3. Alchemy of the Heart (Ages 6 to 10) Lesson 3

Connecting with Your Heart

Overview of Lesson 3 for Children Ages 6 to 10

  • Your connection to God is the most important thing in your life and is what makes you happy.
  • You can become the friend of God and learn to listen to him.
  • You can learn to be more loving all the time by building a momentum.
  • You can do everything – by God’s grace!

SUGGESTED MUSIC: Harp music is associated with the heart. If you have a CD player and harp music, play it as you are preparing and when you and your child begin the lesson. You may also wish to play it during brief meditations.

CHAPTER 2: Empowering the Heart

MATERIALS:

  • Sheets of paper
  • Large sheet of pink colored paper (optional- if you have white, your child can color or paint it pink)
  • Large sheet of white or other colored paper
  • Magazines with lots of pictures
  • Stickers
  • Scissors and glue
  • Yarn
  • Clay or papier mâché. (To make papier mâché, mix one part flour with about 2 parts of water until you get a thick glue-like consistency. Add more water or flour as necessary. Mix until mixture is smooth. Add several tablespoons of salt. Tear several sheets of newspaper into small bits and soak in water for layering with glue solution.)
  • Cardboard tube (empty toilet tissue roll will work)
  • Crayons and colored pencils

NOTE: This lesson is chock full of wonderful ideas! It is dividee into several lessons of parts A, B, C and D on different days. We suggest you divide the material into four sessions. 

Download this Lesson

Section A Lesson:

Expanding Your Connection with God

Do you remember what you learned in the first lesson? You are created in the image of God and you have God’s spiritual flame of love within you. In the last lesson we did a meditation to help us feel our hearts full of sunshine and love — our connection to God.

The flame of God’s love that is inside you is the most real part of you—it is your real self!

Activity 1: I AM the Light of the Heart

 Let’s do the mantra

I AM the Light of the Heart

  • See yourself standing with a brilliant golden big sun over your heart. (You can close your eyes or leave them open.)

  • Take three slow deep breaths as you see the light from the sun expand.

  • Affirm to yourself three times,   “I AM the light of the heart!”

This sun that you see is God’s light surrounding you and shining forth from you. If you practice this visualization every day,  you can feel the sunshine of God’s love around you all the time. It will help you be kind and compassionate to those around you.

No matter where you go or who you are with, you always have your special heart connection to God. Staying connected to God inside of you is the most important thing you can do in your life. Why do you think that is so? 

Discuss with Your Child

  • Staying connected to God helps you feel happy.
  • Staying connected to God helps you to make good choices.
  • Staying connected to God helps you become more of your real self.
  • Staying connected to God helps others around you feel happy.
  • Staying connected to God helps you to know God is your friend.

Section B: Being the Friend of God

Have you ever thought about having God as your friend? What are some the ways you can make your friendship with God stronger? Allow time for discussion. Here are a few ideas you may want to share with your child.

Friendship with God

  • Learn to see yourself shining with light and love.
  • Pray to God every day.
  • Talk with God often throughout the day.
  • Listen in your heart when you talk with God.
  • Enjoy quiet time with God.
  • Share the light in your heart by being kind and joyful so other people will feel happy too.
  • Let God’s love in your heart help you make good choices.

 

Activity 2: Give Your Gift to God

A great doctor and humanitarian, named Albert Schweitzer said: “One thing I know: the only ones among you who will be really happy are those who have sought and found how to serve.” Giving makes us glad inside. There are many ways you can give to God, in gratitude for the life and light you have.

  • Make a special little gift of something you make, write or draw and put it on your altar or in your sacred space.
  • Find ways to serve others and be kind – knowing that your tie to God’s heart helps you to see and feel what others around you need.

Activity 3: Praise God

Develop your own special ritual of praising God.
It can be as simple as making up your own song
or giving the prayer:

“Hear O God, I am grateful!”

Activity 4: Write a Letter to God

One way to feel closer to God is to write a letter, sharing your prayers and dreams, your fears and hopes. When you write the letter, you and your parents can say a prayer and burn it. No one reads it except the spirit of God.

Listening to God

One of the most important things you can do
is to listen to God as your dearest friend.
One way God talks to you is through
your inner voice, sometimes called your conscience.
Your conscience guides you in several different ways:

  • Conscience helps you know what is right and what is wrong.
  • Conscience helps you to notice when someone around needs your help. It also shows you the best ways to help.
  • You can learn to obey your conscience and make good choices if you practice listening.

Before you make a choice there is a brief moment when you know what is right and what is wrong. Then it is up to you to make the decision to do the right thing. Here is a very simple four-step routine way to help you pay attention to that moment of choice.

Activity 5: I Make Good Choices!

  1. Stop before you speak or act.

  2. Take a slow deep breath.

  3. Feel God’s love in your heart and listen.

  4. Obey your conscience.

Extend God’s Love by
Being a Friend to Others

We have special and important friendships with people around us. They may be of all different ages, but they are still our friends. How do we show our friendship?

Allow time for discussion, and make sure to include the ideas of talking with your friend, listening to your friend, sharing time with your friend and trusting your friend.

Activity 6: Heart to Heart Friendship Network

  • Assist your child to make a list of family and friends outside of your town.
  • Buy some post cards that show your town.
  • Send one to each of the people on your child’s list, with a simple greeting and request for a picture postcard of where they live.
  • When the postcards return, mount them.
  • Print the map at the end of this lesson. Your child may want to color it. Locate each person’s hometown. String pieces of yarn between your town and all your friend’s homes.
  • Reflect upon the beautiful pattern of connection your friendships have provided. 

Activity 7: Role Plays

Here are some examples of making good choices. You can talk about them or act them out. You can think of other situations you might like to act out. 

Download the Role Play Cards

Activity 8: Family Sharing - Listen to Your Heart

Around the dinner table,
each member of the family
can share experiences of how
they listened to their hearts
before taking an action.

Section C: Building a Momentum

 

What is a momentum?


Do you know what a momentum is? When you do something over and over again until it becomes a habit, you have built a momentum. It becomes a natural and easy thing to do. Connecting to God in your heart every day can become a momentum. Being a happy person can become a momentum.

The decision of how to use the energy that God releases to you every moment of every day is yours to make. Did you realize that you can choose to be happy or sad? You can pay attention to the flame of love in your heart and even when things don’t seem to be going quite right, even if you fall off your snowboard, you can find the joy in your heart and smile.

In our last lessons we talked about spiritual alchemy. Do you remember how you learned to feel the flame of love inside of you? The momentum of being loving and kind will help you over tough times.

 

Real Life Example of Momentum

Here is a story of someone who developed a powerful momentum of being happy, even when things were not going so well for him. Do you know where a country called Myanmar is? It used to be called Burma. You can look on a map and find it in Southeast Asia.

In 1995 a man by the name of U Tin U was released from prison in Myanmar. He had been there for more than ten years; not because he was a criminal, but because he had spoken out for freedom.

U Tin U explains what his life was like. “My hut within the prison compound was completely encircled by barbed wire.
I was indoors all the time.

And the wire was a constant reminder of how precious freedom was…. This filled me with joy.”

He studied books of Jesus and Buddha. These were his comfort tools. He refused to become angry and bitter. He did not want to see any man as his enemy, so when his wife brought him food, he shared with them. U Tan U understood that he could choose to be happy, no matter what. He was not going to let anybody or anything stop the flame of love in his heart.

Building your own momentum

You can build a momentum of thinking about God, talking to God and listening to God. Then whatever happens to you, good or bad, from getting an award at school to getting stung by a bee, you always keep the flow of love going between you and God. 

When you have the momentum of a strong connection with God, it is easier to be loving and kind with your family and friends. It is easier to remember to do the right thing. When you do the right thing, it makes you feel happier because God’s light flows into you and fills you with joy.

Sometimes it is very easy to feel the flame of love in your heart and sometimes it is more difficult. Just imagine U Tin U. It was probably very hard for him to feel love some lonely days in prison. But he did it. You can too.

Can you think of some times when you have to work hard to stay connected to God? Allow time for discussion.

Activity 9: Building Your Momentum Mountain

  • You can do this with paper mache or with clay. Build a mountain around the tube. Build it as high as you like.
  • While it is getting dry, draw a picture of a shining sun. Cut it out and put it on the tip top of the mountain to remind you of God.
  • Draw and collect pictures, stickers, etc. that show people being the friend of God.
    Glue them onto your momentum mountain.

Section D: Your Gifts

Discovering Your Gifts

Love is a creative force and power. Once you realize that you are a co-creator with God your life changes. You begin to realize “This is an awesome responsibility. What am I going to do with my power to create?”

You can become exactly what you want to do and who you want to be, with God’s help. The love in your heart is a great power to create. Staying connected with God helps you to do all of the things you can dream of doing and becoming.

When you were born, your soul knew you had certain things to do in this life. God gave you certain gifts to develop and use. How do you know what your special gifts are? How do you make sure you do what you promised God you would do? Collect an assortment of pictures of people doing many different jobs. Look at these pictures and think about what you want to be when you grow up.

Activity 10: Imagine God's Plan for Your Life

Imagine yourself in heaven before you were born. Imagine that you could see your whole life in front of you and you knew what you were going to accomplish in this life. Imagine that you could see the work you would do and you could clearly see the skills and talents that you would use in your life to serve people.

Close your eyes and see the flame burning in your heart. Feel the light warm you and make you feel peaceful. Ask God to show you what you are going to do in your life. Wait and see what you see in your mind’s eye and what you feel.

With God’s help, you can do everything your heart tells you that you can. Here is a little prayer you can say: “With God, I can do everything!”

Activity 11: Do a Career Collage

Look through some magazines and find images and words that show what you dream of becoming. Make a collage out of them on the paper.

Activity 12: Draw Yourself as a Grown-Up

Make a picture of yourself
when you are grown up,
doing what you think

God wants you to do. Tell the story about what you are doing.

Activity 13: Explore Career Ideas

As you think about things you would like to do in your life, it is a good idea to go see people at work and ask them questions. Ask them what they do in an average day. Ask them what they love most about what they do.

• If you like animals, visit a veterinarian.

• If you like being outside, visit a park ranger at one of our state or national parks.

• If you like geology or oceanography, try to visit someone who works in the field.

• If you like writing, visit a newspaper.

• If you think you would like to design or build buildings, visit an architect’s office or a construction site.

• If you are interested in art, visit an artist while he is working.

• If you think you would like to be a doctor, visit your family doctor.

• If you want to be a fireman arrange to visit your local firehouse.

• If you want to be a travel agent, go and visit a local agent.

There are lots of books at the library about different professions, and the Internet can be a great resource to find out more about what you want to do.

Summing Up

  • Your connection to God is the most important thing in your life and is what makes you happy. What are the ways you want to develop your connection to God?
  • You can become the friend of God and learn to listen to him. What are two ways you can be the friend of God.
  • You can learn to be more loving all the time by building a momentum. What kind of momentum do you want to build
  • You can do everything – by God’s grace. What do you want to do when you grow up?

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Lesson 1   |   Lesson 2   |   Lesson 3  |   Lesson 4   |   Lesson 5   |   Lesson 6