BIBLE STUDY - More to Be

tiny little

BIBLE STUDY

especially for tweens

Tween girls. They are deligh0ul. Bubbly. Outrageous cha8erboxes. Full of secret thoughts. Desperately trying to figure out who they are. S@ll li8le girls. Not yet all grown up. And totally in need of love, grace, wisdom and guidance. They definitely think they know it all, so they don’t want a lecture. Nor do they want to be leH to figure it all out themselves. So, toss a bit of crea@vity together with a @ny li8le Bible study and you’ll deliver a whole lot of truth and good dose of laughter to your special gaggle of tween girls.

Casual cupcake party: plan it Plan Host a Casual Cupcake Party for a group of tween girls in your home. Bless these precious girls with @me together as they bake and frost cupcakes, enjoy a cup of iced or hot tea, and conclude with a warm challenge to think concretely about Scripture truths. Prepare • Send out invita@ons two weeks prior to the event with a firm RSVP date so that you can be well prepared. • For the party, plan on one box of cake mix for every two to three girls. Make sure you have all the ingredients, including, including fros@ng, food coloring, and any special decora@ng candies. • Also have on hand muffin pans, paper muffin cups, bowls, spoons, mixer, measuring cups, and @n foil trays in order to send the girls home with a half-‐dozen cupcakes. • Aprons are also a good idea! • Don’t forget plates for enjoying a cupcake and cups for sipping tea. Pray • Pray for the details of the party and for your heart to be prepared to lead, love, and listen. Prep • Set up sta@ons around your kitchen table, pairing off two or three girls to mix up a box of cake mix. • Have the toppings and supplies ready to go. • Fix some tea or have hot tea on hand. • Don’t forget the paper goods. • Print out copies of the Bible study to give to each of the girls. Also have on hand a few Bibles and encourage one or two girls to read the key Scripture passages out loud. © 2012 all rights reserved by elisa pulliam | www.moretobe.com | [email protected]

Present • On the day of the party, greet the girls at the door and invite them to get comfortable as they put on an apron. • Have the girls pair up and begin mixing up their own batch of cupcakes. Be sure to take @me to have them read the instruc@ons and follow the direc@ons. • Once the cupcakes are into the oven, you’ll have about 40 minutes to kill (baking and cooling @me). You can either let them play a game or provide a craH project. I recommend having them make their own cupcake sign using construc@on paper and markers, which they can glue to the top of their cupcake @n. • To add some fun into the decora@ng, split a can of vanilla fros@ng between two girls and let them make their own color using food coloring. • When everyone is finished decora@ng their cupcakes, encourage them to pick their favorite cupcake to eat along with enjoying a cup of tea. • While they are ea@ng, move into the Bible study @me. You may choose to give them the handout to read along with you or hand it to them when you are finished. • Don’t forget to close your @me with prayer, and feel free to ask for prayer requests. • Encourage them to discuss it with their moms or even to teach it to their siblings. • Allow the girls @me to run around and cha8er, as tween girls love to do.

© 2012 all rights reserved by elisa pulliam | www.moretobe.com | [email protected]

experiencing life transformed

tiny little

BIBLE STUDY

especially for tweens

Casual cupcake party: Bible Study 1. Have you stopped to consider what makes a cupcake so especially sweet and temp9ng? Consider these reasons and add your own: • you can have it all to yourself • it is just the right size to eat on the go • behind the wrapper might be a sweet surprise • icing is the perfect glue for sprinkles

2. Let’s consider all the ingredients and equipment that were required to make the cupcakes: • eggs

• sprinkles

• water

• food coloring

• presenta@on plate

• oil • cake mix

• mixer • bowl

• oven • hot mi8s

• fros@ng

• muffin cups

•muffin pan

• cooling rack

What would happen if one of those ingredients were missing?

What about if you didn’t have a proper piece of equipment?

Imagine how even one missed stepped could have en@rely ruined your final product. Too many eggs would have made it soggy. Too li8le water would have made it dry. Too long baking would have burned the en@re batch and stunk up the house, too. In order to make an appe@zing and enjoyable cupcake, the exact ingredients and equipment must be used as well as careful a8en@on to the instruc@ons. In the same way, God has specific ingredients to make you who you are, and has perfectly put them together. He has also given us details instruc@ons for living a life of faith that will reap a blessing. Let’s think now about what those ingredients and instruc@ons look like!


3. What are some of the special ingredients God has used to make you?

While each box of cake mix required the addi@on of eggs, water, and mix, none of the cupcakes came out the same in the end. They were mixed differently! And they were each frosted in uniquely (even though some looked very similar). As you look around this room, you can also see each one of us are made of the same substances -‐-‐ skin, bones, organs. Psalm 139:14 : I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. 4. How can your special ingredients be used to bless others?

God formed us to be more than skin and bones. Inside of our hearts and minds and souls is where God has formed our personality, giHs, and talents. He has made us to be good at certain things, not just so we can be proud of who we are but so we can be used by God to bless others, especially those in the family of God. Ephesians 4:15-‐16 : From [Christ] the whole body, joined and held together by every supporKng ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. 5. What happens if you start looking at what others have and want that instead of what you have? How would you feel if your cupcakes marched off the table complaining about how you made them?

While God created us for a dis@nct purpose, we may not realize what that purpose is and we may think that others have a be8er life. It is all too easy to look at the outside life of another person and think they have what we really want. When we get caught up looking at the outside, we end up feeling jealous and trapped in a cycle of complaining about the way God made us. 1 Samuel 16:7 : The LORD does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart. Romans 9:20 : But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? “Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, ‘Why did you make me like this?’” © 2012 all rights reserved by elisa pulliam | www.moretobe.com | [email protected]

6. In the same way we had to follow instruc9ons on the cake mix box in order to end up with yummy cupcakes, where can we find instruc9ons on how to live life?

The Bible is God set of instruc@ons for how to live life. God tells us in the Word how to obey (like how the instruc@ons for mixing and baking the muffins) and what not to do (think of this in terms of how not to sin). He tells us what will be good for us (kind of like the nutri@on informa@on on the side of the cake mix box) and also gives us warnings of what not to ingest (think of that like the allergy warning). The Bible also tells us, mostly importantly, how to have a personal rela@onship with God, through accep@ng Jesus Christ as your personal Savior, believing that He died for the forgiveness of your sins so that you could experience eternal life. 2 Timothy 3:16-‐17 : All Scripture is God-‐breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcKng and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. Romans 10:9-‐10 : That if you confess with your mouth, “Jesus is Lord,” and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For it is with your heart that you believe and are jusKfied, and it is with your mouth that you confess and are saved. Your life is precious. You are handmade by God with the perfect ingredients for living a life that honors Him and blesses others. He has given you the Bible, not to be a rule book, but to help you learn how to live life so that it turn out yummy in the long run. While you will make mistakes, as might happen with a batch of cupcakes put in the oven at the wrong temperature, in Christ, you have the opportunity to began again. Seek His forgiveness and determine to be more careful next @me. God is always faithful, even when we are not. And He will give you the grace and strength by the working of the Holy Spirit in your life to experience a fresh start. May you begin that new life today, through making God’s Word your most important of equipment for living the life He gave you.

Psalm 119:103 ESV How sweet are your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth.
