Some of the your favorite posts on Happy Home Fairy are the ones where I share the Chapel presentations that I have done for our Christian school’s weekly Chapel service.

I absolutely love creating content for our school’s Chapels and I am happy to share with anyone who needs to plan a service at their own school! The more we can get God’s Word and Truths into the hearts of kids – the better!

Our school celebrates a different character trait each month. We teach about the character trait all month long and then we give “Chapel Awards” to students who have demonstrated the character trait in their classrooms.

This month we are learning about the character trait of initiative.

It’s a big word for kids, but it has a really important meaning!

Here is how I introduced the topic of initiative to the students…

**Scroll to bottom of post for link to watch video of my performing this chapel and get my PowerPoint presentation!**

First, you will need to purchase a set of large googly eyes. I got mine HERE from Amazon, but if you are pinched for time, you could just cut out giant white circles and glue a smaller black circle inside.

I placed the large googly eyes into a bag and started by telling the kids that I brought something with me to help us learn about initiative. I pulled out the googly eyes. I said that an important part of having initiative is having our eyes OPEN.

Then I told the kids how much I love googly eyes in general and how funny they are when placed on random objects. I shared a series of pictures that I found on the internet of things with googly eyes. You can download the slideshow I made at the bottom of the post.

*Disclaimer >> I took all of the pictures from the internet and did not give proper credit. Please use with caution!*

The kids laughed and laughed at all of the funny photos with googly eyes.

Once I got to the last photo, I circled back to the idea that having initiative means to have our eyes open. We have to SEE what needs to be done! The second part of having initiative is then doing it!

I taught the kids a little chant >>

Initiative

Initiative

Seeing what needs to be done

And. Then. Doing it!

I went on to share 4 pictures of potential situations that would benefit from someone having initiative.

Situation #1 – Photo of overflowing trash. If you walk into the kitchen and see that the trash can is overflowing with stinky garbage – what would the eyes of initiative do? (Repeat the chant) TAKE OUT THE TRASH!

Situation #2 – Photo of child crying. What if you see a friend upset? What would the eyes of initiative do? (Repeat the chant) COMFORT YOUR FRIEND! GIVE THEM A HUG! MAKE THEM A CARD! Someone from our Chapel suggested filling the sad friend’s backyard with balloons. And then I joked about having initiative to go back and clean up the balloons haha!

Situation #3 – Photo of empty toilet paper roll. What if you notice the toilet paper roll looking like this? What would the eyes of initiative do? (Repeat the chant) REPLACE THE TOILET PAPER! This one was by far the one that resonated with everyone the most. 🙂

Situation #4 – Photo of boy with homework. What if you get home from school and your backpack is overflowing with homework, but you see your iPad overflowing with fun games and apps on the table? What would the eyes of initiative do? (Repeat the chant) DO YOUR HOMEWORK FIRST! I always tell my kids to do what is responsible before what is pleasurable.

After this, I transitioned to stories of initiative found in God’s Word. I shared 3 examples.

The first was the story of David and Goliath. I shared how there was an army who wanted to fight God’s people, the Israelites, and they had a secret weapon named Goliath. Goliath was almost 10 feet tall. No one from the Israelites wanted to fight Goliath. They were all very scared. Except ONE man had on his eyes of initiative. He saw the problem! He believed that God would be with him and so he went out and fought Goliath and defeated him!

The second story from the Bible is the story of the paralyzed man who spent all of his days lying on a mat. When Jesus came to visit his town, the paralyzed man’s friend had the eyes of initiative! They saw that their friend could not move and get himself to Jesus for healing, so they picked up his mat and carried him there. HOWEVER, when they got the house where Jesus was teaching, it was so full of people that they could not even get through the door. So, again, they used their eyes of initiative, climbed up onto the roof, opened a hole, and lowered their friend down to Jesus.

Finally, I shared that JESUS, Himself, was the best example of someone with eyes of initiative. From the moment Adam and Eve took the fruit from the tree God has said not to eat from, sin entered the world. This was a big problem. Sin separates us from God. Jesus knew that the only way to bring us back into a right relationship with Jesus was to come and die on the cross for our sins. He saw what needed to be done and He did it. Amen!

I invited anyone who had not ever asked Jesus into their hearts to do so and that was it!

http://https://youtu.be/mxN4WR09F58

You can watch my LIVE presentation of the Eyes of Initiative Chapel by clicking above.

**I start around the 6 minute mark!**

You can access my FREE Eyes of Initiative Chapel POWERPOINT by clicking HERE.

I have received so many emails and videos from parents of students in our school sharing their kiddos saying the initiative chant. The parents have been sharing stories of ways their kiddos have taken initiative at home as well. We have also been hiding the giant googly eyes all over our campus this month and the kids are loving finding the eyes of initiative.

I hope these resources are helpful to you! Please leave a comment below if you use this Chapel in your own school!

Check out my other Chapel ideas HERE.

Joyfully,

Julie 🙂