What Potential!

Fulfilling our potential

by Janice Ross

Suitable for Whole School (Sec)

Aims

To consider the potential that God has placed within us.

Preparation and materials

• You will need the PowerPoint slides that accompany this assembly (What Potential!) and the means to display them.

Assembly

1. Explain that you are going to have a quick-fire quiz. You will show some images of seeds and bulbs and you want the students to shout out what they think the seeds and bulbs will grow into. (Alternatively, you could ask the students to carry out the quiz in groups and ask each group to record its answers.)
   
   
2. Show Slides 1 to 16 in turn.
   
   Note: if the quiz is carried out in groups, you may wish to reorder the slides so that all of the seeds and bulbs are shown first, for the students to record their answers, before showing the answers.
   
   
3. Identify that it is now the time of year when we begin to see the first signs of spring, such as shoots emerging from the ground. At first, many of us will probably not recognize the type of shoot that has come through, although, knowing the general cycle of life, we would expect to see snowdrops first, followed by crocuses and, later in spring, daffodils.
   
   
4. Although we might see a shoot and not know what it will become, we still know that it will grow into something special. Christians believe that this beauty was created by God. The Bible says that everything that God made was good.
   
   
5. Show Slides 17 and 18.
   
   Point out that, unless we are knowledgeable about seeds and bulbs, it is often difficult to tell what they will grow into. There is such a variety!
   

Time for reflection

Christians believe that when God made the world, he showed us that he loved variety. He didn’t make every tree the same shape, every flower the same colour or every animal the same size.

God didn’t make people the same either. We can see that if we look around us!

Point out that when we are born, no one knows exactly what we will look like when we grow up. By now, some of us will have realized that we have inherited our mum’s nose or our dad’s hair colour, but we are all unique. At our birth, no one can know how tall we will be, what our voice will sound like, what subjects we will enjoy at school or what our character will be like.

Christians believe that God made each one of us special.

Ask the students to think about what they hope for in the future.

Pause to allow time for thought.

Point out that, although many of the students will have thought about what jobs they might do, what they will look like or what possessions they would like to have, it is more important to think about what kind of person they would like to become. Will they be kind, loving, helpful, honest and so on? All of us can make a difference in the world. Are they willing to do so?

Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you that when you made us, you gave us a life to live.
Thank you that you know the potential within each of us.
Please help us to fulfil our potential.
Please help us to grow into people who care about others and who make a difference to the world.
Amen.