

PDF of article

A Look at Your Values - TEACHING NOTES


REMEMBER: This is not a test. The goal is to understand your values, not to determine a "right" or "wrong" answer. Your answers do not need to agree with everyone else's answers.

Once you know what your values are (in any area of life), then you can decide if you need to change them. (Often trying to discover what your values are is the biggest obstacle to changing them!)

Note: In the second section, you are to decide how much you would be willing to give for something. Don't be surprised, if for some of the items listed, you aren't willing to give anything!

A Look at Your Values

For each of the following pairs of objects or concepts, circle the one you value the most. If you value them both equally, circle the "equal" sign. (To help you decide, you may wish to ask yourself which you would choose, if you were only able to choose one of them. Or, which would you be willing to give-up in exchange for the other.)

Stick of gum



Mound of garbage


Tub of ice cream

Coffee pot


Peach pie







$10 in U.S. currency


1823 silver dollar

Nice lawn


Vegetable garden

College degree


A million dollars

Dripping faucet


Loud neighbors

A day at an amusement park


A job interview

Health and poverty


Sickness and wealth

87-room mansion


Small cottage



Video game




Everything the world offers you


The kingdom of God, along with persecution

Sharing a friend's painful experiences


Not having a friend

Dying for someone else


Letting them die

Matthew 13:44-46




For each of the following, what is the most you would be willing to give for it? (This "giving" does not need to be limited to just money, but can include anything that you might be willing to give or "sacrifice," in order to obtain the thing listed.)

1.   Stick of gum
2.   Plate of chopped liver
3.   Piano lessons
4.   Job promotion
5.   Hit in the face by a baseball
6.   A day at an amusement park
7.   Becoming the president of the U.S.
8.   The ability to restore a dying friend to health
9.   A happy family
10. The opportunity to follow Jesus

Matthew 16:24-25


Following Jesus involves learning from him (as recorded the Bible), accepting what he says, and following his example. Jesus' followers (also called "disciples," in the New Testament) desire to live the way Jesus would, if he were living in their circumstances.

  • That's the reason for the acronym that some people use, "W.W.J.D." - which means, "What would Jesus do?"

  • Those who follow Jesus now will be given the opportunity to do so forever. (Those who don't want to follow him now, won't be given the opportunity to do so later.)

  • If you want to know more about what it means to follow Jesus, you could begin by reading the New Testament book of Matthew.


Dennis Hinks © 2004