Deal with It

Fear is a big deal in the life of a child. Some are plagued by the fear of the dark. Some are afraid of water. Some wrestle with the fear of animals, or strangers, or heights. No matter what the fear, God has promised us that we do not have to live our lives in fear. All we have to do is call on the name of Jesus and ask for boldness, and He will deliver us from our fear. In this lesson, the kids will study the moment when Joshua was called to lead the nation of Israel. It was a scary time for Joshua, but he knew he had to “Deal With It!” God gave him the promise that He would never leave Joshua. He would always be with him and help him “Deal With It!”

Everybody wants to be accepted. There’s nothing harder than being in a crowd and standing out because you look differently, act differently, or talk differently than everyone else. Children are daily faced with the pressure to “fit in” by doing things that are contrary to what the Bible teaches and what God wants for their lives. That pressure can be very difficult to DEAL WITH. But, God can give us the courage to stand for what is right even when no one else will. In today’s lesson, we see how Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego chose NOT to give in to peer pressure and worship the idol. It wasn’t easy, but in the end God helped them be victorious!

Conflict is going to happen. It’s nearly impossible to have relationships with people and not have conflict. Our different personalities, ideas, and desires can cause conflict with each other often on a daily basis. The key question is not, “Will we have conflict?” Rather, the key question is, “How can we deal with conflict in a way that brings glory to God and does not harm our friendship?” This is not an easy question to answer. Paul and Barnabas faced a difficult decision. They both had strong opinions as to what was the right way to handle it. Rather than get angry with each other, they chose to “agree to disagree.” This is what the children will learn how to do in today’s lesson.

“I’m sorry” are two of the hardest words for someone to say. Even when the person who hurt us finally says those two words, it can be even harder for us to say, “I forgive you.” Forgiveness is hard to deal with, but not dealing with it is even worse. For a Christian, that’s not an option. We must not live our lives holding unforgive- ness towards someone, no matter what they have done to hurt us. If we do, it hurts us much more than it ever hurts them. In this lesson, the children will look at the parable of the Unforgiving Servant and learn that we must choose to forgive others because God has forgiven us of so much more

Many adults think children don’t know the first thing about stress. And, while children may not know what to call it, they certainly deal with their fair share of it every single day. From pressure to do drugs, to pressure to do well in sports, to pressure to make good grades, to pressure to have a lot of friends and act a certain way: life can be pretty overwhelming to a child. No matter who we are, when we begin to feel the stress and pressures of life beating down on us, there is one place we can go for rest...the presence of God. It is there we can find peace for our tired and stressed out souls. His peace is amazing and can only be found in His presence.

Being lonely is a hard thing to deal with. You can be in the middle of a crowd and feel lonely. Your mind starts telling you that nobody cares about you at all. It may not be true, but you sure feel like that’s the way it is. When we are lonely, we forget that Jesus has promised to always be there for us no matter what. When loneliness sets in, we end up cutting ourselves off from others instead of reaching out to others. In this lesson, the children will learn about how to deal with loneliness. When you feel like there is no one else who cares for you, just remember that Jesus is always there.

All of us have bad days. Things don’t always go our way all the time. Sometimes, we face difficulties with people or things and are tested to see if we will have a Godly attitude or not. Too often, we let our attitudes be determined by what our day is like. If things go well, we have a great attitude. If things go badly, we have a bad attitude. This week, we will learn how to take that bad attitude and DEAL WITH IT! We must remember that we have a choice whether or not we have a bad atti- tude. Our attitude is a choice. It is not determined by others. We should have the same attitude that Jesus had.

“Please don’t make me angry. You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry.” These words were uttered at the beginning of every episode of “The Incredible Hulk.” David Banner would lose control and become a large, green, muscular monster and wreak havoc on his enemies. Although we may not turn green and muscular, many times we seem no different from Hulk when we lose control of our anger. Someone hurts us, things go wrong, and we allow our anger to turn into some kind of monster and hurt those around us. In this lesson, the children will learn that although anger itself is not a sin, when we allow our anger to control us, it will ALWAYS lead to sin.

Depression is a serious issue for people, including children. Childhood depression is affecting more and more children every single year. We can choose to ignore this fact, or we can choose to DEAL WITH IT. God did not design us to live life depressed and sad. Certainly depression is NOT a sin, but that doesn’t mean we have to just sit by and let it control us either. We can DEAL WITH IT by allowing God’s joy to fill our lives. In this lesson, the children will learn how David dealt with depression when it seemed that everything was going South in his life. He worshipped himself out of depression and allowed the joy of the Lord to be his strength.

“Watch your mouth!” This phrase has been uttered by many a parent, teacher, or Children’s Leader when deal- ing with children. Too often, children speak WAY before they think! More of- ten than that, the words that are spoken do a lot of damage to others. Learning to control the tongue is one of the hardest lessons a child can learn. We should use our tongue for helping others instead of hurting them, for telling the truth instead of lies, and for sharing the gospel instead of spreading gossip. In this lesson, the children will learn the destructive power of the tongue and how to DEAL WITH IT when we start to lose control of our tongue and our words.