Eat my words

I am teaching my wonderful Dolphins this month, and the lesson I am teaching tomorrow is just as much for me as my kiddos. The key verse is:

"By your words you will be acquitted and by your words you will be condemned." Matt 12:37

Ouch. Serious ouch.

The lesson is about watching what you say. I really want the kids to get this, so here is what I am doing to drive the point home.

Opening: The kids will write nice words and mean words on hearts and tape them to butcher paper on the correct column (nice words, mean words). I want the wheels in their heads to start churning over what it feels like to be at the tail end of a mean remark. And they are writing them on hearts because, well, as Jesus said :

"Make a tree good and its fruit will be good, or make a tree bad and its fruit will be bad, for a tree is recognized by its fruit. You brood of vipers, how can you who are evil say anything good? For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks. The good man brings good things out of the good stored up in him, and the evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in him. But I tell you that men will have to give account on the day of judgment for every careless word they have spoken. For by your words you will be acquitted, and by your words you will be condemned." Matthew 12:33-37

Next to drive the point home of flowing out the heart I am busting out an old school science experiment, baking soda and vinegar. They are going to write their names on hearts and then tape them to Dixie cups, then well, you get it, foam a plenty flowing out of the heart cups. I am hoping this visual helps drive the point home once we get to the Bible portion.

Then comes the good ol toothpaste object lesson. 1 lucky kid will squeeze toothpaste out of a tube, and then I will tell them to try to put it back in. When they start worrying that they can't, I'll drive home that neither can we take back the words that come out of our mouths, while we can apologize, and ask forgiveness, it will never be erased, what's said is said. That will lead into, well how do we have a good heart in which good things comes out? Jesus, only he can wash away our sins, and clean out the junk too!

Next we'll go over Jesus words in Matthew, and I plan to give each of them a tube of toothpaste to take home, so they can remember the lesson.

Then they will make heart puppets and act out a skit they write about using nice words and the consequences of bad word, and mean words.

That's the easy part. Now how am I going to drive this point home in my own heart????