Finished Object Friday: A Good Friday Object Lesson

As many of you know, Mark and I attend a small church here in East Texas. One of my main jobs in the church has been helping with the children. We have had kids off and on through the years, but we have had one family of kids that have been coming almost two years! They are such a joy to teach because they love to learn about Jesus. We have several more kids in our class, including the little girls that you see pop in here every now and then. My friend Lorie and I have been co-teaching (and Angie too, when she is home). We have several other helpers as well - my mom, for one, who plays the keyboard in our classroom. Sometime in the future I would like to do a post just to show the setup of our classroom and tell some of the things that we are using for discipline techniques and memory keys.

Anyway, for today I wanted to share the special activity I did with them Wednesday night to help us all to think on the awesome sacrifice that Jesus made when He died on the cross. First I read this book to them - a story about a town that was so caught up in all the fancy part of Easter, that they forgot what it was all about. Then I talked about why Jesus had to die on the cross and that He took on Himself the sins of the world - all of our sins. We read scripture verses about the burden He took to Calvary. Then each of us (teachers included) wrote the phrase "My Sins" on a piece of paper and nailed it to the cross. We talked about how we can leave our sins on the cross, that we don't have to carry them anymore.

(Sorry about the shabby phone pic... wish I would have grabbed my real camera...)

It was rather a hectic evening - everyone was kindof wound up. But I hope that even years down the road, that they will remember this lesson and the prayer we prayed!

And I hope that you can take something away from this as well. Maybe you have kids (or church kids) of your own and you are inspired by my little activity. On this Good Friday, may we remember that Jesus took our sins on Himself and bore our burden.

Surely our griefs He Himself bore, and our sorrows He carried; 

Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted. 

But He was pierced through for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities;

The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him, and by His scourging we are healed. 

Isaiah 53:4-5