Can UU Kids Pray?
Using prayer beads can help us ‘talk to god’ or think about how our lives are going.
Some Unitarian Universalist kids believe there’s a God in heaven deciding how we live and when we will die. Other UU kids think God is the force of life and nature. Still others don’t believe in any kind of God at all. With all these different ideas about God, what would prayer (a kind of talking to God) be like for UU kids?
The Reverend Christopher Gist Raible, like all UU ministers, thinks that kids need to decide for themselves what their beliefs are about God, but he also thinks we can all benefit from prayer. Kids can use prayer to think about how their lives are going and to make plans for how to become the best people they can.
Reverend Raible says that when kids pray they might think about what they feel thankfu1 for, what they feel sorry for, and what they are hopeful about.
Virginia Steel, a UU Director of Religious Education added one more thing to the list of things Reverend Raible thinks kids can pray about: She thinks kids can also pray about what they want to improve in their lives. She used the word THIS to remember the four things we could pray about: being Thankful, being Hopeful, wanting to Improve, and being Sorry.
In some religions, people use a string of beads to help them count how many times they have said certain prayers. Catholics call these beads "rosary beads."
When Muslirns use beads to help them pray, they call it "tasbih."
Is war ever right?
Goal: To consider two opposing points of view about war: 1. that fighting leads to less happiness in the end and 2. that war can lead to lasting peace.
Activities:
Read: Two Selfish Kings and Krishna, Champion of the Oppressed
Discuss:
How useful do you think Buddha’s advice was in Two Selfish Kings? Would it work today?
What makes land belong to a country or to a person?
Have you ever had little “wars” of your own? Think of some examples. How have some of these been settled? What are some consequences and results of quarrels and fights?
How do you think Krishna felt, knowing that his dharma (his social duty, his fate) committed him to a life of war and struggle, when he was not really a warlike person?
How did he try to live out his dharma? (By championing the cause of the weak and the right.)
Why did Arjuna believe that even if he won and destroyed the army of the evil king, his own sin would be greater than theirs? (Because he believed killing was a sin.) Krishna gave him a response that was based on the religious belief that the real life (soul) within each person cannot be killed; therefore, he should not mourn those he must kill in order to achieve peace. What do you think of this? Is this the kind of answer you would have given Arjuna? What would be yours?
Can you think of examples today where religion is used by political leaders to promote certain policies, including war, and forbid independent thinking?
Reflect on the soul-searching of Arjuna and the words of the suffering widow and mother. Do you think the peaceful years following the war could make these women forget their husbands and sons? Could the results of the war been achieved another way?
Debate:
Divide your family into two groups. Discuss among yourselves the pros and cons of proceeding with this war. Then conduct a mini-debate: state, in your own words, the arguments for proceeding with this war and the arguments against proceeding with this war.
What Am I?
I believe:
that my religion is not just going to church and saying
prayers. My religion is the way I live–the good I can do and
the things I can learn. "I make my life a prayer each day–by
living and doing, in the very best way!
Here is a picture of me.
I know:
everything I say, everything I do is important. What my
friends say and do is important too-even though I don’t
always agree with them. Everyone has different ideas and I
respect them!
Here is a picture of my friend.
I believe:
that all religions have something good to teach, but no one
church knows all there is to know. That’s why in our church
we always try to learn more; by reading and talking and
making things, and by thinking about everything that has
happened since the world began.
Here is where my congregation meets.
Story and Craft: Who Owns the Well?
Introduce the activity by saying: To help us think about who owns the earth, we’re going to make puppets and act out a story from West Africa. (Show West Africa on map, globe, or atlas.)
Getting ready for the play: There are many possible ways to do the play, depending on the ages and size of your group. Characters include a narrator (could be leader) and God, who have the largest speaking parts, and a lizard and frog with smaller parts. The remaining children can choose whichever puppet-animal they’d like to be.
Decorate puppets according to taste, assembling the parts and attaching them to the body sticks as shown. Youngest participants may color the body sticks and cut them out while older ones do the more complicated work. Some might create a well by rolling and coiling clay or play dough, or by coloring and decorating a small box.
Begin the play!
Narrator: There was once a drought in the country. The streams dried up, and the wells went dry. There was no place for anybody to get water. The animals met to talk it over–(list your animals). They decided to ask God for help. Together they went to God and told God how bad things were.
God: Hmmm. I’m thinking. But don’t worry. They don’t call me God for nothing. Hmmm. I will give you one well for everyone to use.
All animals: Thank you God. You are very kind.
God: You will have to take good care of the well. One of you will have to be caretaker. The caretaker will stay by the well at all times and see that no one makes it dirty. Hmmm. (God looks at all the animals.) The lizard looks like the best caretaker. Therefore I appoint the lizard to be caretaker.The well is over there in the grove.
Narrator: The animals went away. The lizard went straight to the well. Soon the animals began coming to the well. Lizard stopped them.
Lizard: (In a deep voice.) Who is it? Who is it? Who is walking in my grove?
1st animal: It is I, the _______. I am coming for water.
Lizard: Go away! This is my well, and the well is dry!
Narrator: So the ___________ went away thirsty. Then another animal came to the well.
Repeat until all the animals have asked for water.
Narrator: So the animals went away thirsty because they had no water to drink. God saw all the suffering going on.
God: I gave the animals a well to drink from, but they are all dying of thirst. What is the matter? I will go to the well and find out.
Lizard: Who is it? Who is it? Who is walking in my grove?
God: It is I, God. I am coming for water.
Lizard: Go away, God. The well is dry.
God: Lizard, you are making me angry. It is I, God. I am coming for water.
Lizard: I told you already. Go away, God. The well is dry.
Narrator: God said no more to the lizard. God sent for the animals to come to the well.
God: You came to me because you were thirsty and I gave you a well. I made Lizard the caretaker. But Lizard gave no thought to all the other animals. If a woman has a banana tree in her garden, it is hers. If a man has a cotton tree in his garden, it is his. But if a person has a well in the garden, only the hole in the ground belongs to the person. The water is God’s and belongs to all creatures.
Because the lizard abused the responsibility, the lizard is no longer caretaker. Henceforth Lizard must drink water from rain puddles. The new caretaker will be the frog. The frog will not say, "Go away, the well is dry." Frog will say, "This is God’s well. It belongs to everyone."
Narrator: So the animals drank at the well. The lizard went away and drank rain water wherever it could be found. The frog is now the caretaker. All night Frog calls out:
Frog: This is God’s well. It belongs to everyone. This is God’s well. It belongs to everyone.
Narrator: People have a saying: The hole in the ground is yours, the water is God’s.
