1 Peter 3:8-12 - Finally, all of you, be like-minded, be sympathetic, love one another, be compassionate and humble. Do not repay evil with evil or insult with insult. On the contrary, repay evil with blessing, because to this you were called so that you may inherit a blessing. For, “Whoever would love life and see good days must keep their tongue from evil and their lips from deceitful speech. They must turn from evil and do good; they must seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.”
We focused on the tongue tonight. And we started the class out in an interesting way. Jonathan came in to ask me if I had remembered to grab his Bible like he'd asked me to. I told him I never remembered him asking me to do that and an argument followed. We went back and forth, got louder, said things we should never have said to each other....until Michaela overheard us and came in. She went to my defense and the next thing you know, her and Jonathan were in a battle of their own, their tongues their mightiest weapons.
Of course this was all staged! It worked right into our lesson. Then we played a silly game of fact or fiction. The kids had to hold their tongues with their fingers while they answered true or false to these questions:
- Every person has a unique tongue print. (True)
- All of your estimated 10,000 taste buds are located on the tongue. (False) - They’re also on your cheeks, lips, etc.
- Close to 50 percent of the bacteria in your mouth lives on the surface of your tongue. (True)
- If a human tongue was proportioned the same way as a chameleon, a person who was 5 ft. tall would have a tongue over 7 feet long. (True) - The chameleons tongue is 1.5 times the length of it’s body.
- In Tibet, it’s bad manners to stick out your tongue at guests. (False) - It’s considered good manners.
Then we talked about the most embarrassing things we've ever said, the most hurtful things, and the nicest things someone's ever said to us....and how each of these situations made us feel. We talked about why words might carry so much power and why it's so easy to use our tongues for good or evil.
Object lesson time! We gave three kids three different objects. One got shaving cream, one toothpaste, and one hair gel. We asked them to squeeze the ingredients out onto paper plates. Next, we asked them to put them back into their original containers. They knew this was an impossibility! We talked about how they were so consumed with what they were doing, they didn't realize the mess they were making. It's the same with our words sometimes. We are so consumed with being right, getting the last word in, out-smart-mouthing the other person so much that we don't realize the mess we are making.....hurt feelings, bad memories, potential for bitterness and resentment.
We gave each of the kids a piece of gum then and asked them to hold it on their tongues without closing their mouths for as long as they could. They were drooling everywhere! It was awesome! We explained to them that resisting mouth-watering gossip is just as difficult, but it is another way we use our tongues to hurt others and for evil.
We closed talking about what Peter tells us in 1 Peter 3 about how we are to use our words to build one another up, show compassion and humility, be peacemakers, and bless those around us.
