> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://thepulse.org/en/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Youth Group Session “Why Your Grades Don’t Define You” - URL: https://thepulse.org/en/why-your-grades-dont-define-you/ - Published: 2025-01-29T13:08:07.000Z - Updated: 2026-10-22T09:18:26.000Z - Description: Use this interactive session (game, illustration, devotional and reflection) to talk with teenagers about the fact that their worth doesn’t depend on grades or opinions. Let them discover that Jesus is the “cheat code” for life and gives us real worth and identity. - Author: Esther Penner - Tags: Lessons, #age-teens, #topic-identity, #lessons-bible-topic, #lessons-duration-long, #lessons-method-experiential, #lessons-method-game, #lessons-setting-plenary, #lessons-setting-small-group, #target-educators, #target-leaders, #topic-mental-health, #context-youth-night, #context-small-group, #context-school The elements described below offer different ways to engage with the topic of this session. It’s up to you whether you use all of them or just one. They are tools for you; you decide how to use them. What matters: - Be flexible and adapt the activities to the group dynamic and your time budget. You won’t be able to fit all the elements into one session. - Make sure all participants are included and feel comfortable. - Offer enough room for personal reflection and stress the importance of honest and open feedback. - Be sensitive to emotional reactions, especially when it comes to personal topics. ## Experiential activity “Pompom Battle” ⏱ 10 minutes 🧰 ****Materials:** masking tape (as sticky as possible), 200 pompoms in team colors (or cotton balls or similar), a large room or open space **Preparation** - Divide the pompoms beforehand so you have 50 pompoms in each team’s color ready to go. **How to play** - Divide the group into two teams: Team A and Team B. - Each team chooses one person as the “runner.” - The runners are wrapped in masking tape: the tape goes on their shirt with the sticky side facing out. - The teams stand on opposite sides of the room. - Each team gets 50 pompoms in its team color. - The runners start in the middle of the field and each run toward the opposing team. - The opposing team throws its pompoms at them; the goal is to get as many pompoms as possible to stick to the tape. - Pompoms that fall on the floor may not be picked up again. - Once all pompoms have been thrown, the runners return to the middle. - Now they run toward their own team, which also tries to throw pompoms at them. - The goal is to dodge the opposing team’s pompoms while letting as many of your own team’s pompoms as possible stick to your shirt. - The runners may not protect their upper body with their arms or hands. **Scoring** After the second round, count: - Every pompom in your own team color scores +1 point. - Every pompom in the opposing color takes away 1 point. - The team with the most points wins. 💡 ****Alternative:** If too few pompoms stick, the runners can stand still in one spot while the teams throw from a short distance. **Reflection** *To the runners:* It was exciting to see how hard you tried to dodge the opposing pompoms and “catch” your team’s pompoms. ❓ ****How much influence did you have on the result yourselves?** ❓ ****What went through your mind during the game?** ## The “Red Bull” illustration ⏱ 5 minutes 🧰 ****Materials:** 1 can of Red Bull Just like in this game, opinions, judgments or experiences often “stick” to us. Grades, for example. Report cards are coming up soon. Maybe you’re looking forward to it, maybe you’re afraid of what grades will be on your report card. Maybe you’re happy with your grades, maybe you feel like you just don’t have what it takes. 👉 Show the can of Red Bull. ❓ ****What do you think a can of Red Bull like this costs?** At the supermarket it’s cheap, and even cheaper on sale. At a gas station you pay almost twice as much, at the airport even more, and at a stadium or a concert the most. The contents are always the same. But depending on where it’s sold, **a different value is assigned** to this can. Our experience is comparable. Sometimes society gives us a certain “price”: - Good grades? You’re valuable. - Bad grades? Not so valuable anymore. - Popular? You’re valuable. - Outsider? Worth less. But just like with Red Bull, it isn’t where it’s sold that determines the value, but the manufacturer. And our “manufacturer” is God. He has set our worth. No matter what grades end up on your report card, **they don’t define your worth.** Because your worth doesn’t come from your performance. Not from grades, not from what others think of you, not from your success or failure. Your worth comes from God. **He made you. He wanted you. He gave you a meaning and a worth that nobody can take away from you or mark down.** > “For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” ([Ephesians 2:10 NIV](https://www.bible.com/bible/111/EPH.2.10.NIV?ref=thepulse.org)) That means: **You are not an accident.** God made you, on purpose. He gave you abilities, talents, passions and a purpose. And the best part: your worth doesn’t depend on whether you do everything right. Maybe you’re thinking: *But I don’t feel particularly valuable.* **You are valuable because God says so.** But to really experience this truth, it isn’t enough to talk yourself into it. You have to really believe it. ## Going deeper: “Jesus is the cheat code” ⏱ 15 minutes The Bible says we are created in God’s image ([Genesis 1:27](https://www.bible.com/bible/111/GEN.1.27.NIV?ref=thepulse.org)). That doesn’t mean God looks like us, but that **he has put his character into us.** God is creative, full of love, just, wise, merciful, and that is exactly what he has put into you. But then why do we so often feel imperfect, worthless or not enough? Imagine you’re playing a video game. You’re in a really hard level full of obstacles and dangers. You give it your best, but no matter what you do, you just can’t make it. And then it happens: **Game Over.** That’s exactly how it is with us and God. The Bible calls the problem “sin.” We are Game Over. Sin isn’t just “doing bad things.” Sin means that we have distanced ourselves from God. That we do our own thing, ignore God, don’t believe he exists. And that has consequences: pain, insecurity, fear, the feeling of never being good enough. It’s as if we were trapped in a game with no way to beat the level. But here comes the best news: > “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.” ([John 3:16 NIV](https://www.bible.com/bible/111/JHN.3.16.NIV?ref=thepulse.org)) God knew we couldn’t make it alone. So he made a plan, **and that plan is Jesus.** Jesus is God’s Son, but he came to earth as a human being. He lived **without sin**, and yet he was condemned and killed on the cross. Why? **Because he voluntarily paid the price for our sin.** He gave everything to save you. He died for you, so that you can beat the level called life. But it doesn’t end with his death. **Jesus rose again.** **That means: he defeated the “Game Over” screen.** He played the same level we keep failing at. And he made it, because **Jesus is the cheat code.** **He cleared the way to God again.** But this gift doesn’t automatically apply to everyone. It only becomes yours when you accept it. Imagine Jesus comes to you and says, “Hey, I’m the cheat code, and together with me you’ll beat this level called life.” You can ignore him, or you can invite him into the level called life. Jesus has already done everything for you; all you have to do is trust him and accept the gift. If you believe that Jesus died and rose again for you, then you receive **everything he has done for you:** - Forgiveness for everything you’ve done wrong and will still do wrong. - An eternal friendship with God. - Strength and courage to live a victorious life. God doesn’t promise you that your life will always be easy. But he does promise you: **With me you are a winner.** > “No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” ([Romans 8:37 NIV](https://www.bible.com/bible/111/ROM.8.37.NIV?ref=thepulse.org)) That means: - Your worth is settled, no matter what your report card says. - Your life has meaning, even if you can’t see it right now. - You are loved, more than you can imagine. If you believe in Jesus, you will discover and experience that this is true. ## Closing and prayer ⏱ 10 minutes 🧰 ****Materials:** the list “[Who I Am in Christ](https://www.ficm.org/about-us/who-i-am-in-christ/?ref=thepulse.org)” from Freedom in Christ Ministries. **Print it for every participant on heavy paper or laminate it as a bookmark.* Your report card doesn’t define your worth. No person defines your worth. Jesus settled your worth long ago, and he paid for it with his own life. But this is a truth we have to remind ourselves of again and again. In everyday life it’s easy to be influenced by other voices that then stick to us like the pompoms. That’s why I have a bookmark for each of you. 👉 Ask the group to form a circle and hand out the bookmarks. We’re going to take some time now and speak one of these truths over each other. I’ll read the first truth and speak it to my neighbor on the left: “You are God’s child.” And now you speak the next truth to your neighbor on the left, and so on. Look at these truths again and again. But don’t forget: they only become truths in your life when you accept the gift of Jesus. If you have questions about this or want to talk to Jesus yourself, you can come to me or another leader afterward. We are here for you. 👉 Close with a short prayer, if it fits. *English version: September 2026*