It's officially fall! I love the crisp air, the feeling of a new season. I know many people think of spring as a season of new beginnings. I agree, but I also think fall is too. We're approaching a season of thanks and of giving. Every year, I strive to be a family that spends more time focusing on the aspect of giving and service. It's a great time for a "31 days of kindness" endeavor. Lots of opportunities for "good deeds" around these fall and winter holidays.
This lesson was great on so many levels. It gave us the chance to talk about so many different topics... friends, good deeds, obedience, repentance... As always, we started out with the videos and picture book. If you missed any of the previous posts, you can catch up here {overview, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, resources}!
GOODNESS ~ I will do what is right.
Our verse for goodness was Matthew 5:16.
"In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in Heaven."
We started this lesson with a question. What are some good things you can do? The answers to this were all over the place. What are some not good things we see people do? Even more answers. It amazes me how many of them involved farting and pooping. Ugh. I know God had a plan when He made me a boy mom, but sometimes I still wonder what He was thinking.
"So Little Man, we need to be careful about who we surround ourselves with. We want to be nice to everyone, but we want to make sure we are only being influenced by the good around us." Note: the level of conversation will definitely depend on the age of your little one.
After a little discussion, I gave him three bowls. One had cooked pasta. If we're completely honest, I thought I had some rotini pasta, but I was mistaken. I broke lasagna pieces apart. I would definitely encourage you to use some sort of small pasta pieces like rotini, bowties, penne, or macaroni. The flat pasta was a little difficult. I digress.
Together, we came up with things that each of the bowls could represent. "Little Man, what something that your friends do that you really like and makes you want to be around them?" Church friends, kind words, friendly. "Now what are some things kids might do that you don't want to be around?" Lying, calling names, being mean. We added blue food coloring to the "good" bowl and green to the "bad" bowl. "Little Man, let's pretend that each of these pieces of pasta are one person. What happens when they mix with the good people?" They turn blue (good) too. "Right, now what happens when we add them to the group of lying kids?" They start lying too.
We carried it a step further and I asked him to think of something to call the "clear" group. His first comment was that they weren't bad, so we went with that. I picked up one of the pasta pieces that had been stained green and asked him to predict what would happen if I added it to the clean group. He quickly covered the bowl and shouted, "No, no, no, no!" I think he got it.
At the end, I poured a little bit of bleach in a bowl. I told him the bleach was like God's forgiveness. I asked him to predict what would happen if I added one of the lying pasta pieces to the bowl of bleach. It's really neat. The bleach washes away the sin and the lies and makes it clean again. "Little Man, God is amazing like that! He forgives us and we are white as snow again!"
"Is it okay to be nice to everyone?" Absolutely. "Do we want to be good?" Of course! "How do we do that?" Hang out with the good people. Yes. If we are going to be "colored" by the influences around us, we should make sure we are being colored in a good way. We should absolutely be kind to everyone, but we need to make sure we are only influenced by the good. We should make sure our friends help us to make good choices and do the right thing.
Dear Jesus, thank You for being good and thank You for forgiving us when we are not. I'm sorry that I wasn't making a good choice when I _______. Please help me to be good. Help me to be kind to everyone, but be a light for Your good. Help me to make good choices so that other people will want to do them too. Amen.
Couldn't we all use this lesson? This world needs a few more lights in the darkness!
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