The Ah Ha Moment

Last night at youth group we were throwing around soft objects and hard questions. The evening was filled with dodgeballs, a great big skit involving rubber chickens, a play dough talk, some small group time and then a closing worship: all of which was centered around integrity.

My favorite part of the evening was the Ah Ha moment in the play dough talk. We had just improvised a skit (with complete silliness) about Daniel and were debriefing what integrity looks like. Then I passed around some play dough containers and began to explain how play dough can help us remember to have integrity.

Students were instructed NOT to open their containers, but the passing out took a little longer than expected and I could hear the ripple of surprise through the crowd as each person opened their container and realized that the play dough inside didn't match the lid on the outside. What gives? they were all asking... which was a perfect moment for the first point in the discussion: that when you have integrity, you're insides match your outsides. Ah Ha!

Other examples that I used with play dough were that play dough changes shape constantly and that it doesn't have the firmness to stand up on it's own (both examples of when we don't have integrity). The small group conversation following was quite deep as kids were asked to share times and places when their own integrity was lacking and when and why they do have strong integrity.

Building on the Daniel and the lions den theme, I also read a verse from 2 Timothy 4:16-17 about what it feels like when we're left to the lions and delivered to safety. We sang Lions by Lost and Found, and had all laid our play dough examples of integrity on the table in the midst of our worship space... what a good way to end a good evening.

Dodgeball also should be explained. I'm not a big fan of super athletic events because it alienates so many kids... but I bought some dodgeballs from Ikea (actually they are soccer pillows) which are the best dodgeballs ever. First, they don't hurt - they are pillows. Second, because they are pillows, they don't go fast or far, which means that the game can be played in close quarters with a lot more intensity. Third, they come in three different colors (black, red and blue) which I use to ramp up the game. during the games last night the three different colors imapcted you in different ways. If you got hit by a red one you switched teams, a black one meant you had to lose a body part (put an arm behind your back or stand on one leg), a blue one meant you had to do 10 pushups... just all kinds of options.