Hotshots: Self Worth

more by Jason Gardner | Youth

Title: Self Worth

Preparation:

One envelope containing a two pound coin, one envelope containing a 2p coin. On the envelope with the £2 coin write clearly ‘what is in here is definitely worth more than anything I’m going to offer you.’ Both coins should be padded within the envelope so your volunteers can’t feel what they are. And 2 bags containing one of each 2pence sweets, 10p sweet, 50p chocolate bar.

Talk:

Get two volunteers up on the stage, may be worth picking them before hand. Say to first ‘I’ve got a gift for you here’ hand them the envelope containing the 2p.
Say ‘Now what you’ve got in that envelope might be worth something it might not, do you want to swap it for what I’ve got here?’
Go through the sweets offering the smallest to the biggest, then offering them all if they haven’t swapped. Get them to open the envelope if they don’t, or you do it if they have.
If they do swap say ‘it was definitely worth the swap what you had already wasn’t worth very much at all.’
If they don’t say ‘for you the swap would have been worth it as what you’ve got doesn’t amount to very much.’
Repeat with the other volunteer, when you hand them the other envelope make sure they read what’s on the outside.
If they swap or not say ‘what you had already was worth far more than anything I had to offer you.’ Reveal the £2 in the envelope.
Thank them and send them back to seats.

Point.

NB adapt according to outcome.

What would you have done if you were the first volunteer? It’s tempting to swap because you’re not sure of the worth of what you’ve already got. It could have been a £2 coin in there. You could have risked it and held on to what you’ve got.
But for the second volunteer they already knew that what they had was worth more than anything I had to offer them.
Sometimes in life we take a risk because we’re not sure of how much we are worth.
We think ‘if we do what everybody else is doing then we’ll be worth more to our friends. If we drink, if we take drugs, smoke, have sex, perhaps even break the law then we’ll be worth hanging around with.
We often find though at the end of the day isn’t worth the consequences.
Now what if it wasn’t £2 but a million pounds, you’re definitely not going to swap that for a few sweets.
The truth is when it comes to what we’re worth, we’re sitting on an absolute treasure trove. In terms of our talents, our skills, our ability to love and help others we are capable of so much.
Pretty much anybody can smoke, anybody can drink, anybody can have sex. Is it worth the risk? You are worth so much is it worth swapping who you really are to become just somebody everybody else wants you to be?

Further Illustrations:

Christian Perspective:

Matt 13:44,45 – Hidden Treasure and Great Pearl – something worth swapping everything we’ve already got for is a relationship with God.

Media Clips:
Tape a Loreal advert from the TV ‘Because you’re worth it.’
Raiders of the Lost Ark – Opening sequence where Indiana takes the gold statue until he exits the cave to be met by native Indians with lots of arrows – was it worth the risk?

What are we really worth?
Old illustration but good one – what the human body possesses  - scroll down to: ‘The average human body… www.corsinet.com/trivia/average.html