Lesson 22 : Steadfastness

…what does steadfastness mean? And how do you explain it to an audience of 3 to 11 year olds…?

Not an easy task, but we agreed, that there are some great examples of steadfastness – the mountains, solid steadfast, not moved by every little wind or change around them. Or trees – with their roots deep in the earth, holding on, maybe sometimes swaying in the wind, but not jumping from place to place, constantly changing their mind.

Looking at the Virtues Guide (p 237 onwards) we learned that being steadfast also means being true – to someone or something. To stick with it, even if there are obstacles in the way.

To help us with learning our quote for today’s lesson, we traced our feet, and decorated them into beautiful footprints. These we then layed on the ground like footprints on a path and practiced the words, while steping from footprint to footprint.

“Make firm our steps, O Lord, in Thy path, and strengthen Though our hearts in Thine obedience.”

The children did very well! It’s amazing to see how movement and interaction with the words, helps them memorise the quotes much quicker.

We finished our class with a game of “The Wolves & Goats” (see Ruhi Book 1, page 30) – where we set up a little obstacle course with cushions, representing the bridge the goats have to cross. Under this bridge a family of wolves are sleeping, they love to gobble up goats, but only do so if they hear them. So as soon as the wolves stop snoring, the goats (children) have to freeze. A great game to get everyone involved!

Oh – and of course, we started today’s class with singing along to the beautiful video ‘Strive’ – check it out here:

Have a great week everyone – see you next Sunday – where we’ll talk about ‘Humility’. 🙂

Lesson 7 : Steadfastness

Today’s lesson was all about Steadfastness, and the courage it takes to stand up for what is right. Not an easy concept to learn (not even for adults 😉 ) – but our children did well!

We started by learning the quote of today’s class with the help of a floor-poster (see lesson pdf for sample).

Our story was going to be ‘Hazel’s Amazing Mother‘ by Rosemary Wells, but I couldn’t get hold of a copy in time. So we concentrated on various excerpts on Steadfastness from ‘The Virtues Guide‘.

As a craft we traced our footprints and decorated them as a reminder to stay steadfast. Stand up for what is right and not waver…

Hoping for more sunshine again next week – then we can have some of our activities outside – stay dry and warm everyone!

You can view/download today’s lesson here: 7_Steadfast.