Object Lesson - Teddy Bear Faith

www.CreativeYouthIdeas.com
Object Lesson
- Teddy Bear
Faith
www.CreativeObjectLessons.com

When you were younger did you
have a teddy bear or another
cherished possession? Did you hold
it, talk to it, hug it close? Did it
comfort you, give you courage? If
you couldn’t find it, did you turn
everything upside down looking for
it? Teddy Bears remind us of a
childlike faith. They remind us of
the sense of security and comfort
we gained simply by their presence.
God loves us more than any
beloved Child’s possession. And His
constant companionship reminds
us of the comfort, the security, and
love that can only be found in Him.

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The Story of the Teddy Bear
In 1902, Theodore Roosevelt, the
President of the United States,
went hunting in the woods but
didn’t kill anything. Before he left,
one of his aides found a lost bear
cub and offered it to him. But
Roosevelt refused to shoot the
bear, saying it would be
unsporting. The next day a
cartoon depicting the president
having mercy on the cub
appeared in newspapers across
the US.

A New York candy shop owner,
Morris Mitchtom, saw the
cartoon, asked his wife to make a
toy bear to put in the shop
window alongside the cartoon,
and gave him a name: “Teddy’s
Bear”. Mrs. Mitchtom’s bear
proved so popular that within a
year she and her husband closed
the candy shop and founded the
Ideal Novelty and Toy Company,
now one of the biggest in the
world.

Games using Teddy Bears and
Stuffed Animals
Note: Get teddy bears and stuffed
animals cheaply at the nearest
Goodwill or Salvation Army store.
You can always donate them to a
children’s charity or back to where
you got them after your event.
Giant stuffed animals and bears
increase the level of fun!

Back to Back Bear Race – Split the
youth up into partners however
many as necessary. The players
have to put a teddy bear between
both of their backs and walk to the
finish line and back to the team.
First team to finish wins. You can
make it more difficult by making it
an obstacle course rather than a
simple race. If the bear is dropped
they must return to their team and
begin again.

Hot Teddy Bear Attack – This is a
variation on the old “Hot Potato”
game. Give each youth one of the
animals and have them stand in a
circle. One or more Teddy Bears
are the hot potato. Use more than
one if you have a large group.
While the music is playing, the
youth must pass the stuffed
animals in one direction around
the circle as fast as they can.
When the music stops, the people
who are left holding the Teddy
Bears are out.

All of the rest of the people at
that time get to attack the ones
who are out with their animals by
hurling them at high velocities.
(Make sure the animals have no
hard eyes etc so that no one get’s
hurt) Once everyone who is still in
picks up an animals, start over
again. Make sure you include the
Teddy Bears back in the game for
each round.

Stuffed Animal Charades – Place
a variety of stuffed animals in a
box or king-sized pillow case. As
each player takes their turn, in
another room or away from all
the other players, he or she
blindly reaches into the box or
pillow case and takes out a stuffed
animal. The player acts out the
animal while the other players try
to guess what animal is being
portrayed.

Stuffed Animal Personalities –
Place a large collection of stuffed
animals in the center of the
youth group. Begin the
conversation by asking your
participants to share with you
personality traits of each animal.
During the discussion ask the
participants to be thinking about
which animal reflects some traits
of their own personalities.
Teddy Bear Dodge Ball – Play a
traditional game of dodge ball,
but with Teddy Bears.

Teddy Bear Flag Football – In flag
football, instead of tackling, you pull
the flag from a person’s pocket. A
flag can be a piece of cloth or a
bandana. If your youth don’t have
pockets, you can also attach a strip
of cloth to a clothespin and it can
easily be inned to a shirt tail. You’ll
need a room large enough for
running and passing. Place goal posts
made from crepe paper on opposite
walls. Field goals are awarded if the
bear hits the wall inside the goal
posts. You can use masking tape or
crepe paper for goal line markers as
well. You may want to include a girls-only
quarter, follow boys-only
quarter.

Teddy Bear Hat Trick – Position
teddy bears or stuffed animals of
various sizes and point values on
the other side of a starting line.
Teams toss a hat onto the
targets. Team with the most
points wins.
Teddy Bear Pass – Played just like
Hot Potato, youth must pass a
teddy bear around the circle
when the music starts. When it
stops whoever is holding it is
eliminated.

Teddy Bear Piñata – Get a
Piñata in the shape of a teddy
bear and tie it to a rope that is
hung between two trees. Youth
are blindfolded, given a plastic
baseball bat, and get three
swings to break the piñata.
Teddy Bear Rescue – All youth
stand around a blanket holding
an edge. When you toss
individual bears high into the
air, the youth must try to catch
the bear in the blanket.

Teddy Bear Targets – Position
baskets or rings of various sizes and
point values on the other side of a
starting line. Teams toss stuffed
animals or teddy bears into the
targets for points. Team with the
most points wins.
That’s My Teddy – Ask each youth
to bring a teddy bear or stuffed
animal to the party. (At the end you
can even donate some of them to a
needy children) At one point, put all
of the stuffed animals into a pile and
bring in each youth one-by-one and
blindfolded to identify his/her
stuffed animal from the pile, using
only the way it feels as a guide.

Teddy Bear Toss – Divide the youth
into pairs. Each pair is a team. The
winning team is the team who can
throw and catch their bear over the
greatest distance. Giant Bears make
the game much more fun! Have
participants start 10 meters apart.
After each throw each member will
move further apart. The team
members alternate their throwing
and catching roles after each throw.
A bear catcher may not move from
his/her starting position until the
bear to be caught is in the air en
route to that catcher. The pair that
manages a successful toss of the
greatest distance is judged to be
the winner.

Teddy Bear Volleyball – Divide into
teams of two, each person holding
a towel at the corners. Teams
stand on opposite sides of a
volleyball net or some kind of
divider. Each team must use the
towel to toss a bear back and forth
with another team. Continue
playing until the bear is missed
and a point is scored. You can play
according to traditional volleyball
rules on serving and scoring.

Ultimate Bear – Play like this like
Ultimate Frisbee but replace the
frisbee with a bear. Form two
teams. Players must move the
bear by tossing it from one player
to another until the bear can be
passed and caught across the goal
line. You cannot run with the bear
and must plant one foot and pivot
when you are holding it. If the
teddy bear is intercepted or falls to
the ground, the other team takes
possession.

Warp Speed Teddy – Arrange
participants in a circle, not too
close, not too far from one
another. Toss a teddy bear to
someone else in the circle. If
you receive it, toss it to
someone else in the circle not
immediately on either side of
you. That person will toss it to
another person who has not
yet received it and again not
immediately on either side of
him or her.

Once you have received the bear
and passed it on to someone
else, put your hands down to
your side to indicate you have
already received it. Throwing
continues until the last person
tosses the ball back to the first
person. They must remember
who they tossed to because they
will try to recreate the pattern in
the next run, only faster.

TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL
MAKE IT SPIRITUAL – Lessons from
Teddy Bears
1. Love
God Loves you more than a Teddy
Bear – When you were younger did
you have a teddy bear or another
cherished possession? Did you hold
it, talk to it, hug it close? Did it
comfort you, give you courage? If
you couldn’t find it, did you turn
everything upside down looking for
it? You loved it in precious, innocent
way that a five-year-old loves
things?

You always wanted it with you.
God loves you far more than you
ever loved your teddy bear. God
has so much more love for us than
we could ever imagine. In fact, he
loved us so much he gave himself
for us, to pay our debt of sin, by
dying in our place that we might
live with him in heaven. As we
have grown out love has grown as
well. But the truth is we can never
love more than God.

MAKE IT PRACTICAL
• In what ways do we
underestimate God’s love
for us? Why?
• In what ways does God
show his love for us?
• How should we respond to
God’s love for us?
• Explain, “We love God,
because he first loved us” 1
John 4:19
• What lessons about love
can we learn from 1 John
4:7-21?

2. Value
The Bear’s value wasn’t based on
its cost. In fact, you probably had
no idea of the cost of the bear. It
may have cost very little, but in
your eyes it had great value. It’s
value was not based upon what it
was made of, how nice it looked, or
how what it cost to make it. It’s
value was based on how much you
as a child cherished it and loved it,
how dear it was to you. You loved it
because it was yours. In fact, in
time the bear probably lost a lot of
fur, became tattered, dirty, and
maybe even started to fall apart.

But you loved it all the same. The
same is true of you. God loves you
and your worth is found in how
dear you are to him. He made you,
he bought you, and he loves you.
Sometimes your life may become a
little tattered, dirty, and even
seem to be falling apart. But God
loves you even more than you
loved your teddy bear. To the
world you may seem insignificant,
worthless, falling apart, but to God
you are everything, you are
cherished, you are loved, simply
because you are his.

MAKE IT PRACTICAL
• How do you decide if
something is valuable?
• What decides the value of
something?
• How valuable are you to
God? What was he willing
to pay for you?
• How does knowing that God
CHOSE you make you feel?
• How can realizing God’s
value for you and the price
he paid for you motivate
your life?

3. Comfort and Security
As children, a Teddy Bear gives
us comfort and security. It is a
constant companion. We cling
to it in times of fear. We cherish
it, and give it a special place in
our lives. But as we grow older,
our simple faith matures and
the comfort and security is
found in parents. But soon we
also must move beyond that
and we realize we can only find
true comfort and security in
God. True security and comfort
can only come from our
relationship with Him.

MAKE IT PRACTICAL
• When are times that Jesus
can be a comfort to us?
• How can we be a comfort to
others?
• What comforts you and
gives you security?
• Why are we safe in God’s
hands?
• How can knowing that God
is always there for us help
us to live a better life?

MAKE IT PERSONAL
• How can you rest in God’s
Love? His Comfort? His
security?
• Knowing that you are
precious and valuable to
God, what does this
knowledge motivate you to
do this week?

SCRIPTURE VERSES
2 Corinthians 1:3-4 – “Praise be to
the God and Father of our Lord
Jesus Christ, the Father of
compassion and the God of all
comfort, who comforts us in all our
troubles, so that we can comfort
those in any trouble with the
comfort we ourselves receive from
God.”
Psalm 62:1-2 – “My soul finds rest in
God alone; my salvation comes from
him. He alone is my rock and my
salvation; he is my fortress, I will
never be shaken.”

Psalm 112:8 – “His heart is secure,
he will have no fear.”
Psalm 16:5 – “LORD, you have
assigned me my portion and my
cup; You have made my lot
secure.”
Isaiah 41:10 – “So do not fear, for I
am with you; do not be dismayed,
for I am your God. I will strengthen
you and help you; I will uphold you
with my righteous right hand.”

Romans 8:15-16 – “For you did
not receive a spirit that makes
you a slave again to fear, but you
received the Spirit of sonship.
And by Him we cry, “Abba,
Father.” The Spirit Himself
testifies with our spirit that we
are God’s children.”
Hebrews 13:5 – “Never will I
leave you; never will I forsake
you.”
See also PSALM 91:1-16

Ephesians 1:4-8 – “For He chose us
in Him before the creation of the
world to be holy and blameless in
His sight. In love He predestined us
to be adopted as His sons through
Jesus Christ, in accordance with
His pleasure and will– to the praise
of His glorious grace, which He has
freely given us in the One He loves.
In Him we have redemption
through His blood, the forgiveness
of sins, in accordance with the
riches of God’s grace that He
lavished on us with all wisdom and
understanding.”

Creative Object Lessons
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Object Lesson - Teddy Bear Faith

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