Hotshots: Value It

more by Jason Gardner | Youth

 
Title: Value It

Opening question & Comment:

‘If your house was on fire and you could rescue one thing ( not person) from your room, what would it be and why?’

When there is a tragedy such as the terrorist attack on the twin towers, people don’t call people to have a go at them, or to tell them how much they dislike them. They phone people they love to leave messages of hope. Because when it comes down to it, when the pressure is on, we realise what we really value.

Preparation:

You will need:

1 tray
1 tea-towel
6 sweets ( total not more than £2 and ranging from a chocolate bar down to 1p sweets )
£2 coin hidden in a lump of blue-tack
1 rolled up ball of sellotape

Activity:

Invite 6 volunteers up to the front with the promise of winning something. Briefly show them and the rest of the hall the contents of the tray and tell them that when you say so they are to grab ONE thing from the tray that they can keep.

Invariably they go for the sweets and the blu-tac and sellotape is left on the tray. Ask them if they are pleased with their win. Show them the £2 hidden in the sellotape and ask them if they were to do the game again, would they choose differently?

Talk:

What do you value?

With some things in life it’s easy to see what value they have. After all a lot of what we value, be it trainer’s or an I-pod have a price tag on them.

And just by looking you know that a small sweet is only worth 2p and a chocolate bar is worth about fifty.

With other things in life it’s not so easy to see the value straight away. Like the blue tac with the hidden coin. For example no one pays you for working hard in school you don’t get a wage at the end of the week, but later in life when you’ve got the career you want you’ll value the effort you put in when you studied.

And friendships you can make yourself attractive by wearing all the right clothes, having the right phone listening to all the right music, but what people will really value in you can’t so easily be seen.

Are you a loyal friend, do you stick with people through thick and thin, or do you only hang around with the people who make you look good, or do you search beyond the surface for what’s of real value.

Do you want to be valued only for the way you look or do you want people to work a bit harder with you, to find what’s beyond the brand names and the bling?

And just as in the case of the blue tac sometimes it’s the most ordinary looking people who will become the most extraordinary treasure to you if you just look a little harder.

Christian Perspective:

Luke 19: 1-10.

Zacchaeus was a despised tax collector who no one valued but Jesus changed that, although his own people rejected him Jesus reinstates him as ‘a son of Abraham.’

Anecdote:

After actress Winona Ryder went on her famous shoplifting spree in New York posters began to appear advertising her new starring role in the Adam Sandler film ‘Mr Deeds’ – the tagline for the film couldn’t have been more appropriate ‘Don’t let the fancy clothes fool you!’

Film Clip:

‘National Treasure’       1hr 49 min 00 sec to 1.52.03

Nicolas Cage and his team of treasure hunters find what they’ve been looking for.

 - if we value something it’s worth the search.