Table Talks: Object LessonsSample

When Life Weighs You Down

[Items to Gather: Locate an empty school backpack or borrow one from your kids. Go through the pantry or cabinets and pull some cans out. Ideally, choose cans of different sizes. Gather slips of paper and pens or markers. You will be wrapping the paper around the cans. You may need to cut them to fit. You can also use Post-It Notes. You’ll need tape or a rubber band to attach the paper to the cans.]

Say This: What do you call it when you think a lot about something that is going to happen, and you’re not sure how it’s going to end, and you can only think about all the ways it can end poorly? (Worry) Worry is the result of facing a matter in our own abilities and is exaggerated by the sense of failure we think we can experience as a result of our limitations.

Ask This: What are some things you or your friends tend to worry about? (school, work, family, health, relationships, etc.)

Say This: It is natural to be concerned about these things; however, we should not allow them to consume us or make us worried. Instead, we should hand our concerns over to God. Pastor Craig Groeschel says, “What we worry about most often reveals where we trust God the least.”

Do This: Give everyone a slip of paper and a pen/marker. Ask them to write down something they are worrying about or HAVE worried about recently. Go around the table and let everyone share what they wrote. Be sure to listen intently, not dismissively. If it’s a worry to them, it’s a worry to pay attention to. After everyone has shared, collect all the “worries” and pull out the cans. Read each worry and let the family decide which one should go on. Big worries get the big cans and so on.

Say This: The challenge with worries is we tend to carry them around with us all day long. It’s sort of like this backpack (show backpack).

Do This: Choose an appropriate child to go first. Have them put the backpack on, and you add their worry/can to the backpack.

Ask This: What happens when we allow more and more worries to pile up? (Add more worries/cans.) It gets heavy, right? How do you think carrying all of these worries around impacts us? (irritable, not focussed, don’t sleep well, maybe not eat well, etc.) Have the person with the backpack keep wearing it while you keep sharing the Table Talk.

Do This: Open your Bible and read 1 Peter 5:6-7.

Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.1 Peter 5:6-7

Ask This: What does this verse tell us to do with our worries? (#1 Humble ourselves. In other words, admit He can handle them better than we can, and #2 Hand our worries over to Jesus.)

Do This: Read from your Bible, Matthew 11:28-30.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.” Matthew 11:28-30

Say This: According to this verse, if our burdens or worries are heavy, then we haven’t given them to Jesus. When we give our worries to him, we quit carrying them around. (Take the backpack off the person carrying it.)

Ask This: (to the person who was wearing the backpack): How does it feel now?

Say This: Something else we can do is share our worries with others. Anytime you feel like something is too much for you to handle on your own, come share it with me or your mom and let us pray with you. Let’s pray now. I will start, but then I’m going to stop near the end and let everyone sit quietly and in your heart, tell Jesus what you’re worried about. After a few seconds, I’ll finish the prayer.

Pray This: Dear Jesus, thank you for loving us and inviting us to bring our worries and burdens to you. We know you don’t want us to carry things that can interfere with our fellowship with you and others. Lord, I’m going to pause for 20 seconds and let each of my family members tell you what they are worrying about. [PAUSE] Lord Jesus, again, we thank you for allowing us to bring our worries to you and know that you will carry them for us as long as we trust you more than ourselves.