We must learn to confess
Children's Activity
Object:
Read the Gospel lesson (Luke 13:1-9) to the children and ask
them what they think it means. There are two distinct parts of
the lesson:
1. The section in Luke 13:1-5 discusses whether any one sin
is worse than any other. Children sometimes think that some rules
are more okay to disobey than others. They frequently decide that
some sins are worse than others, and this makes it easy to
justify bad behavior. Remind them that all sins are equal in
God's eyes. All people must repent and ask for God's forgiveness
-- no matter what the sin.
2. The section in Luke 13:6-9 is trickier. This would be a
good section for older children to think about and discuss. What
could the fig tree represent? Who is the vineyard owner? Who is
the person that defends that unproductive fig tree? The fig tree
is given one more year to produce before it will be cut down.
What does it need to do to make itself more productive?
For an activity, you might take a piece of tarnished silver
and clean it with the children. Show them the tarnish and how
dirty the beautiful object has gotten. The tarnish remover is
like confession: it cleans the silver and removes all traces of
dirt.
Once the object has been polished it looks just like new --
just like it never got tarnished at all. Once we have confessed
and been forgiven by God we look like that too. We are clean,
shiny, and brand new.
The silver object will get tarnished again. We will get
tarnished again too. The good news, though, is that we can always
confess, get polished up again, and made like new!
them what they think it means. There are two distinct parts of
the lesson:
1. The section in Luke 13:1-5 discusses whether any one sin
is worse than any other. Children sometimes think that some rules
are more okay to disobey than others. They frequently decide that
some sins are worse than others, and this makes it easy to
justify bad behavior. Remind them that all sins are equal in
God's eyes. All people must repent and ask for God's forgiveness
-- no matter what the sin.
2. The section in Luke 13:6-9 is trickier. This would be a
good section for older children to think about and discuss. What
could the fig tree represent? Who is the vineyard owner? Who is
the person that defends that unproductive fig tree? The fig tree
is given one more year to produce before it will be cut down.
What does it need to do to make itself more productive?
For an activity, you might take a piece of tarnished silver
and clean it with the children. Show them the tarnish and how
dirty the beautiful object has gotten. The tarnish remover is
like confession: it cleans the silver and removes all traces of
dirt.
Once the object has been polished it looks just like new --
just like it never got tarnished at all. Once we have confessed
and been forgiven by God we look like that too. We are clean,
shiny, and brand new.
The silver object will get tarnished again. We will get
tarnished again too. The good news, though, is that we can always
confess, get polished up again, and made like new!
