Confession & Repentance: Jk - Gr. 1

Lesson Objectives

• Understanding what it means to sin
• Viewing God as our Physician
• Becoming clean again
• Who do we confess to

Resources:

• Grade 1 SUS Copts Sunday School Curriculum | Lesson 4.4 - Continuous Renewal: Confession

Introduction

• Ask the kids what are some examples of things that keep us healthy and strong. 

• We do such things because our parents teach them to us. Our parents know how to protect us and tell us how to be safe. We trust and listen to them because they know what’s best for us.

• God is the Father of everyone in the world. He knows exactly how to keep us healthy and strong, of course physically but also spiritually. The Ten Commandments are the biggest example of things that God told us will keep us spiritually healthy. That is why we need to follow them every day.

• What are some examples of things that don’t make us feel so good and can make us get sick?

• Build on their examples and list a few more. If we only eat candy, our stomachs will get upset. If we go outside in the winter without a jacket then we will get a cold and get sick/ 
• If we do the things our parents tell to to avoid, we will get hurt and sick. 
• This applies to God our Father as well. When we don’t do things that follow the commandments, it’s like getting a spiritual bruise/wound. These actions are what the church calls “sins”.

• Ask the kids to give examples and provide more relevant examples.

• We can’t completely avoid these things. We all will get sick. When we get sick, we need to go to the doctor so he can give us/our parents medicine and we can start to feel better again. How about when we make mistakes and do things that are against the Commandments? Just as we need to go to the doctor, we need to go to Abouna for confession. 

Defining Confession

• When we go to Abouna for confession, we need to tell him anything and everything we may have done wrong. To make us spiritually healthy and strong again, he prayers a special prayer. This special prayer is the medicine God gives Abouna to give to us. Abouna is not the one healing us, it is God who works through Abouna. 
• At first, it might seem scary to tell Abouna our mistakes but he will never tell anyone.
• Even if we keep making mistakes, we can keep going for confession. The doctor will never stop giving you medicine each time you get sick. God will always forgive our sins, regardless of how many times we do them.

Activity & Analogies

• Buttons/coins in a cup of cola
• Pour a cup of cola (or really any dark drink) into a glass the drop a few buttons/coins. The buttons should sink to the bottom and then rise back up.

• Ask the kids who like cola/juice, then ask them if they would drink this cup with the buttons/coins inside it. Assuming they say no…

• Explain that the glass of soda is like a person and the buttons/coins are their sins. Each time we sin, we are placing a dirty coin in the cup. On the outside, the glass may not appear dirty but on the inside it is dirty. That’s one of the special graces God gives us; whenever we sin, he hides our sins so that people don’t see it (for the most part.) The soda will taste bad though and we can’t drink it unless we remove the buttons. When we do something wrong, we feel like something is weighing us down, just like these buttons. That is why we need to partake in confession. Abouna is the only one who can remove the buttons from the soda for us. But it is not Abouna’s ability to remove our sins. It is God who removes the buttons through Abouna through a special, invisible grace..