6th Grade Sunday School Lesson Plan
First Unit:  The Principles of Creation
Lesson #5 The Growing Period for Created Beings

Theme for the year:  "God is my friend"  Father's Words "Do not be discouraged.  Even though sometimes you feel that there is no God, know that He is always present.  With That feeling you must remember that God is with you." The Way of Tradition, Vol. 1, p. 2

Father's Words for the Principles of Creation Unit:  "You are a Son of God or a prince of God, or a princess of God.  In order to deserve this title, you must learn to think as God thinks, live as God lives, and be concerned as God is concerned, and love as God loves. The Way of Tradition, Vol. 1, p. 265.

Warm Up

Each student cuts out a medium-sized heart.  Then cut the heart in half and have students write their name on both halves.  Put the hearts separately in two paper sacks, one for boys, and one for girls.     Mix them up.  Have students pull out any two and pray for those people each day this week.

Explain that today we will be talking about the growing period for created beings, and how we must develop true love by growing our spirits.  Developing an awareness of other people and their needs is an important way to grow spiritually.

Divine Principle Lesson

1.  Genesis 1: 

a)  God created everything stepwise, in an orderly manner, over a time period.  He invested His love and energy in this process. 

b)  god was happy with His creation (It was "good")

c)  Each part of creation takes time to mature

2.  The growing period has 3 stages:  Formation Growth and Completion.

[Chart]

Seed-> Sapling ->Immature tree->  Mature/Fruitful Tree

3.  During the Growing Period, we are in God's Indirect Dominion.  Upon becoming mature, (as an ideal/true person), we enter God's Direct Dominion.  A perfect person cannot fall. 

[Chart]

Direct
Dominion
of God                         Perfection

                                   Completion
  Indirect                       Stage               

  Dominion                    Growth
                                   Stage
  of God               

                                    Formation
                                    Stage               

 4.  My growth occurs through:

a) Force of the Principle (God's universal law), and

b) Fulfillment of my portion of responsibility.

[Chart]

God's responsibility + My responsibility -> My perfection

 5.  a) God gave us responsibility so we can be co-creators by perfecting ourselves by developing true love.  to develop true love we must grow our spirits by:

1) Developing the awareness of other people and their needs

2) developing the knowledge of right and wrong.

3) learning the ability to give and receive true love

4) growing our sensitivity to God

Applying the Lesson

You will need markers or crayons and a sheet of newsprint for each student to create their own spiritual growth chart.    See below.

100 %(I'm perfect!     

75% (I'm doing very well!)

50%(I'm working on it)

 25%( I'm trying)

0% (I really need to work on this)                                             

                                                   |                                    

                                         Wk 1 Date   Wk 2 Date  Wk 3 Date  Wk 4 Date and so on

Students should draw a line or bar graph to chart their growth in the following areas

Have the students list several practical things they can do to develop, learn and grow in these ways, such as praying for others, getting along with brothers or sisters, praying for others, Hoon Dok Hae, serving others, etc.

The chart can be decorated, as each student desires.

Students should continue plotting their spiritual growth for the next several weeks.