Before class, print out enough doorway templates on colored cardstock so that each student has a copy. If your class is meeting online, email the templates for families to print ahead of time. Invite students to bring printouts, cardstock, scissors, glue, and pens/pencils with them to class.

Today, we learned that being persistent and having a growth mindset can help us to learn, grow, and persevere in achieving our goals. Our memory verse tells us that being persistent in prayer has benefits. Have a volunteer read the memory verse, Matthew 7:7. Jesus tells us to ask, and God will give us what we ask for. He tells us to seek, and we will find. He says knock, and the door will be opened. Talking to God about everything and being persistent in prayer changes our circumstances and it changes us!

Hand each student a sheet of white cardstock, a doorway template, and a pen or pencil. Make scissors and glue sticks available. (If your class is meeting online, invite students to have supplies ready at home.) Show your preteens how to use the scissors to pierce the doorway template on the dotted line and cut along the dotted line (bottom, right side, and top). Then, have them fold the door open on the left side like it is on hinges. Use glue to affix the doorway sheet to the solid white piece of cardstock. Be sure not to put glue on the door itself so that it can open and close. Once completed, your students should be able to open their door to reveal an area of white cardstock where they can write.

Encourage your students to think about something they have been praying about for a long time. Or maybe they haven’t been praying about that thing because they weren’t sure God would answer or help. Instruct your preteens to open the door and write down something inside they want to pray for regularly. You may want them to write today’s memory verse across the top of their doorway.

Think about something you need to be praying about every day. Maybe you need help to overcome a challenge at school or avoid temptation. Maybe there’s a person you know who doesn’t know Christ, and you want to pray for that person’s salvation. Or you may have a dream God has given you, and you need to pray that He opens the door for you to accomplish it.

Give your students a few moments to think and write. Post your door in a place where it can remind you to pray with persistence. Just like the widow kept coming before the judge over and over until He gave her what she wanted, you can pray asking God for the things you want and need. 

As you talk to God regularly, you can expect distractions and difficulties to come your way. The enemy doesn’t want you to access the power of prayer. When that happens, just keep praying! God hears you, and He loves you. He is waiting to answer you and give you good things.

If time permits invite (but do not require) volunteers to share what they wrote in their doorways.

Close in prayer.