Walking in your shoes | Hands-on Activity | Kids of Integrity (2023)

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Parents' guide

How to use the ideas presented in Kids of Integrity

You don't have to be "super spiritual" to use Kids of Integrity effectively. What does matter, however, is that you recognize that God is the only One who can bring about lasting change in your children. For this reason, we encourage you to make prayer a priority as you select lesson ideas, prepare yourself to present each lesson, and work through each activity with your children. You'll find plenty of sample prayers in each Kids of Integrity lesson to guide you.

Where to begin

First, prayerfully decide which character attribute you should focus on. Ask God to help you determine which dimensions of His character He would like to see developed in your children. Then read through the lesson ideas provided for that particular attribute. Note that you don't need to cover all the content provided. Rather, each lesson presents a "smorgasbord" of ideas for you to pick and choose from. Just select the activities, stories and memory verses that will be most relevant, interesting and age-appropriate for your children.

Many families find that a week is about the right length of time to spend on a single attribute, but some families extend the lesson over a longer period. Monitor your children's interest level, moving on before it begins to decline.

Lesson components

Each character trait lesson has ten different components which are explained further below. We recommend that you commit yourself and your children in prayer first, then compile your lesson plan. It's also a good idea to focus on the memory verse, Bible stories and kick-off craft early in your lesson. The remainder of the lesson components can be completed in any order.

Walking in your shoes

For this activity, you’ll take turns guessing what emotions your kids are acting out, assisted by unusual props: just the right pair of shoes!

• Prepare ahead of time by making a set of cards that show a different emotion on each card. To quickly find images from the Internet, use the search term “emotion faces for children.” Draw or print the faces and paste them on your notecards.
• Next, invite your children to help you gather as many pairs of footwear as you can find. (If you are doing this activity indoors, screen the pairs of shoes for appropriateness for indoor use as the kids will be putting them on and walking in them.)
• Begin the game by explaining to your children that empathy is thinking about another person and imagining what that person is feeling or thinking. Add that another phrase we often use to mean empathy is “putting ourselves in another person’s shoes.”
• Now give each child one of your emotion cards and invite them to choose a pair of shoes that will help them act out their emotion appropriately. For example, pink flip flops might help them convey “happy,” big black boots might help for “mad,” and high heels for “excited,” running shoes for “energetic,” slippers for “tired” etc.
• Have each child act out their emotion using facial expressions and body language as other members of the group try to guess which emotion is being expressed.
• After each “drama,” take a minute to discuss the emotion. Ask if someone wants to share a time when they felt the same emotion that was just acted out.
• When you’ve worked through all the cards, take another few minutes to talk about how you can come alongside and encourage others who are experiencing “heavy” emotions. Use the discussion questions to guide your conversation.
• In closing, share the phrase, “Jesus in me means I care for you.” Pray and ask Jesus to fill each of your family members with His love so you have lots of love and kindness to share with others.

Questions for discussion

• Other than the footwear, what clues did you look for to help you decide which emotion was being acted out?
• Let’s say you see someone walking along with their shoulders slumped and their head hung low. What do you think they are feeling?
• If you see someone who is acting super sad or down, how can you come alongside them and offer encouragement?
• When you see someone who is wildly excited about something, how can you celebrate their joyful exuberance with them?

  Read 1 John 2:5-6.
  

• How did Jesus live?
• How can we care for others as Jesus did?

Key concepts

Jesus showed by how He lived that He was always looking out for the needs of others. Jesus offers us His Holy Spirit to live in us so that we can live and love like He does.

Relevant Scripture

1 John 2:5-6 “. . . but whoever keeps His word, in him truly the love of God is perfected. By this we may know that we are in Him: whoever says he abides in Him ought to walk in the same way in which He walked.”

John 17:20-21 “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they may all be one, just as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You have sent Me.”