How to Play
For youths and adults, this game can be played in teams. For younger children who are less dexterous, playing individually will minimize frustration.
The object of the game is to arrange the dominoes in a formation (either straight row or any creative pattern). After all the players/teams have completed their formations, have fun watching the dominoes fall.
Tips
1. Ensure that the floor is flat. Works best on non-carpeted floor.
2. Ensure each player has enough working space without toppling other players’ blocks.
3. The more domino blocks you have, the more challenging and fun. But for younger kids, avoid giving them more blocks than they can handle. Depending on their dexterity, suggest giving each child no more than 50 blocks.
4. The blocks must be placed close enough (but not too close) to each other such that when one topples, it will strike and topple its neighboring block. For a nice domino effect, suggest placing dominoes evenly with gaps of roughly half the height of dominoes.
5. It is common to accidentally topple the dominoes while arranging the formation. Leave bigger gaps every now and then so that only small sections of the formation will topple (and not the entire formation) when this happens. Go back and carefully fill these gaps after you have completed the rest of the formation.
Bible Lesson – Perseverance
Discuss
1. Did you enjoy this activity? Why or why not?
2. Did you manage to arrange the dominoes in the formation that you wanted?
3. What were some of the difficulties that you encountered in arranging the dominoes?
4. Did all the dominoes fall nicely the way you wanted them to?
If yes, how did you feel?
If no, do you know what went wrong? How do you feel?
5. What do you think of this activity? Was it easy? Challenging?
6. Do you enjoy doing tasks that are difficult and take a long time to do? Tell us about one such task that you have done (or started doing but did not manage to complete). How did/do you feel?
Say
Perseverance is doing something even though it is difficult or tedious.
Discuss
7. What are some Bible passages that you can think of that talk about perseverance?
Read
2 Thessalonians 3:13; Galatians 6:9; James 1:2-4
Discuss
8. What does the Bible say about perseverance?
9. Why does God want us to persevere in doing good?
10. What can we look forward to if we persevere in doing good?
11. What are some Bible verses that can encourage us when we feel tired, discouraged and want to give up doing good?
Read
Proverbs 3:5-6; Isaiah 40:30-31; Jeremiah 29:11
Conclude
In this activity, arranging the dominoes neatly is not easy and it takes time to do it well. When we are impatient and try to hurry, we can accidentally topple the dominoes. This can lead to frustration and we sometimes feel like giving up.
In the same way, in real life, we sometimes feel frustrated and want to give up.
But God wants does not want us to give up doing good. God wants us to persevere. When we are walking in obedience, we can trust that God is with us and that he will help us.
Bible Lesson – Patience
Discuss
1. What do you think of this activity? Was it easy? Challenging?
2. Did you manage to arrange the dominoes in the formation that you wanted?
3. What were some of the difficulties that you encountered in arranging the dominoes?
4. Did all the dominoes fall nicely the way you wanted?
If yes, how did you feel?
If no, do you know what went wrong? How do you feel?
5. Did you enjoy this activity? Tell us how you felt.
6. Would you describe yourself as a patient person? Tell us more? Give us some examples of how you were patient/impatient.
Say
Patience is the quality of waiting calmly without complaining.
Discuss
7. What are some Bible passages that you can think of that talk about patience?
Read
Colossians 3:12; Ephesians 4:2; 1 Corinthians 13:4; Proverbs 15:18
Discuss
8. What does “clothe yourself with patience” mean?
9. Why do you think God wants us to clothe ourselves with patience?
10. Why does God want us to be patient with one another?
11. When is it easy to be patient with someone?
12. When is it difficult to be patient with someone?
13. Do you sometimes get impatient with yourself? Tell us more.
14. How can we become more patient, even with difficult people?
Read
Galatians 5:16,22-23
Discuss
15. What does it mean to walk by the Spirit?
16. If we walk by the Spirit, what will the Spirit produce in our lives?
Conclude
Patience is the quality of waiting calmly without complaining.
Sometimes this is easy – like when we are doing things that we enjoy or dealing with people we like, or when we have something to look forward.
But it can become challenging when we are doing something that is difficult or takes very long to do, and when we are dealing with difficult people or someone we don’t really like.
God wants us to be patient not just with ourselves, but also with one another. If we walk closely with God and yield to the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit produces good fruit in our lives, including patience!
Optional: This next section deals specifically with patience with God
Discuss
17. Do you sometimes get impatient with God? Tell us more.
18. Why do you think sometimes God takes so long to answer our prayers?
Read
Ecclesiastes 3:1,11; James 1:2-4; Jeremiah 29:11; Isaiah 40:30-31
Say
Sometimes God seems to be taking an extra-long time to answer our prayers.
When this happens, we need to examine ourselves, because sometimes it is our own doubts, sins or sinful desires that hinder our prayers.
But oftentimes we simply do not understand the reason for the delay in God’s answering our prayers, especially when the thing that we are praying for seems perfectly in line with what God wants for us. Nonetheless we must continue to wait on him and trust that he will make all things beautiful in his time. He may be testing and refining us, and he will sustain us if we continue to trust in him.
