Old Enough to Know

Children use colors and words to demonstrate the awareness of sin within their lives.

PREPARATION

Before class, print or make copies of both activity pages for each child. Bring a large clock with a second hand so everyone in the class can count the seconds. Children can also use a wristwatch if they have one.   

WHAT YOU WILL DO:

Pair up the children. Then give each child a copy of Activity Page 1 and read the instructions at the top. Have one child of each pair use the clock to time how fast his or her partner can name all of the colors in order. Then switch and have the second child time the first. Be sure to tell the children to write their name at the top, and record the number of seconds at the bottom of the page.

Next, give each child a copy of Activity Page 2, and read the instructions at the top. Have the children time each other as before on how fast they can say the color, not read the word.

Children will immediately see how much longer it took to complete the second page. You will compare how reading complicated the task, just as sin in our life gets in the way of our relationship with God.

WHAT YOU WILL SAY:

When we were young, we could not read, but we could name the different colors. It was easy to tell our mom or dad something was red, green, or yellow. We even had fun naming the different colors. When we were young, we also did not know too much about sin. We knew when we did something wrong. However, we did not know the full consequences of our sin.

It is sort of like learning to read. After we learn to read, words take on meaning. They become important. With the second page, it was more difficult to say the color because our ability to read the words interfered with our ability to focus only on the color.

That is the way sin is. Now that we are older, we can feel sin as a real presence in our lives and not merely doing something wrong. We begin to see sin for what it really is: disobedience to God. We begin to see how sin affects our relationship with God. The Apostle Peter gave us a strong message: "As obedient children, do not conform to the evil desires you had when you lived in ignorance." (1 Peter 1: 14)