Album: GIRL
Artist: Pharrell Williams
(2014, Colombia Records)
Synopsis
The long awaited second album from Pharrell, with many tracks which can be used to explore issues of gender and femininity, along with this track, from Despicable Me 2.
Introduction
This session explores our human emotions; asking what God has to say about our happiness.
Track : Happy (track 5)
Play the track as your young people arrive to set the scene. (You could also play it again later in the session as you get into the activities.) As your young people settle in, ask them how they are feeling. Have they had a good day or have things not gone so well? What things make them feel happy? Explain that there is an invisible line running down the middle of the room; one end represents ecstatically happy and the other end, the ultimate depths of despair. Ask your young people to stand in a position on the line which represents how they feel in response to the statements that you read, for example:
• The first day of the school holidays
• The first day of exams
• Being with your friends
• Being with your family
• Being outdoors on a sunny day
• Snuggled on the sofa watching a film
Say: we often talk about God being with us when we are going through difficult times. We spend time thinking about things in the news that we think would bother God and we know that God cares about us in everything that we go through - but what about the good days? Does God have time to bother with us if we are simply having fun and enjoying life? Is it ok to feel good about life when so many other people are experiencing the tough times? Ask your young people to get into smaller groups and provide Bibles and the following references (or print out the texts if this works better for your group):
- Psalm 97
- Ecclesiastes 3:1-15
- Zephaniah 3:14- 18
- Matthew 5:1-12
- 1 Thessalonians 3:9-13
Once they have had time to look at these passages, invite each group to share what they have discovered about what God has to say about our happiness. Are there common themes between these passages? Does anything conflict? How, do these readings suggest, do we find true happiness? Is there anything in these texts that challenges us? As you draw the session to a close, remind your young people that God promises to be with us in all circumstances and does stand with us when we are finding life difficult, but he doesn’t want us to stay in that place. In John 10:10, Jesus says that he has come to give us life to the full! God wants us to enjoy the life we have been given, to find real reasons to be happy and to share that happiness with others.
Becky May is a freelance writer and experienced children’s and youth leader and can be found at www.theresourcescupboard.co.uk
