Our Friends
You’ve got a friend in me
by Claire Law
Suitable for Whole School (Pri)
Aims
To consider what true friendship means.
Preparation and materials
- You will need the PowerPoint slides that accompany this assembly (Our Friends) and the means to display them.
- Have available the song ‘You’ve got a friend in me’ by Randy Newman and the means to play it at the beginning of the assembly. It is 2.10 minutes long and is available at: https://youtu.be/zIYOJ_hSs0o
- Optional: you may wish to arrange for a child to read the Bible passage 1 Corinthians 13.4-8 during the assembly.
Assembly
- Show Slide 1 and have the song ‘You’ve got a friend in me’ playing as the children enter.
Ask the children whether they can name the song that was playing as they entered the room.
Listen to a range of responses.
Ask them whether they can name and describe the films that the song is associated with.
Listen to a range of responses. - Tell the children that the song that they heard was ‘You’ve got a friend in me’, and it’s the theme song from the Toy Story movies. It was originally written for the first Toy Story film in 1995, but then became the theme song for each of the subsequent films.
The song lyrics match the theme of the films: that friends are there for each other in both good times and tough times. - Ask the children, ‘What qualities do we want from a friend?’
Listen to a range of responses. - Show Slide 2.
Explain that we often hear words like these when people answer this question.
Keep clicking the slide to reveal each word and read it out when it appears.
The words are patient, forgiving, generous, thoughtful, upbeat, warm, encouraging, compassionate and loyal. - These ideas are similar to a passage in the New Testament that describes the qualities of love. It is a reading that is often used during Christian weddings to reflect on the qualities of romantic love. However, it is also a good passage to consider when we are thinking about friendship.
- Show Slide 3 and read, or invite a child to read, from the passage 1 Corinthians 13.4-8.
‘Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.’
Time for reflection
To be a loving friend is a way in which we can be more like God. The Bible tells us, ‘God is love and anyone who lives in love, lives in God’ (1 John 4.16). So, when we are a loving, kind and patient friend, we can take hope that we are becoming more like the God who made us to be loving.
I wonder which of our friendships enable us to be patient, kind and without envy. Which friendships are the ones where we know that we can be ourselves, without feeling resentment or becoming easily irritated?
Which friendships enable us and our friends to be hopeful about what we can achieve with our lives?
Let’s take a moment to bring these friendships to mind. Let’s think about any friendships that we are grateful for.
Pause to allow time for thought.
Let’s also consider the kind of friend we are to others and what kind of friend we want to be. Perhaps we want to work on being a better friend and making more friendships. Let’s give ourselves some time to consider what sort of a friend we want to work on being to others.
Pause to allow time for thought.
Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you for our friends.
Thank you for people who care about us.
Thank you for people who make us laugh.
Thank you for people who still love us even when we get things wrong.
Please help us to be good friends.
Please help us to be forgiving and kind, and never to give up.
Amen.
Song/music
‘You’ve got a friend in me’ by Randy Newman, available at: https://youtu.be/zIYOJ_hSs0o (2.10 minutes long)
