Time
30-45 minutes
Description
This game helps participants understand how important it is to capture every thought and take it captive before Christ. It is loosely based on the game of Othello ® (Gabriel Industries, Inc.) or Reversi.
Audience
Children, youth
Materials
• Gameboard (can be printed from the file “Capture Every Thought – Game Board and Pieces.ppt” located on the Lesson and Material Downloads page of http://www.teachthem.wordpress.com.)
• Game pieces (can be printed from the file “Capture Every Thought – Game Board and Pieces.ppt” located on the Lesson and Material Downloads page of http://www.teachthem.wordpress.com.)
• “Starting Positions” Gameboard (can be printed from the file “Capture Every Thought – Game Board and Pieces.ppt” located on the Lesson and Material Downloads page of http://www.teachthem.wordpress.com.)
• “Move #1, #2 & #3” slide (can be printed from the file “Capture Every Thought – Game Board and Pieces.ppt” located on the Lesson and Material Downloads page of http://www.teachthem.wordpress.com.)
• Glue stick
• Scissors or cutting board
• (Optional) Prizes for winners
Preparation
• Make copies of the “Debrief Questions” page at the end of this lesson (one copy per table group).
• Print copies of the game boards (1 for every two people)
• Print copies of the game pieces (60 for ever two people – 1 page makes 60 pieces)
• Print one copy each of the “Starting Positions” slide and the “Move #1, #2 & #3” example slide.
• Fold the game piece pages along the blue line that divides the two colors. Crease the page well along this fold.
• Use a glue stick to stick the two pages together. Make sure that the entire surface is covered.
• Use the scissors or the cutting board to cut out each of the rectangular game pieces. (They should now be a different color on each side. Cut closely to the rectangles, because if the pieces are too big, they are difficult to flip on the gamebaord.)
• Practice the script.
Procedure
Use the following script (or modify to suit your needs):
• “The Bible has a lot to say about what we think.”
• “Our minds are a major battlefield for the spiritual war between Satan and God.”
• “God wants our minds to be filled with good things that honor Him, because He knows that these things will bless us and help us live fulfilling lives.”
• “Satan wants our minds to be filled with bad things that dishonor God, because he hates God and hates that we are made in God’s image.”
• “Satan knows that he can’t do anything to diminish God, so he tries to hurt the Creator through His creation – and that’s us.”
• “Let’s read a few of the Scriptures related to our thoughts.” (Have volunteers read the following Scriptures out loud.)
o Romans 8:6 (mind of sinful man is death; mind of the Spirit is life)
o Proverbs 15:26 (the Lord detests thoughts of the wicked but is pleased by thoughts of the pure)
o Isaiah 55:8-9 (God’s thoughts are higher than our thoughts)
o Colossians 3:2 (set minds on things above, not on earthly things)
o Philippians 4:8 (think about excellent, praiseworthy….things)
o 2 Corinthians 10:5 (take every thought captive)
• “So, we are to think about the things God thinks about and not about sinful things.”
• “This is really hard to do, and it takes a lot of prayer and practice, because Satan is going to try to mess up our thoughts as much as possible.”
• “He whispers evil thoughts to us from the spiritual realm, and if we aren’t careful, we accept his thoughts as our own.”
• “That’s terribly dangerous, because the Bible says that everything Satan ever says is a lie. Lying is his native language and the only language he speaks.” (John 8:44)
• “2 Corinthians 10:5 says that we are to take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ.”
• “This means that when we have a bad thought or even a thought we aren’t sure about, we should ask God about it.”
• “If is something true, noble, right, pure, lovely, admirable, excellent or praiseworthy, God will confirm it for you.”
• “But if it’s a lie from Satan, God will replace it with the truth.”
• “We’re going to play a game that will help us to remember to take every thought captive to Christ.” (Divide group into pairs, and hand out the gameboards and game pieces for each pair.)
• “You have a gameboard in front of you. It has 64 spaces on it.”
• “You also have 64 colored game pieces. They are blue on one side and yellow on the other.”
• “Each person should take 30 game pieces for himself and decide if he wants to be either blue or yellow.” (Have them divide the pieces and pick a color.)
• “Alright, everyone who chose blue, raise your hands.” (Demonstrate.)
• “In this battle, you represent the devil. Sorry about that.”
• “Everyone who chose yellow, you represent God.”
• “The gameboard represents a human mind, and the game pieces each represent thoughts.”
• “Dark blue pieces represent the bad thoughts and lies Satan tries to get us to believe and take as our own.”
• “Yellow pieces represent the good thoughts and truth God wants us to believe and act on.”
• “Each player starts with two thoughts (game pieces) on the board in the center squares. They should look like this.” (Show the “Starting Positions” slide. Have all players put two of their game pieces down.)
• “The goal of each player is to trap your opponents pieces between two of your own.”
• “If you have one piece down already and then lay another one, you capture all of your opponent’s pieces that are between your two pieces. You can then flip all those captured pieces over so that they are now your color.” (Show “Move #1, #2 and #3” slide to give them examples.)
• “You can capture pieces diagonally, horizontally or vertically.”
• “You capture all the opponents’ pieces between your two pieces, so as the game progresses, you should be able to capture two, three, four or more pieces at a time.”
• “You can even capture pieces in two or more directions at the same time as long as they are all between two of your pieces.”
• “It’s important to know that you cannot play on spaces unless it allow you to capture at least one of your opponent’s pieces.”
• “The winner is the person who has the most of their colored pieces on the board when it gets to a point that no one can make a move.”
• “Dark blue pieces get to go first.”
• “Do you have any questions about how to play?” (Answer questions, and then allow them to play a round. If they finish the first round quickly and you have the time, let them play several rounds. Then, award a prize to the winners if you choose. Pass out the Debrief Questions sheet to each group, and allow them 10-15 minutes to talk about the questions. Then ask the large group for any general insights from the activity.)
Debrief Questions
o How does this game reflect the battle between God and Satan for your mind?
o Why would some bad thoughts from Satan change your good thoughts to bad ones (like capturing pieces in the game)?
o The corners are the most strategic spaces on the gameboard, because they cannot be trapped once they belong to someone. What might these represent in the battle for your mind?
o Why is it important to guard your mind against Satan’s influence? How can you do this?
o How could you capture more thoughts for Christ?
Teach Them 