📝 Worksheet 2.5: Mapping God’s Creational Design for Your Life
📝 Worksheet 2.4: Mapping God’s Creational Design for Your Life
Course: Introduction to Spiritual Growth
Topic 2: Spiritual Creation — The Organic Human as Image-Bearing Living Soul
Worksheet Title: Mapping God’s Creational Design for Your Life
Connection: This worksheet completes Topic 2 by helping students apply Genesis 1–2 to their own embodied life, work, relationships, boundaries, responsibilities, and spiritual growth.
Purpose of This Worksheet
Genesis 1–2 teaches that human beings were created in God’s image and formed as living souls. We are not divided creatures. We are embodied souls: spiritual and physical together, created for communion with God, meaningful work, holy boundaries, real relationships, and faithful stewardship.
This worksheet will help you reflect on God’s creational design in your own life.
This is not a guilt exercise.
This is a discernment exercise.
You are asking:
Where has God placed me?
What has God entrusted to me?
Where am I living divided?
Where is God inviting me into whole-person spiritual growth?
Part 1: Created in God’s Image
Read Genesis 1:26–28.
God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.
Genesis 1:27, WEB
Human beings have dignity because God created them in his image. This dignity is not based on success, appearance, income, education, ministry title, personality, or past performance.
You are not merely your job.
You are not merely your past.
You are not merely your wound.
You are not merely your temptation.
You are not merely your failure.
You are an image-bearer of God.
Reflection
What does it mean to you that human beings are created in the image of God?
Which truth do you most need to remember right now?
☐ I have dignity because God created human beings in his image.
☐ I am not defined by shame, failure, wounds, or past sin.
☐ My body matters to God.
☐ My work matters to God.
☐ My relationships matter to God.
☐ My calling matters to God.
☐ Every person I serve is also an image-bearer.
How might remembering the image of God change the way you view yourself?
How might remembering the image of God change the way you treat others?
Part 2: Dust and Breath — Your Embodied Soul
Read Genesis 2:7.
Yahweh God formed man from the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.
Genesis 2:7, WEB
Genesis does not teach that the soul is trapped inside the body. Genesis teaches that the human became a living soul.
You are an embodied soul.
Your spiritual nature and physical nature belong together.
This means spiritual growth includes your prayer life, but also your body, habits, sleep, emotions, sexuality, work, stress, speech, and relationships.
Reflection
Have you ever treated spiritual growth as if it were mostly “inside” or “nonphysical”?
☐ Yes
☐ No
☐ Sometimes
Explain:
What part of your embodied life needs more attention before God right now?
☐ Sleep
☐ Food
☐ Exercise or bodily care
☐ Emotional honesty
☐ Sexual holiness
☐ Stress responses
☐ Speech
☐ Work habits
☐ Rest
☐ Technology use
☐ Health concerns
☐ Anger or irritability
☐ Anxiety or fear
☐ Other: _______________________________
How could caring for this area become part of your spiritual growth?
Part 3: Garden — Where Has God Placed You?
Genesis 2 shows that God placed the human in a real setting. Spiritual growth does not happen in an imaginary religious world. It happens in the real places where God has placed you.
You grow spiritually in your home, workplace, church, marriage, family, friendships, neighborhood, ministry, studies, and daily responsibilities.
Reflection
Where has God placed you in this season?
☐ Home
☐ Marriage
☐ Family
☐ Parenting
☐ Church
☐ School
☐ Workplace
☐ Ministry
☐ Soul Center
☐ Neighborhood
☐ Volunteer service
☐ Caregiving role
☐ Leadership role
☐ Season of preparation
☐ Season of healing
☐ Season of transition
☐ Other: _______________________________
Which place feels most spiritually important right now?
Why does this place matter?
What might God be forming in you through this place?
Part 4: Work — What Are You Called to Cultivate and Keep?
Read Genesis 2:15.
Yahweh God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate and keep it.
Genesis 2:15, WEB
Work existed before the fall. This means meaningful labor belongs to God’s good creation.
To cultivate means to develop, nurture, build, and bring fruitfulness.
To keep means to guard, protect, preserve, and steward faithfully.
Your work may be paid or unpaid. It may be visible or hidden. It may happen in a workplace, home, church, ministry, classroom, caregiving role, business, or season of preparation.
Reflection
What has God entrusted to you to cultivate?
Examples: family, ministry, studies, workplace, skills, relationships, leadership, home, finances, health, spiritual habits.
What has God entrusted to you to keep or guard?
Examples: integrity, marriage, children, time, calling, church trust, emotional health, doctrine, boundaries, finances, reputation, testimony.
Where have you been faithful?
Where do you need growth?
Where are you tempted to say, “This part of life is not spiritual”?
Part 5: Permission and Boundary
In Genesis 2, God gave abundance before restriction.
God said, “You may freely eat…” before he said, “You shall not eat…”
God’s boundaries are not enemies of joy. Holy boundaries protect life, train trust, and remind us that we are creatures before God.
Reflection
What good gifts has God given you in this season?
What holy boundary do you need to honor more faithfully?
☐ A moral boundary
☐ A sexual boundary
☐ A relational boundary
☐ A financial boundary
☐ A time boundary
☐ A technology boundary
☐ A ministry boundary
☐ A work boundary
☐ A speech boundary
☐ A health boundary
☐ A rest boundary
☐ Other: _______________________________
Why is this boundary life-giving?
What temptation makes this boundary difficult to honor?
What is one wise step you can take this week?
Part 6: Relationship — It Is Not Good to Be Alone
Genesis 2:18 says:
Yahweh God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make him a helper comparable to him.”
Genesis 2:18, WEB
Human beings are relational by design. Spiritual growth is personal, but it is not isolated.
Many people try to grow spiritually while avoiding honest relationships. Some avoid conflict. Some hide shame. Some over-function. Some withdraw. Some become harsh. Some serve everyone but never let anyone know them.
Genesis 2 reminds us that relationship belongs to God’s design.
Reflection
Who are the key people God has placed in your life right now?
Which relationship needs more prayer, honesty, wisdom, repair, or boundaries?
What would spiritual growth look like in that relationship?
☐ Listening better
☐ Speaking truthfully
☐ Apologizing
☐ Forgiving
☐ Setting a wise boundary
☐ Being more present
☐ Showing patience
☐ Asking for help
☐ Praying with or for the person
☐ Seeking counsel
☐ Serving with humility
☐ Stopping gossip
☐ Ending manipulation
☐ Other: _______________________________
Write one sentence of prayer for this relationship.
Part 7: Naming Reality Truthfully
Adam named the animals. Naming is part of human agency and discernment.
Spiritual growth requires truthful naming before God.
Sometimes we need to name a blessing.
Sometimes we need to name a wound.
Sometimes we need to name a sin.
Sometimes we need to name a calling.
Sometimes we need to name a boundary.
Sometimes we need to name grace.
Reflection
Complete the following sentences:
One blessing I need to name with gratitude is:
One responsibility I need to name honestly is:
One temptation I need to name without excuse is:
One wound or struggle I need to bring before God is:
One gift or calling I need to steward is:
One grace of God I need to receive is:
Part 8: My Creational Design Map
Use the prompts below to summarize what you have discovered.
God created me as an image-bearer.
This means:
God created me as an embodied soul.
This means my spiritual growth includes:
God has placed me in this season.
My current “garden” includes:
God has given me work to cultivate and keep.
I am called to cultivate and keep:
God has given me holy boundaries.
One boundary I need to honor is:
God has created me for relationship.
One relationship area where I need growth is:
God is forming me for faithful spiritual growth.
One next step I will take this week is:
Part 9: Ministry Readiness Reflection
If you are preparing for ministry, leadership, chaplaincy, coaching, officiating, Soul Center service, church service, or Christian mentoring, Genesis 1–2 gives you a whole-person vision of ministry.
People are not projects.
People are not problems to fix.
People are not just minds to teach or emotions to comfort.
People are image-bearing embodied souls.
They need truth without contempt.
They need dignity without denial.
They need boundaries without harshness.
They need compassion without enabling.
They need spiritual care that honors the whole person.
Reflection
How does Genesis 1–2 change the way I should serve people?
Part 10: My One-Week Practice
Choose one practical action for the coming week.
This should be simple, specific, and realistic.
Examples:
I will apologize to someone I treated harshly.
I will stop joining gossip at work.
I will pray before my shift begins.
I will get enough sleep two nights this week.
I will set one technology boundary.
I will tell the truth where I have been exaggerating.
I will ask for help instead of pretending I am fine.
I will honor one boundary I have been ignoring.
My one-week practice:
This week, I will:
Why this matters for my spiritual growth:
Closing Prayer
Lord God,
You created humanity in your image.
You formed us from dust and breathed the breath of life.
You made us living souls before you.
Help me receive my life as your gift.
Teach me to honor my body, my work, my relationships, my limits, and my calling.
Show me where I have separated spiritual growth from ordinary life.
Restore my trust in your good design.
Help me cultivate and keep what you have entrusted to me.
Where I need repentance, give me courage.
Where I need healing, give me grace.
Where I need boundaries, give me wisdom.
Where I need calling, give me clarity.
I offer my whole life to you through Jesus Christ.
Amen.
Completion Statement
Name: ___________________________________________
Date: ___________________________________________
One sentence I want to remember from Topic 2: