Friendship
Prov. 17:17 - A friend loves at all times
Objective: To evaluate areas of strength and weakness in ourselves as friends. To look at what the Bible says about friendship. To encourage each other.
Materials: yarn (various colors), scissors, copies of friendship quiz, Bibles, concordance.
Preparation: Make sure you understand the quiz analyzer and how to make a warm fuzzy. You may want to have a story about your life and friendship ready to tell. Pray for guidance from the Holy Spirit and for the group’s time together.
Lesson:
Question: Who do you think is the best at being a friend of anyone you know? What makes that person good at being a friend?
Friendship is something that doesn’t always come naturally to us. Why do you think we have to work on being a good friend sometimes?
Activity
Directions: “This activity is partly just for fun, but it also will get us thinking about the areas we are good or bad at when it comes to friendship.”
Each person will take the quiz. Let them know that they should think about what they would be most likely to do, not what they think they should do as they take the quiz. Everyone has strengths and weaknesses.
Next, the leader can read the quiz analyzer as the girls evaluate themselves.
Ask them to look at their quiz and find one area of strength and one area of weakness. Emphasize the fact that no one but Jesus is a perfect friend. We all have areas of strength and areas of weakness.
Warm-Fuzzies
Cut a 1 ½-2 ft. piece of yarn. Open one hand and lay it flat (so that it is at least 4 inches wide from thumb to pinky). Using the rest of the yarn, wrap yarn around your fingers 20-30 times. Then carefully take the yarn off your hand and use the long piece of yarn to tie it off in the center (it helps if someone else ties it off for you). Cut each end.
Now you should have a ball of yarn that resembles a Koosh ball with a long string in the middle. Tie off the string so that it will hang around your neck.
Encourage the girls to mingle while the group makes a craft or has a snack. When they want to pray with someone or say something encouraging to them, they pull a short string out of their warm fuzzy and wrap it around the neck string of their friend’s warm fuzzy. This is a way of encouraging the girls to show kindness to their friends. They can tie the warm-fuzzy onto their book bag since they probably won’t want to wear it around their neck at school,
Friendship Quiz
1.
Your friend apologizes for ruining your favorite shirt when she borrowed it. You . . .
a)are kind of bummed but realize that it’s just a shirt and forgive her.
b)tell her it’s okay, but never let her borrow anything again.
c)refuse to talk to her for two weeks.
Ephesians 4:2
2.Your friend is failing spelling class. You . . .
a)quiz her on her words, twice a week, all semester.
b)remind her to study once a week.
c)don’t understand how she could fail spelling.
Proverbs 3:28, Galatians 6:2
3.A friend asks you to pray for her dad who lost his job and needs to find a new one fast. You . . .
a)pray with her and then for her dad, every day.
b)pray when you think about it.
c)want to pray, but keep forgetting.
1 Peter 5:16
4.Your friend wears a skirt that is really short. You’re pretty sure she doesn’t realize that her underwear even shows when she bends over. You . . .
a)tell her when you’re alone that you noticed it and don’t mention it to anyone else.
b)ask all of your other friends what to do and make it a big deal.
c)Criticize her behind her back.
Prov. 25:11-12, Prov. 11:13
5.You know that your friend does not understand who Jesus is
You think that she may listen if you tell her. You . . .
a)pray and keep looking for a chance to tell her until you find one.
b)pray and hope someone else will tell her.
c)assume she’ll figure it out eventually.
2 Tim. 4:5
6.On an outing, your friend tells you she forgot her lunch money. You’re really hungry yourself. You . . .
a)give her half of your money and the two of you share lunch.
b)buy her a bag of chips.
c)pretend you forgot yours, too, and hide from her at lunchtime.
Ephesians 4:28
7.You’re sitting in class and notice that one of your friends looks really sad. You . . .
a)try to catch her eye and give her a smile.
b)wonder what might be wrong.
c)don’t even notice.
Proverbs 15:30
Friendship Quiz Analyzer
Everyone has strengths and weaknesses as a friend. We’re going to look at which areas may be our strengths and weaknesses.
a= Strength
b= Average
c= Weakness
If you answered honestly, then you should not have all “a” answers.
Questions #Friendship Trait TestedVerse that Applies
1Forgiveness/Faithfulness Ephesians 4:2
2Help/Bear Burdens Proverbs 3:28, Galatians 6:2
3Prayer 1 Peter 5:16
4Advice/ Honesty/ Gossip Prov. 25:11-12, Prov. 11:13
5Share the Gospel 2 Tim. 4:5
6Generosity Ephesians 4:28
7Cheer up/Empathy Proverbs 15:30
Choose one area of strength and one area of weakness. Look up the verses that apply to that friendship trait.
What other friendship traits are important?
Pray that God would keep using us to sharpen each other.
