Lost your senses?
How well can you complete a task without one of your senses? Each part of our body is important, how easy is it to succeed when something is missing?
This week you have a choice of three challenges to complete outside where each challenge involves taking away one of your senses. Think about how all parts of our body work together and how difficult it can be if one of them is not working.
Challenge 1
Create an obstacle course in the garden (or a nearby park if you don’t have a garden). Wear a blindfold and get someone to direct you around the course.
Challenge 2
Go to the Memorial Park with a grown-up. Wear a blindfold and try to climb the stairs and go down the slide on the climbing frame with someone giving you instructions. Your grown-up will watch and make sure you don’t fall!
You could also have a shot on a rocking horse or the roundabout. Does the motion feel different when you are blindfolded?
Challenge 3
No blindfold for this one!
Guide someone on a short walk without using your voice to give directions. How easy is it to guide someone left, right, straight ahead etc. without talking to them?
Questions for Discussion
- How did it feel completing a task without the use of your eyes/voice?
- What challenges would you face if you were unable to use your eyes?
- What happens to our ability to communicate when we can’t use our mouths?
- Imagine a conversation between your body parts; hands, feet, mouth, ears. Wwhat would they say to a part if one of them thought they were more important than the others?
- We have thought about our body parts but what about everything else, Can you think of a special talent or skill God has given you?
Note: When we consider “gifts” young children can use, examples include a cheerful disposition and a smile that can be offered to anyone at any time. “Helpful hands” can be used to open doors, carry packages and to clean up messes. A helpful pair of arms can offer a hug to someone who is feeling sad. A kind voice can place a phone call to a friend who is sick or to a grandparent, who will be blessed because someone called to say, “I love you!”
Key Concepts
We need all the parts of our body to function well. Basic life tasks become very difficult when we don’t have the use of our eyes to guide us. If we cannot use our voice, it is challenging to communicate. God gives everyone gifts and abilities so we can use them to serve others. If we begin to think our gifts are more valuable than the gifts God has given to others, our pride can get in the way of the “body of Christ” functioning as it should.
When we compare ourselves to one another, we can be tempted to question each person’s value. As a result, our pride can get in the way of things being accomplished in a way that honours God. If we are tempted to be proud of a gift God has given us, we can remember the instructions written in Romans 12:9-11 that tell us to use our gifts to serve God and to show our love for each other by honouring one another above ourselves.
Relevant Scripture
Romans 12:3-6a “For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the measure of faith God has given you. Just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we who are many form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to us.”