All Change!
Embracing change and moving forward
by Tim and Vicky Scott (revised, originally published in 2011)
Suitable for Whole School (Sec)
Aims
To consider how we can embrace change and move forwards.
Preparation and materials
- You will need the PowerPoint slides that accompany this assembly (All Change!) and the means to display them.
- Optional: you may wish to prearrange for a student to read the Bible passage Ecclesiastes 3.1–8 during the ‘Time for reflection’ part of the assembly.
- Note: you may need to adapt the ‘Assembly’, Step 8, if a particular student has experienced a recent loss.
Assembly
- Show Slides 1-5.
Ask the students what the common theme of the images is. (The answer is ‘change’.) - Ask the students, ‘Do you like change?’
If appropriate, allow the students to discuss this with a partner or in small groups. - Show each slide again, asking the students to imagine how they might feel in each situation.
- Slide 1 shows starting a new school.
- Slide 2 shows moving house.
- Slide 3 shows getting married.
- Slide 4 shows going to university.
- Slide 5 shows starting a new job. - Point out that life is about change. How we deal with it is our choice.
Change is the process of becoming different. We use the word ‘change’ to describe various things.
– In sociology, social change may refer to changes in society, such as women being given the right to vote. (In the UK, it wasn’t until 1928 that all women over the age of 21 got the vote.)
– In politics, political change includes things like the calling of a general election or major changes in government throughout the world.
– Show Slide 6. In biology, change may refer to what happens when, in a process known as metamorphosis, creatures change into something else, such as a caterpillar becoming a butterfly.
– Mathematicians, statisticians and economists study changes such as percentage change.
– Historians look at changing fashions, technologies and practices.
– Psychologists are interested in the process of personal change and development: the ‘life-changing experiences’ that people sometimes talk about. - Ask the students, ‘Can you think of any other examples of change?’
Listen to a range of responses. - For humans, change and challenge are both inevitable and vital. From the moment we were born until now, we have all experienced change. We will continue to experience change for the rest of our lives.
- We have a choice about how we deal with change. Are we ready for the new challenges that lie ahead of us on our journey through life? Maybe we have certain ideas about what things might be like in our next year at school, or when we leave school to go on to other things.
New challenges are opportunities to grow. Most of us want to better ourselves. We cannot always change our circumstances, but we can change how we think about change. We have the freedom to choose to change ourselves – our outlook, our thinking and our habits – to improve our circumstances. This is why it is good to be open to change, rather than seeing it as something negative. - We build our character day by day as we deal with changing situations. Sometimes, this may include painful changes like handling loss and the changes that it brings. For example, we might lose something that we had worked for, a pet might die, we might suffer health problems or a relationship with a boyfriend or girlfriend might end. However, we can decide to work through these things, rather than trying to suppress them, which could lead to depression and anxiety. We must have time to grieve. Grief is the natural reaction to loss.
We cannot move on until we have dealt with loss, grappling with our feelings of pain and hurt. This takes time, depending on how great the loss that we have experienced and the support networks that we have to help us.
When we have been through the grieving process, we will be ready to re-engage with life and our future. There is hope of a brighter tomorrow. We know that we have grieved properly when we remember the loss without being immobilized by it.
Time for reflection
We can miss out on enjoying the future by clinging to the past and yearning for the ‘good old days’. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed sometimes, when we think about the change that we are experiencing. Christians believe that God can ultimately transform every ending into a new beginning. However, this does not stop us having to go through pain and confusion during the in-between time.
Everything has its time.
Show Slides 7 and 8.
Read, or invite a student to read, the passage from Ecclesiastes 3.1–8, omitting some lines if you prefer.
Ask the students, ‘Have you been resisting change in your life?’
Pause to allow time for thought.
If so, why not ask God to give you his peace and to take away the fear that you might have about your future? Trust that something good will come out of it.
Encourage the students to take time in the summer holidays to think about the changes that they might be facing in the coming year. Encourage them to be courageous and address areas where they might feel apprehensive. Encourage them to talk about their feelings to someone they trust. Make them aware of the facilities in school to help in these areas.
Prayer
Dear God,
Thank you for helping me at every stage of my life.
Whenever I must go through times of change,
Help me to choose to learn from the challenges that the change brings,
And put my hope and trust in you for my future.
Amen.
