Children's Sunday School Activity

Old Enough to Know

by Craig

Children use colors and words to help discover the change that takes place when they
become aware of sin in their life.

Materials:
Activity pages 1 and 2 for each child
Note: Must be printed in color
Large clock with second hand
Pencils

Duration:
Approximately 12 minutes

Topics:
Sin, Salvation, Discernment

Target Age:
Grades 3 4 5 6 7

Activity Page 1 Activity Page 2

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 during class:
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 being old enough to read the words got in the way, to how knowing we have 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 younger, 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 the word that we can now read got in the way.

That is the way sin is. Now that we are older, we can feel that sin in our life is more than just 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)