In Real Life Books How Do You Know? Wisdom in the Bible

Exploring tough questions facing youth today • Also available as an eResource

OPEN THE BIBLE • Help youth apply the Bible to real life and discuss their faith. This all-in-one curriculum guides youth and their leaders on a journey for meaning and identity. In Real Life encourages youth to ask the hard questions, and helps them encounter Scripture in search of answers. In a time of violence, injustice, materialism, and new pressures, this series offers a different point of view. Compatible with a whole family approach.

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How do you find the good life?

The teachers who wrote down the proverbs and other wisdom literature were responsible for making their students aware, wise, and smart—the way to keep people out of trouble. While other parts of the Bible talk about how God gets involved in life and protects us, wisdom emphasizes that people can figure out right and wrong without having to be zapped by a divine lightning bolt. Wisdom—available to everyone at all times—teaches that we gain knowledge of the world, ourselves, and God through experience and observation. It also asks questions central to the human condition—about divine justice, about fairness, and about suffering of the innocent. (5 sessions, plus extender session)

Sessions:

1. What Is Wisdom? • Since youth face a constant deluge of contradictory advice, guide them to use and create “scriptural sound-bites” called proverbs to help them learn from mistakes.
2. Is It True or Isn't It? • To youth awash in a sea of moral ambiguity, toss the lifeboat of biblical wisdom, which points out trustworthy ways of recognizing God even when surroundings seem confusing or contradictory.
3. If I'm Good, Everything Will Turn Out Okay?? • Guide participants to recognize that trust and obedience, while not easy, have their rewards; following God’s path brings a deep richness to life.
4. Why Do Bad Things Happen to Good People • Guide youth, crowded by strong notions of what’s fair, to open themselves to the idea that God speaks from inside suffering.
5. Life's Not Fair, So Why Bother? • Guide participants to learn the difference between living for the moment and living in God’s moment.
6. More on Proverbs (Extender Session option) • Along with the basic understanding that proverbs are a good teaching tool for persons of all levels of intelligence, help participants begin creating a bank of proverbs to use when faced with adversity. • Encourage participants to see Jesus’ radical Sermon on the Mount as a guide for living, not just an abstract understanding of life somewhere else.