line Slide It s important to [Bottom Line] choose your words carefully. There are going to be times in life when you re tempted to hurt people with your words, but you need to make the wise choice. Stop and think. [Bottom Line] Choose your words carefully. Can you say that with me? KIDS and STORYTELLER: [Bottom Line] Choose your words carefully. Of course, that s not always easy. Sometimes it s easier to say hurtful things because WE feel hurt. Sometimes it s easier to call people names or to talk back to our parents or teachers when they ask us to do something we don t want to do. But just because it s easier or it s what we feel like doing, that doesn t mean it s right. Use your words to help and encourage. Tell people how much they mean to you. When they do a good job playing a game, or when they solve a tough problem in school, or when they tell a really funny joke, tell them! The good news is, God can help you choose to say those helpful, healing words. Just look at our memory verse for the month: 2 Peter 1:3a. CG: Memory Verse Slide God s power has given us everything we need to lead a godly life (NIrV). God has given us EVERYTHING we need to have self-control. He can help us choose the words we say. He can give you the power to update the way you react to stop and think about your words before you say them. He can help you say healing words to people instead of hurtful words. As we have talked about words that cut us, maybe you are feeling hurt by something someone said to you. We want you to know that you are not alone. Jesus wants to be that friend that will be with you no matter what. When you are feeling hurt, you can talk to Him and He can help you. Jesus is the friend that will accept you who you are, and not for what you do or say. When we ask Jesus into our life, His Spirit comes and lives with us. You don't have to feel alone. If having Jesus as your friend is new to you, please talk to your small group leader. Now it s time to use your words as you talk about this some more in Small Group. Have fun! At the end the Storyteller should pray for the group and dismiss kids to Small Group 7. Small Group (20-30 Minutes) SFX: Play high-energy music as the kids exit. AND CG: Theme Slide 2018 The rethink Group, Inc. All rights reserved. www.thinkorange.com Adapted by Ginghamsburg Church 2019 8