During the lesson, the information for you to know is written in regular type, and what we suggest speaking or reading aloud to children is in bold. All resources for this lesson, including the Teacher Guide and Student Page, can be downloaded in a ZIP file by clicking on the following link:
In some lessons you will find "resource articles." These are articles written by experts from around the world to help equip you for your work with children and adolescents. Share them with parents or guardians if you consider it appropriate.
Unit Introduction: For the next 4 weeks, you will help the children learn about integrity. These character-building lessons are especially important for children who may not come from good, stable, Christian homes. Many have had to live by their wits, doing anything at all to get their needs and wants fulfilled. Often this leads them away from positive character development. These lessons can transform hearts, families, and communities!
Let the families of your students know the next few weeks you will be teaching about integrity. For many communities, finding people of integrity is difficult. It could be that even the families of the students are dishonest in some way. Pray that as the children share what they are learning about integrity, families and communities can be transformed.
Teacher Tip: If possible, email or text the Family Connection Card to the families of your students.
Welcome your children into class. As they enter, ask them to share 1 thing from creation that they praised God for this past week.
Have the children sit as you read each of the following situations. If the statement makes them feel angry or sad, they should stand up and yell, “Boo.” They will sit down again after each statement. The activity will introduce the topic of today’s lesson: integrity.
Encourage your children for their great responses to the situations. Share the following information about integrity with them.
In each of those situations, I showed you that I do not have integrity. Integrity is a big word that plays a part in almost everything we do. If we have integrity, we are trustworthy and honest. We show this by doing and saying what is right, even when no one is looking. I would never do any of the things from the examples I just gave you because I want to be a person of integrity. I pray that you do, too.
A person who has integrity tries, with God’s help, to do what is right every day and to tell the truth always. A person with integrity is honest, sincere, and fair in the way she behaves. A person who does not have integrity may be dishonest, unfair, or untrustworthy in his words and actions.
A society succeeds when its leaders show integrity in the way they lead. Someone who does not know God can still be a person of integrity. While we should not only do and say what is right just because it makes the world a nicer place in which to live. Christians should do and say what is right because they want to please God and show Him how much they love Him.
Integrity! Let’s hear about someone who was a person of integrity. Daniel is a person in the Bible who had great integrity. This is a true story. Daniel was a young man who wanted to always do and say what was right and true. As I tell you about him, think about the ways he showed integrity.
A long time ago, when Daniel was a teenager, he was captured and taken to another country. Daniel was handsome and intelligent, so he was chosen to serve the king in the palace. Even though he was living in a land filled with people who worshipped other gods, Daniel remained faithful to the One True God and lived in a way that was pleasing to God. Because of Daniel’s integrity, he eventually became an important advisor and a respected governor in the kingdom.
Many years later, the king died. The new king also trusted Daniel. In fact, the king planned to put Daniel in charge of his whole kingdom! This made some of the government officials jealous, so they tried to find things that would cause Daniel to lose favour with the king. But Daniel had so much integrity that the officials could not find anything wrong in him.
These officials knew that Daniel prayed to God. So they convinced the king to make a law that everyone in the kingdom could pray only to the king. Those who did not follow the law would be thrown to the lions. Then they watched Daniel to see what he would do.
Daniel loved God and chose to live with integrity. He went home and prayed to God. He did not try to hide his worship. He just prayed as he always did. When the officials saw this, they reported it to the king. Even though it made the king very sad, he had to throw Daniel into the den of lions because that was the law, and even he had to obey it.
But God protected Daniel from the lions that night. The next morning when Daniel was lifted from the lions’ den, he was completely unharmed. The king threw the officials who had reported Daniel into the lions’ den, and the lions killed them immediately. Then the king made a new law. From that time on, all of the people of the land would worship Daniel’s One True God. Because of his integrity, Daniel brought glory to God!
Now do a quick creative review of the story for the children. Pick one child to sit up front. That child will pretend to be Daniel. It can be a boy or a girl. That child should tell the story again in less than a minute, as if he or she were Daniel. Once the child is done, ask some questions, but remind the student to answer as Daniel.
Allow 2–3 other children to ask questions of “Daniel.” Then ask the following questions. Pick a couple of different children to answer each question.
Optional: If you are using The Action Bible, ask the children to read the story on pages 484–488.
Divide the children into small groups. Each group will create a list of dos and do nots for living with integrity. They should come up with a list of at least 5–6 things. After about 5 minutes, ask each group to pick a spokesperson to share 2 of their statements.
Optional Supplies: Give each group a piece of paper, pencil, and crayons. Each small group will create a poster of their integrity statements. Allow each group to share their poster with the class.
Listen to this Bible verse about integrity:
The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.
Proverbs 11:3
Share that “duplicity” means dishonesty.
As we talked about earlier in class, any person can have integrity. Remember that integrity means you do and say what is right, even when no one is looking. Christians can ask for God’s Holy Spirit to help them be people of integrity who honour Him. If you are a Christian, take a moment now to ask for God to help you be a person of integrity this week. If you are not a Christian, think quietly for a moment about ways you can show integrity this week.
Optional: If you are using Student Pages, allow children to do the paper airplane activity and sign their names if they want to live with integrity.
Let the children know that they will learn more about integrity in the next few weeks. Close by praying this blessing over them, based on Proverbs 10:9 and 11:3:
Blessing: May God fill you with integrity so that it can guide you this week. You can walk securely when you walk with integrity!
Continue to share this song with your children to celebrate how great God is!
Life on Life ©2020 David C Cook. Reproducible for home or classroom use only. All other uses require written permission from David C Cook [email protected]. All rights reserved.
