Wanted: Pure Hearts
Items Needed:
- Tablespoon
- Water bottle
- Dirt
Add a tablespoon of dirt to the water bottle while the children aren’t looking. Ask: Would you like a drink of this water? Why or why not?
Christians are called to be pure–to be holy like Jesus. What does it mean to be pure? (Clean, not contaminated, not polluted, etc.)
David prayed after he sinned, “Create in me a clean heart, O God” (Psalm 51:10). We can pray this prayer too. We want to keep the wrong thoughts, words, and actions out of our hearts and minds. Wrong ideas, pictures, TV shows, and movies–things that stir up our sinful desires can “dirty up” our hearts.
Say Psalm 51:10 as a bedtime prayer this week.
Parents, the average age that boys first see pornography is between 8 and 11 (www.focusonthefamily.com).
Clean Heart Celebration
Because of God’s love, we don’t have to feel guilty for our sin when we confess and repent. Instead, we can have a clean heart and a home in Heaven. That’s a great reason to celebrate!
Depending on the ages of your children, here are a few ideas they might enjoy.
Add a special surprise (note, heart-shaped food, candy) in their lunchbox.
Follow white cut-out or candy hearts to find a small prize.
Plan to stay up later Friday night, play games, and camp out in the living room together.
Write a note telling your children why you love them.
Garbage In…Garbage Out
Invite the children to make dinner with you. Instead of going to the pantry or refrigerator, ask one of them to grab the trash can and start looking through it to find some food for dinner. When they seem disgusted, keep looking through the trash and talk about ways to use the trash to make dinner. Then ask: Why shouldn’t we put garbage in our bodies? Pull out some good food from the fridge and make dinner with their help.
Just as we don’t want to put yucky garbage in our bodies, we should not put yucky stuff in our hearts and minds. What are some bad things we should not put in our minds? (It might be very enlightening to hear their ideas.) We must keep our minds pure and not allow wrong ideas and things in. The Holy Spirit helps create a clean heart within us! He lives inside us and helps us make good choices.