You Get Out What You Put In

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What you need:
A small pot of unsweetened tea
Tea cups (three is a good number) and spoons
Container of salt and container of sugar – both clearly marked

Lesson:
“Who here likes tea? I’m going to need a few volunteers to come up here and try some that I made. (As you’re talking, pour the tea into the cups.) Just remember two things; one, you have to put a spoon full of something into your cup, either salt or sugar. Which one you pick is totally up to you. Two; whatever you fix, you’re going to have to drink.”

Call volunteers up one at a time to fix their cup of tea. Most kids will choose the sugar, but some may think this is some kind of a trick and choose salt. If they choose salt, have them take only a small sip.

Call one of the kids by name. “Why did you choose the sugar? You wanted your tea to be sweet didn’t you, so you knew you needed to put something sweet into it?” Ask the other kids the same question.

If anyone chose salt: “I noticed you chose salt. How did your tea taste? Did you think there was some kind of catch to this? Sorry, there’s just no way around it, put salt into your tea, and you taste salt.”

“Kind of obvious, isn’t it. If you want something to taste sweet, you put sugar into it. If you want it to be salty, you add salt. If you want something to taste minty, you add mint. If you want it to be nutty, you add nuts, and so on. But you know, that’s true with more than just food. People seem to remember that rule fine when it comes to cooking, but not quite so well when it comes to other things. What have you been adding to yourself lately?
Think about it… If a person wants to live a life that’s pleasing to God, how much sense would it make for them to feed their mind with books, movies, (choose any number of examples) that are displeasing to Him? How much better would it be to fill their minds with Bible verses, Christian music, prayer, Christian fellowship (more examples.)
Remember, you reap what you sow. Look at what influences you choose to surround yourself with. That’s most likely what you will become like some day.

Sarah Brown