The sowing and the reaping
Children's sermon
Object:
seeds
The point is this: the one who sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and the one who sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. (v. 6)
Good morning, boys and girls! How are you this morning? (allow answers) Today we're going to talk about seeds. How many of you have planted seeds before? (allow answers) We plant seeds in gardens or in flowerpots so that we can have beautiful plants.
When you plant seeds, how do you know what the plants will grow up to be? (allow answers) Each plant has different seeds. If we plant corn seeds, the seeds will grow up to be tall stalks of corn. If we plant carrot seeds, the seeds will grow into the ground and give us fat orange carrots to eat.
We know that the kind of seeds we plant determine what kind of plants will grow. It's a cause and effect: the cause, for example, is planting tomato seeds; the effect is growing tomatoes. There are lots of things in our lives that have causes and effects -- not just gardening. Almost every action we make can be part of a cause and effect. If we disobey our parents, we may have to sit in time-out. The cause was us disobeying our parents; the effect is sitting in time-out. Or, we could obey our parents. If we obey them and they are happy, we do not have to sit in time-out. Sometimes we might get rewarded for good behavior. The cause is that we obeyed our parents. The effect is a reward. What are some other things in your life that are part of a cause and effect? (allow answers)
Sometimes we might complain that bad things happen to us -- like maybe we complain if we have to sit in time-out a lot. Sometimes we complain about these things without thinking about what caused them. If we sit in time-out a lot, maybe we should listen to our parents more. If we change the cause, we can change the effect!
Sometimes thinking about cause and effect can help us make ourselves better people. But we have to be careful: sometimes bad things happen to us and there was nothing we did to cause that effect. Maybe a tornado or a bad storm hits our town. The people did not do anything that caused the tornado. There is no way for them to change their behavior so that the tornado would not strike.
Things like tornadoes are like weeds in the garden. We don't plant weeds but they grow anyway. We can't worry about whether we planted bad seeds; instead, we need to focus on the plants that we want to grow. We need to focus on making the garden a good place to grow the seeds that we planted. Amen.
Good morning, boys and girls! How are you this morning? (allow answers) Today we're going to talk about seeds. How many of you have planted seeds before? (allow answers) We plant seeds in gardens or in flowerpots so that we can have beautiful plants.
When you plant seeds, how do you know what the plants will grow up to be? (allow answers) Each plant has different seeds. If we plant corn seeds, the seeds will grow up to be tall stalks of corn. If we plant carrot seeds, the seeds will grow into the ground and give us fat orange carrots to eat.
We know that the kind of seeds we plant determine what kind of plants will grow. It's a cause and effect: the cause, for example, is planting tomato seeds; the effect is growing tomatoes. There are lots of things in our lives that have causes and effects -- not just gardening. Almost every action we make can be part of a cause and effect. If we disobey our parents, we may have to sit in time-out. The cause was us disobeying our parents; the effect is sitting in time-out. Or, we could obey our parents. If we obey them and they are happy, we do not have to sit in time-out. Sometimes we might get rewarded for good behavior. The cause is that we obeyed our parents. The effect is a reward. What are some other things in your life that are part of a cause and effect? (allow answers)
Sometimes we might complain that bad things happen to us -- like maybe we complain if we have to sit in time-out a lot. Sometimes we complain about these things without thinking about what caused them. If we sit in time-out a lot, maybe we should listen to our parents more. If we change the cause, we can change the effect!
Sometimes thinking about cause and effect can help us make ourselves better people. But we have to be careful: sometimes bad things happen to us and there was nothing we did to cause that effect. Maybe a tornado or a bad storm hits our town. The people did not do anything that caused the tornado. There is no way for them to change their behavior so that the tornado would not strike.
Things like tornadoes are like weeds in the garden. We don't plant weeds but they grow anyway. We can't worry about whether we planted bad seeds; instead, we need to focus on the plants that we want to grow. We need to focus on making the garden a good place to grow the seeds that we planted. Amen.
