If your class is meeting online, invite teens to bring an index card and colored pencils with them to class.

Ask for a volunteer to reread this week’s memory verse (1 Peter 1:15-16). Give each student an index card and a marker. If your class is meeting online, invite teens to have those items ready.

God’s command in today’s memory verse seems like an awfully tall order. It seems impossible. Be holy? Like God? The point isn’t that we are perfectly pure, like God, but that we are striving for purity and holiness. Most importantly, the point is that when we fail, we humbly repent, and get back on the horse, and try to follow Jesus’ example of holiness and purity again. This isn’t some goal that can be accomplished in a week or a year. No, it’s a life-long pursuit that won’t be complete until we are in heaven with Jesus. 

Next, ask your teens to brainstorm some things that cause them and people like them to stumble. As they come up with ideas, have them write as many things as they can think of on one side of their index cards with colored pencils; instruct them to leave the other side blank. Encourage them to get their card good and messy. Make sure that this side of their card is mostly covered with colored pencil. It can be ugly. That’s ok. It’s ok to cover some words with others and generally make a mess.

When each student’s card is full, have your teens get into pairs or small groups and share one thing they wrote that they struggle with and think God might be calling them to work on in their own lives. Ask them to pray for each other as they pursue holiness and purity in this specific way. (If your class is meeting online, you can use the breakout room feature of your video chat software.)

After teens have prayed and shared, get the attention of the group. Remind them that we can never be “good enough” on our own, but that Jesus’ holiness and purity pays the price for our sin and that through Him, God sees us as holy.

As you share this reminder, have your students flip their cards over to the blank side. Guide them to understand that while they face temptations in this world, God can make them pure and holy, untouched by the world. Encourage your teens to place their cards somewhere that they’ll see them every day as a reminder to keep striving for purity, even when they mess up.

End with a group prayer, asking for God’s blessing on each teen’s pursuit of purity. Also pray that God would give each of you the strength to try again, no matter how many times you mess up.