Peer Pressure in a Bottle

Balloon in a Bottle


This is an object lesson on peer pressure. You'll need a balloon, black
Sharpie marker, and an empty water bottle.


Beforehand, blow up the balloon and draw a face on it with a Sharpie marker.
After the ink dries, deflate the balloon. Now, insert the balloon into the
empty water bottle and pull the opening of the balloon over the mouth of the
bottle. The balloon should be hanging inside the bottle.


Choose someone to help you with the demonstration--someone who claims they
can blow up a balloon. Give them the bottle and tell them to blow hard into
the balloon so that it will inflate. No matter how hard they blow, the
balloon will not inflate inside the bottle. This gives us a picture of what
it's like to be influenced by negative peer pressure. Peers are the people
around us ... friends and family. And, pressure is when we feel forced to be
and act a certain way. Let's say the balloon represents a person and the
bottle is peer pressure. No matter how hard he tries, when he allows himself
to be surrounded by negative peer pressure--people trying to influence him
to act in a certain way--he's not able to grow into the person God intended.
It stifles him. It chokes him. It keeps him from growing spiritually.


Now, remove the balloon from the bottle and let your assistant blow it up.
The face on the balloon will appear. When this person freed himself from
peer pressure, when he decided it wasn't important to please others who
wanted to force him to live and believe a certain way--he was free to grow
and thrive and become what God intended.


Go to Romans 12:2 and see what God's Word has to say about peer
pressure. "Don't be like the people of this world, but let God change the
way you think. Then you will know how to do everything that is good and
pleasing to him" (CEV).

We Will Rise - Idea

Object Lesson:

We Will Rise

I love when people share their ideas with me! This one was from Tracy

Thurm, and is included in the April 8, 2012 Easter lesson in the Kitchen

curriculum that KidzMatter puts out. She was glad to have me share it

with you!

You will need:

2 white helium balloons with long strings attached

small black t-shirt

Will it rise?  I have similar question for you … “Will you rise?” God tells

us that we will rise like Him if we are true believers in His Son Jesus

Christ! 1 Corinthians 6:14 says, “By his power God raised the Lord from the

dead, and he will raise us also.” WOW! That’s great news! I’m going to

demonstrate what this means using these balloons.

The leader will have a child hold a white balloon. This balloon represents

Jesus Christ. The balloon is white, because Jesus was perfect, sinless and

spotless!

The leader will have another child hold a second white balloon that has a

small black t-shirt over it. A size 3T or 4T will work, depending on the

size of the balloon. If the t-shirt has a logo on it, just turn it inside

out. This balloon represents us. Why do you think there is a black t-shirt

covering this balloon? Right! We are sinners. This black shirt represents

our sins. How do you feel when you sin? Sin drags us down, doesn’t it? The

leader will instruct the child with the t-shirt covered balloon to let go of

the balloon. The balloon will drop to the floor due to the weight of the

t-shirt. After we sin, our hearts feel kind of burdened, kind of heavy. We

feel pretty low, don’t we? The child will pick up the balloon again.

But we have good news! We have a Savior that came to take away our sins! We

have a Savior who can remove our sins as far as the east is from the west!

The leader will remove the black t-shirt from the second balloon. We have a

Savior who rose from the dead, stayed on earth and proved His resurrection

for 40 days, and then rose to heaven and was seated at the right hand of the

Father. The leader will instruct the child holding the first balloon that

represents Jesus, to let it float up near the ceiling, while he continues to

hold on to the long string. The child will stop the balloon right before it

hits the ceiling, so the balloon doesn’t pop.

And we have more good news! If you have received Jesus as your personal

Savior and Lord, if you believe that He is the only Son of God who came to

earth to take away your sins, you will also rise one day and spend eternity

with Jesus in heaven! The child with the second balloon, that represents the

children, will let his balloon float up next to the first white balloon.

The Shell-less Egg

Here's another idea for the upcoming Easter season. Jesus died on the

cross, but what does that mean to me personally? This object lesson /

science experiment requires some preparation about a week ahead of time, but

will totally fascinate the kids ... and YOU!

Place an uncooked egg into a glass of vinegar, so that the egg is submerged.

Let it set in the vinegar for 24 hours. Pour off all the vinegar and replace

it with fresh vinegar. Now, let the egg set for another 5 or 6 days in this

fresh vinegar. Yes, you read correctly … days! On the sixth day, pull it

from the vinegar and gently pat it dry with a paper towel. (You can store

the egg in an air-tight container until you're ready to use it.)

What’s missing from the egg? The shell is gone! But, if the shell’s gone,

wouldn’t the "guts" of the egg be running all over the place? No, the egg

has changed completely!

Every person who has ever lived has disobeyed God. That’s called sin. And,

sin keeps us separated from God. Look at an egg right out of the

refrigerator. This egg has a shell that keeps us from getting to the egg

inside. Let’s say the egg inside represents you, the shell represents your

sin, and my hand represents God. God (my hand) wants to hold you (the egg)

and have a relationship with you, but the shell (your sin) is in the way.

The shell is like sin; it keeps you separated from God.

Now show the egg that has been in vinegar for a week. When you come to God

and confess everything that you’ve done out of disobedience, and when you

claim Jesus as the One who took the punishment for your sin, then God gives

you His forgiveness. He no longer sees your sin (the shell) and He makes you

into someone brand new. Now, He can hold you!

It’s a mystery how this egg no longer has its shell, and it’s a mystery how

God can forgive our sins and make us new. But, it’s real. He will and He

does! The kids will want to see the egg up close and be able to touch it. As

they do, encourage them to repeat the object lesson behind the shell-less

egg.

Peeps - Idea

Jesus Died for His Peeps

Here's an idea that Jordan Davis shared with me and I love it. It's simple.

It's fun. And, it's a way to send the message home.

You'll need:

2 thin dowel rods

wire

decorative

gravel

lots of marshmallow Peeps

yarn

small tags

Make a cross with 2 thin dowel rods and secure them by criss-crossing wire

around the intersection. Fill a decorative container with gravel. Thread

different colors of marshmallow Peeps chicks onto the dowel rods until they

are covered (except for about 10" at the base of the cross). Push the cross

down into the container of gravel so it will stand.

Talk about the "Peeps" play on words--that we love our marshmallow Peeps at

Easter, but "peeps" is also another word for friends or followers. Who are

Jesus' peeps? Those who will follow Him ... ANY who will follow Him!

Give each child a Peep to take home. Use a piece of yarn to tie a tag around

the neck of each marshmallow chick that reads, "Jesus died for all His

peeps!"

Easter can sneak up on you

Have you noticed it on your calendar yet? April 24? It’s Easter … you know, the holiday that we celebrate because it’s the foundation of our faith. I’ve got to admit that every year I get a little perturbed at the way the church skirts around intentionally addressing this time that should be full of incredible celebration. I shiver to think of the number of times I’ve participated in a staff meeting when someone said, “Hey, guys. Did you realize that Easter’s only three weeks away?” Christmas gets such a hype and over-the-top attention, and then the death and resurrection of our Lord gets an afterthought.

Christmas has basically six units or events that are part of “the story.” But Easter … it’s an absolutely complex plethora of events!  Between the time that Jesus enters Jerusalem and His resurrection, there are at least 27 significant events that take place. Because Jesus intentionally initiates or participates in each one of these events during His last days on this Earth, it only seems appropriate for us to set aside more than two weeks to pull out our magnifying glass to take a closer look.  Did you realize that Jesus didn’t perform miracles this last week of His life? What it appears that He’s doing, though, is reminding His followers of important concepts. It seems that He’s saying, “Hey guys, don’t forget what I taught you about _____.” In these few days is when Jesus overturns the tables in the temple … when the woman anoints Him … when He curses the fig tree … when He gives the greatest commandment … when He responds to the dilemma about giving the coin to Caesar or to God … when He comments on the widow’s offering … when He gives us the parable of the marriage feast … just to mention some. Jesus CHOSE these specific events to be part of His last days. Shouldn’t we teach our children about all that took place that last week?

If your church is anything like the churches I’ve talked with, the celebration of Easter revolves around two Sundays. On Palm Sunday, we teach about Jesus entering Jerusalem, sending His disciples to prepare for the Passover meal, washing the disciples’ feet, giving of communion, Judas’ betrayal, and Jesus praying in the Garden of Gethsemane. Then, on Easter Sunday, we talk about Jesus’ arrest, Peter’s denial, Judas’ demise, the crucifixion, burial, resurrection, and the reaction of Jesus’ followers to finding the empty tomb. Read those two sentences over. Does that sound as ridiculous to you as it does to me? And, along the way, we’ve left out everything we talked about in the previous paragraph—the way Jesus lived life in those few days in between. If we pull out only the crucifixion and the resurrection to talk about on one day (Easter), these two events hold so much significance individually that it feels like an impossible task to help a child really grasp the meaning of both. The crucifixion is deep and it’s full. It’s more than Jesus having nails put in His hands and dying a brutal death. He became sin—ugly, nasty, spitting in God’s face sin. God, because He loves each one of us, offered His Son to become the thing He despised most—the thing He could not tolerate to be in the presence of. Can we really get all that across to children and then add on the resurrection, which is deep and full in its own right?

The challenge is to handle Easter as if it were a fine-cut jewel with many facets. Each side of this jewel is expertly crafted so that when you view all the facets together, understanding how each one contributed to the beauty of the whole, then you and the children you teach can value everything our Savior did for us in His last week. Elevate Easter in your eyes and in the eyes of the children you care for. Give them a new reverence for Jesus’ last words and actions.

To help you lead kids to observe Holy Week, you can get Easter-rific! by calling 765.271.7055. Cost is $15 plus $4 S&H. It's LOADED with lots of great ways to engage kids in all that Jesus did this last week on earth. Don't let Easter sneak up on you this year!

Be Inspired

I just returned from Benton, Louisiana where I led some workshops for the preschool department of Cypress Baptist Church. I spend many of my weekends providing training for volunteers who have a heart for reaching kids for the Kingdom, BUT this event was unique. I want to share just a little about the way they did this, because they stepped out of the conventional training model. Maybe this will inspire you to do something “different” when training your volunteers.

It’s a long-standing tradition at Cypress Baptist to kick off each year with training for leaders—preschool, elementary, youth, and adult—who work in Christian Education. The first week of the year it’s on the calendar! Isn’t that a great thought? You’ve come off this hurried time of Christmas … you’re re-evaluating the coming year … you’re ready to kick it in gear, but not sure where to start … and the church steps up to invest in its volunteers and provide them with motivation and ideas. It’s like the church is saying, “Put this at the top of your resolutions and we’ll help you.”

It’s on a Friday night … really! All four age-group volunteers come together for dinner and then leave to get age-appropriate training. But get this: It wasn’t over until 10:00. And, I was told that was early! In the past, they had gone to 11:30 and then shared breakfast together until midnight—a breakfast prepared by their senior pastor. This church found something unique that worked for them and each year they saw the benefits as more people were being taught the Word of God.

As I thought about just these little changes Cypress Baptist made, my mind shifted into high gear entertaining all kinds of ideas that would give just a little twist to children’s ministry training. Noting what others are doing and allowing it to inspire you produces motivation. So, look around. Talk with others who are doing ministry. Listen to their ideas and let them inspire you to do something that fits where you are.

Understanding Change

Last time we talked about the leadership essential of always pointing kids toward the true light ... remember the loggerhead turtle?  Well, today let's look at another children's ministry leadership "must."  In order to lead a team of staff and volunteers in the church, you must have an understanding of change and what causes people to buck when you're initiating it. Something that has often confused me is how a person may rave about the changes they see elsewhere, but speak loud and boldly of their disapproval of the changes that are happening under their noses. People get comfortable. They feel safe. And change messes with both of those.

No matter what the change is that you are proposing, you need to understand that there are going to be people who voice their disapprove. You're thinking, "This is a great idea!  Why would anyone resist this?" Before you get too confident, let's look at some reasons that you're going to deal with opposition.

1. Some people are downright content to be where they are, doing what they're doing ... no matter what it is. Before you cause a confrontation, go to this person and ease them into the change. Offer them tiny changes to move them step-by-step into a more substantial one.

2.  They distrust leadership. As much as we hate to admit it, past staff may have been responsible for creating an atmosphere in the church where leadership is distrusted.  Figure out the cause of their distrust, through one-on-one conversations with them.  Then, set out to prove yourself different. One of the keys here is to approach the change with great intentionality and don't catch this person off guard. Even if it seems to be none of their business, until they trust you, make an effort to let them know what's coming up. You don't want to fuel their already flaming fire.

3.   Some people feel their input doesn't matter. Bring people along with you when you're making a change. Include them in the discussion. Encourage input, but what's even more important is that you use that input in some way. Even if it's not a very good idea, find a way to use part of it so this person can feel safe to offer more (and better) ideas.

4.  Some people resist because they lack the vision.  They just don't see it.  It seems as plan as day to you, but they're not getting it. Cast the vision in lots of different ways, and always highlight the benefits of how more kids will come to know the Lord because of it.  Find ways to open their eyes.

5.  Then, there are those people who resist change because they have a negative nature. Jesus could recommend the change and they still wouldn't be happy.  Keep any negative comments you may have, or doubts about what you're doing, to yourself. Never, never, never share them in this person's presence. Always say something positive even in the midst of their negativity.  In rare instances, this person can have a change of heart about the change, but more than likely they will be an "irregular person" you just have to live with.

No matter what the cause of resistance is, the best way to combat it is through clear communication and an excitement for what will be. Don't let these nay-sayers cause you to cower or give up.