What Makes You Happy? Week 2- Jan. 11

There are a lot of reasons why leading a small group of middle schoolers is the best job ever. But here’s one big reason: in middle school, students have the potential to truly make their faith their own, in a brand new way, for the very first
time. Because middle schoolers are beginning to think more abstractly about themselves and the world around them, this is the first time in their lives that they’re capable of asking hard questions like, “Is this my parents’ faith? Or is it mine?” This week, as you talk about “making peace” with God, remember that one of your students may be wrestling with this exact question. And guess what! You get to be a voice of influence in their lives during this incredibly crucial stage. That’s a really big deal!

---

Share a high and a low from the past week.
What was your happiest moment last week?
What about your unhappiest?​

---

Romans 7:15 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
15 I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate.

​Ephesians 2:8-9 New Revised Standard Version (NRSV)
8 For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God— 9 not the result of works, so that no one may boast.

---

What do you think it means to have “peace” with other people?
When we’re not “at peace” with someone in our lives, how does it affect our happiness?
What are some examples of sin? How can those sins kill our happiness?
What does being a Sinner & Saint mean to you?
What does it mean to make peace with God?
How can being at peace with God help you experience real happiness?
What’s one thing you can do this week to make peace with God?

---

O God, strength of all who hope in you, because we are weak mortals we accomplish nothing good without you. Help us to see and understand the things we ought to do, and give us grace and power to do them, through Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord. Amen.

---

L: Go in peace with God.
C: Thanks be to God!

Mark the Cross of Christ on each others foreheads as a remembrance of your baptism and say these words...

"(Name) you are a beloved Child of God."

---