Day 122

"Blessed are the pure in heart,

for they will see God."

Matthew 5:8

This was our memory verse to learn tonight. All of our lessons and activities revolved around the heart. 30 children - aged 4 to 4th grade learning what it is to have a pure heart but also just learning about physical hearts. 

We jogged in place and felt our hearts beat.

They each had a tennis ball to squeeze for 60 seconds. Then they tried again to squeeze that tennis ball 70 times for 60 seconds, because that's how hard a heart works for every minute of every day.

Then an illustration to demonstrate how a person can be beautiful on the outside, but still dirty, ugly, and impure on the inside. We used three coffee mugs, clean and pretty on the outside, but one was dirty on the inside.

I shared a real sheep's heart. I thought they would all puke or faint, but I had disposable, plastic gloves and surprisingly, each one came and either touched or picked it up. I showed the different chambers, the arteries that carried life-giving blood throughout the body. They thought that was too cool! 

Oreo cookies were the snack and they were shown how to screw them open and look at the white inside. And now when they look at the icing, they will be reminded that this represents a pure heart, which is something they should desire. 

And the underlying message was that God desires us to have a pure, spiritual heart. Not one that is fueled by blood, but by God, prayer, time in His Word, praise, worship, and service to him. 

I am always thankful because these messages that we prepare for these young souls still feed this old soul too. I am thankful that God speaks to ME in these lessons and teaches me something every time. I am so grateful for that.