Children's Sunday School Object Talks and Object Lessons

Temptation

by Craig

Balls of temptation thrown by the devil will bounce off the Word of God.

Materials:
Old bed sheet
Crayon or marking pen
Pairs of rolled up socks (one for
each child)

Duration:
From 5 to 10 minutes

Topics:
God's Word, Protection, Temptation

Target Age:
Grades 2 3 4 5

Preparation:
Prepare the sheet and socks before class. Tightly roll up the pairs of socks and on the bed sheet in large letters write "The Word of God". If you do not want to write directly on the bed sheet, you can also write the words on sheets of paper and tape them to the bed sheet.

What you will do:
You will ask a volunteer to walk across the room. Instruct the other kids to stand along the opposite wall, and keeping one hand on the wall, throw the socks at the volunteer as he/she tries to walk across the room without being hit. Depending on the amount of time you have, you may want to repeat this several times with different volunteers. Then you will ask the kids if they think they can hit you as you walk across the room. When you walk across, you will take the sheet with "The Word of God" and stretch it out in front of you. The socks will hit the sheet and not you.

What you will say:
We are tempted every day of our life. It is sometimes hard to resist temptation. Let me show you how hard it is. I need one volunteer. (Instruct the volunteer to walk from one end of the room to the other along the wall when you say go.) Now these socks represent temptation. I want everyone else to take a temptation, and stand along this other wall (opposite wall from volunteer.) While keeping one hand on the wall, I want you to see if you can hit the volunteer with your temptation ball once I have asked him or her to start walking. Ready, go!

Then ask the volunteer, did any of the temptation balls hit you? They were somewhat hard to avoid. Temptation is like that, it comes from everywhere. Would someone else like to try? (Repeat several times with different volunteers as time permits.) Then ask, “Do you think I can walk across without being hit by temptation?” (When you walk across, take the sheet and stretch it out in front of you as a shield.) See, God has given us His Word so that we might be able to fight off temptation and defeat the devil. God's word is very powerful. It can act as a shield between us and whatever the devil tries to throw at us.