Change For Better Or For Worse
Children's sermon
Ants Work Best Together
31 Object Lessons from Nature
Object:
a frog, a tadpole, or pictures of a frog and tadpole
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 15:33
Do not be deceived: "Bad company ruins good morals."
Material: a frog, a tadpole, or pictures of a frog and tadpole
Look, boys and girls, I brought our friendly frog back to visit with us again.
Did you know that frogs (show frog or frog picture) grow from tadpoles? (show tadpole or tadpole picture) Yes, they do! It happens very gradually. The little tadpole is swimming around eating his algae in the pond when he starts to grow legs. His legs get bigger and bigger and his tail gets smaller and smaller. Finally, after a long time, the little frog has no tail at all and four nice legs just made for hopping. Hop -- hop -- hop. Now I would call that a change for the better! Now he is not stuck in the pond anymore. He can come and go whenever he wants to.
But there is another change that can happen to frogs. Did you know that some frogs, especially tree frogs, change color to match the place where they live? That's right. A tree frog that sits on a green leaf will turn green. If he sits on a brown branch he will turn brown. That's good, because it keeps the frog safe. It's called camouflage: blending in with the surroundings.
People change, too. We change to match whatever kind of friends we stay with most of the time. If we spend most of our time with Christian friends who know how to live for Jesus, we will become more like them. If we spend most of our time with people who behave badly, we will also begin to behave badly as we become more like them.
Let's take a lesson from the frog and remember that we will change to blend in with our surroundings. We need to surround ourselves with good, Christian friends.
Do not be deceived: "Bad company ruins good morals."
Material: a frog, a tadpole, or pictures of a frog and tadpole
Look, boys and girls, I brought our friendly frog back to visit with us again.
Did you know that frogs (show frog or frog picture) grow from tadpoles? (show tadpole or tadpole picture) Yes, they do! It happens very gradually. The little tadpole is swimming around eating his algae in the pond when he starts to grow legs. His legs get bigger and bigger and his tail gets smaller and smaller. Finally, after a long time, the little frog has no tail at all and four nice legs just made for hopping. Hop -- hop -- hop. Now I would call that a change for the better! Now he is not stuck in the pond anymore. He can come and go whenever he wants to.
But there is another change that can happen to frogs. Did you know that some frogs, especially tree frogs, change color to match the place where they live? That's right. A tree frog that sits on a green leaf will turn green. If he sits on a brown branch he will turn brown. That's good, because it keeps the frog safe. It's called camouflage: blending in with the surroundings.
People change, too. We change to match whatever kind of friends we stay with most of the time. If we spend most of our time with Christian friends who know how to live for Jesus, we will become more like them. If we spend most of our time with people who behave badly, we will also begin to behave badly as we become more like them.
Let's take a lesson from the frog and remember that we will change to blend in with our surroundings. We need to surround ourselves with good, Christian friends.
