Greed
To explore greed and how to avoid it
by Tessa Mann
Suitable for Whole School (Pri)
Aims
To explore greed and how to avoid it.
Preparation and materials
You will need:
- a flip-chart or white board with appropriate coloured pens.
Assembly
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Ask the children if they have seen the film Monsters Inc. and get them to tell you a little bit about it.
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Talk about what fun it must be for animators to invent a monster – how it might look, personality, speech, movement, etc. Then say that we are going to create our own monster together today.
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Ask for a volunteer cartoonist to come up and help. You might choose more than one and have them work together. Tell them that the monster is going to be called Greedy Monster.
Ask the other children to give suggestions of what our greedy monster might look like and ask the volunteer cartoonist to follow their instructions, with your help.
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Think together about how it might behave, the words it might speak, the noises it would make, etc. You could add these to the picture as design notes.
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Then talk about how we can be greedy with things like food, or possessions, or the attention of other people. Ask: have any of you had a ‘greedy monster moment’? Share a greedy monster moment you may have had yourself.
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How might God feel about greedy monster moments? Make the point that many people believe in God, who is the exact opposite of the greedy monster. They believe that God is generous, giving and sharing of his love. ‘God so loved the world that he GAVE his only Son …’ (John 3.16). God loves to give and he wants us to give and share too.
Time for reflection
Reflection:
Challenge: next time you feel a ‘greedy moment’ coming on, can you turn it into a ‘giving moment’? Maybe share your last biscuit or sweet with someone else.
Prayer:
Lord, thank you that you are a giving, sharing God.
Help us to be more like you and less like the greedy monster.
Thank you for all the gifts you give to us.
Please help us to share them fairly with others.
Amen.
Song/music
‘When I needed a neighbour’ (Come and Praise, 65)
‘When your Father made the world' (Come and Praise, 73)
