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.
Whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable— if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
Philippians 4:8
We are called to protect our minds and fill them with things that are true, right, pure, and lovely. But often our minds are overcome with thoughts that are anything but praiseworthy. Worries, negative self-talk, and the lies of the devil push out our healthy thoughts and leave us weak and vulnerable. If we conquer an unhealthy thought or a lie but do not replace it with God’s truth, we leave a hole. And in a sinful world, it does not take long for another unhealthy thought to creep in and fill that space. But we are not alone on the battlefield of our minds. We have a powerful ally. Our Creator is a mighty warrior, and His truth will conquer any lies.
Write down the unhealthy thoughts that fill your mind. Pray, read your Bible, and listen for the Holy Spirit’s leading. Then cross out your unhealthy thoughts and replace them with God’s truth. Ask God to destroy the unhealthy thoughts in your mind and help you replace them with healthy, true thoughts that reflect His great love for you.
Encourage the students to ask a family member, “Do you ever have negative thoughts about yourself that are not true?” Teens can then share that we can replace unhealthy thoughts with healthy ones and begin new, positive chain reactions.
Teacher Tip: If possible, email or text the Family Connection Card to the families of your students.
Greet your students warmly. Ask if they were able to use the tips for managing emotions and which ones they found most helpful.
Our emotions, thoughts, and actions are all parts of a chain reaction. Something happens that causes us to think. Those thoughts cause us to experience emotions. And those emotions can cause us to act.
Have 3 students stand in a circle at the front of the room. They will be “Action,” “Thought,” and “Emotion.” Have them stand an arm’s length apart.
Touch the student who is “Action” on the shoulder.
Imagine this student represents something I did to you. Maybe it is something good such as congratulating you for being a good friend.
Allow 2–3 students to share their thoughts.
Use the answers shared by the students to finish the sentence below while “Action” touches “Thought” on the shoulder.
You might think, “(student idea)” or “(student idea).”
Allow 2–3 students to share their thoughts.
Use the answers shared by the students to finish the sentence below while “Thought” touches “Emotion” on the shoulder.
After you think, “(student idea)” or “(student idea),” you might feel (student idea) or (student idea).
Allow 2–3 students to share their thoughts.
Use the answers shared by the students to finish the sentences below while “Emotion” touches “Action” on the shoulder.
So after you think, “(student idea)” or “(student idea),” you might feel (student idea) or (student idea). This may cause you to choose to (student idea) or (student idea).
This is all a chain reaction. Something happens that causes you to think something, which causes you to feel something, which causes you to choose to do something. Then the cycle starts over again.
As you list the chain reaction below, take the place of “Action” in the circle.
Here is another example. The first action is that my father abandoned me. This might make me think, “My father must think I am worthless. I must have done something wrong.”
Place your hand on the shoulder of “Thought.”
This may cause me to feel sad, angry, rejected, or worthless. It may make it hard for me to trust others.
Have “Thought” place his hand on the shoulder of “Emotion.” Remove your hand from the shoulder of “Thought.”
This may cause me to choose to say something unkind to you or may cause me to avoid having relationships with others. My actions may cause you to have thoughts such as “She is not very nice!” or “She is not very friendly.”
Have “Emotion” place her hand on your shoulder. Have “Thought” remove his hand from the shoulder of “Emotion.”
This may cause you to have thoughts about me, which causes you to have emotions, which causes you to choose to act on those emotions.
Place your hand on the shoulder of “Thought” again.
Now you can try your own chain reactions.
Divide the students into groups of 3 and have them try their own chain reactions. They will follow the same pattern they just watched. Continue around the circle a few times or have the students switch roles and start over. This activity should only take about 5 minutes.
We learned to manage our emotions so they do not control us. But there is 1 more link in the chain—it is our thoughts. When we allow unhealthy thoughts to feed difficult emotions, we can start a negative chain reaction. But when we replace our unhealthy thoughts with healthy ones, we can change a bad chain reaction into a good one!
We all have negative thoughts at times. In our last class, we learned about letting go of things we cannot control. This affects us the most in the area of our thoughts. Throughout the day, we think about many things we cannot control: what someone else thinks of us, why things cannot change, or how someone else always seems to win. These thoughts about ourselves, other people, things going on around us, and our circumstances can damage the ways we see ourselves and our relationships with others.
All of us have unhealthy thoughts about ourselves and others at times. Some of these negative thoughts might be true. But others are not true. For example, have you ever thought, “I’m not good enough” or “I’ll never be successful”? Those are unhealthy thoughts, and they are not true. But they can affect our emotions and our actions and cause us to do things we will regret.
Sometimes our unhealthy thoughts involve seeing our own actions or the actions of someone else in the wrong way. For example, when I see a group of girls whispering, I might think, “They are talking about me” even though they are not. This affects my emotions and my actions in a negative way.
Worries are also negative thoughts. They can be caused by our untrue thoughts about ourselves or others. They can also be caused by seeing our own actions or the actions of others in the wrong way. Sometimes they are caused by real situations and real problems, but we allow the negative thoughts to grow bigger and bigger until we cannot think about anything positive.
Anxiety is often the result of negative thoughts. Listen to what the Bible says about anxiety.
If you are using the Memory Verse Poster, show it to the students.
Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
1 Peter 5:7
Allow students to answer, and then guide them to understand that God cares for us, so He does not want us to be anxious.
Allow students to answer, and then guide them to understand that God will help us with our negative thoughts such as anxiety, when we ask Him to.
These verses say that you can cast your anxieties on God because He cares for you. He cares about the things that are happening in your life. But He also cares about what you are thinking, what you are worried about, and how your negative thoughts affect you.
We struggle in the area of our thoughts. We may do the right things only because we know others are watching. But even when we say and do right things, we are often thinking unhealthy thoughts.
These unhealthy thoughts can grow bigger and bigger until we lose our perspective. Our worries often cause us to think that problems are worse than they are. These kinds of thoughts keep us from thinking about helpful and practical ways to solve our problems or overcome our fears. These thoughts also keep us from seeing the truth about ourselves and others.
Allow 4–5 students to share their ideas.
Unhealthy thoughts can seem very powerful—so powerful that it is difficult to control them. Try these steps for replacing your unhealthy thoughts with healthy ones.
First, decide if your negative thoughts are helping you or hurting you. Some negative thoughts help us to protect ourselves or solve problems in our lives. But some worries may never happen, and sometimes we cannot do anything to change the situation. These worries hurt us because they keep us from focusing on ways we can make positive changes in our situations. Is it likely that what you are thinking has happened or will happen? Are you thinking about your own actions or the actions of others in the right way? If your negative thoughts are hurtful instead of helpful, you can replace them immediately with healthy thoughts. For every untrue, negative thought, replace it with the truth. For example, if I think that the whispering girls are talking about me, I can replace my negative thoughts with something like “They must be saying how nice I am!” or “I am sure they are not talking about me.”
Second, learn to let go of the negative thoughts. Give them to God. It is difficult to force yourself to stop negative thoughts. And often they just come back again. Instead of trying to force them out of your mind, admit you have them, realize that they are negative and unhealthy, and release them to God. Ask Him to help you to replace them with truth. His truth is found in His Word, the Bible. If you are not yet ready to share your unhealthy thoughts with God, you can practice speaking something true instead.
Third, do what you can to change the situation. You may not be able to do anything, and that is okay. But if you can, do things to improve the situation. When you act on your positive thoughts instead of thinking about your negative ones, it can help you to have a healthier, more positive attitude.
Fourth, think of some things you can be thankful for that may happen because of the situation. For example, your mother lost her job and you are worried that your family will not have enough money. Instead of worrying about your mother finding a job, which is something you cannot control, think about things to be grateful for, such as how much more time you are spending with your mother or that the situation has helped you all to trust God more. This does not make the bad situation less important. It just keeps you from thinking only of the negative consequences.
Finally, say the things you are thankful for out loud. Say them every time you feel the negative, unhealthy thoughts. It can be a challenge to be thankful when you are in the middle of a difficult situation. But when you hear yourself saying positive things, it can help to make the negative things seem less important.
Listen to what the Bible says about trusting God with our worries.
Have a student read Philippians 4:6–7 aloud from the Bible. If that is not possible, the verses are printed here for you.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6–7
Allow 2–3 teens to share their thoughts about each of these questions.
The Bible tells us what we should think about.
Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.
Philippians 4:8
Have the teens find partners sitting near them. As you read the words below, have the pairs say the first words they think of in response to the word you just said. Students can say their words at the same time. Reassure them that there are no right answers. Whatever they are thinking is fine.
The Bible tells us how to have healthy thoughts. To change our unhealthy thoughts, we need to start thinking the positive things this verse mentions. If you still have trouble with negative thoughts, try some of these ideas.
When you change your unhealthy thoughts to healthy ones, you can start positive chain reactions. Remember the example I gave at the beginning of the lesson? My father abandoned me. My unhealthy thoughts were “My father must think I am worthless. I must have done something wrong.” This caused me to feel sad, angry, rejected, and worthless. It was hard for me to trust others.
But what if I decided to replace my unhealthy thoughts with healthy ones? What if I thought, “My father must have felt very unhappy to have left,” or “My father’s choices were not about me. If he had been thinking of me, he might have stayed.”
If those were my thoughts, then my emotions might still be sad and angry. But I would not feel rejected or worthless, and I might not choose to spread my anger to others. Instead I might feel that I am valuable and that there are many good things I can do.
Allow students to respond. Then guide the students to understand that when they replace their unhealthy thoughts with healthy ones, they might be more hopeful and make more friends.
Divide the students into groups of 3. Have them repeat the activity from the Connecting section, but this time they will create positive chain reactions. Give the groups 5 minutes to do their chain reactions. Then invite 2–3 groups to share their positive chain reactions with the whole class.
Let’s read the verses we heard earlier again.
Have a student read Philippians 4:6–7 aloud.
Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Philippians 4:6–7
God can help you to replace your unhealthy thoughts with truth and start good chain reactions in your life. He can fill you with the peace that passes all understanding.
Optional: If you are using the Student Pages, allow the teens to complete the activity on their pages.
Close class with a blessing based on Philippians 4:6–7.
Blessing: May you know that God cares for you and listens when you bring your thoughts and cares to Him. May He fill you with peace and thanksgiving. Let His truth defeat every lie you think.
Lead the children in singing this quarter’s song, if possible.
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.
