Reality Check KidsSample

There is a story of a little 5-year-old girl that wanted a purple play pony. It wasn’t that expensive, but cost more than she had. She asked her mother for it, and Mom replied that she could do tasks – outside of her usual chores, to earn money for the pony. She quickly agreed and Mom drew up a chart with blocks that represented the number of tasks she had to do to earn enough money. She had to do 50 tasks. At first, she was really eager, but after a while she got tired. Some of the tasks were boring, others difficult and others just unpleasant. Many times she wanted to quit. Every time this happened, Mom reminded her of the prize-- the purple pony. Each time the little girl decided to work through it… keeping her thoughts fixed on the pony. After many weeks, the little girl got her pony.

This true story reflects what Paul is saying in this passage. He is telling the Colossians to keep their thoughts on things that are above. In simple words, this is what he is saying: God created us to be with HIM. Because of sin, we are separated from Him, living on earth. On earth, not everything is happening the way God wants it, because many people STILL LIVE IN SIN. If we choose Jesus, we are His children, but we are STILL LIVING in a world that can be difficult or unpleasant. We need to stay on earth until Jesus comes back for us. While we are here, we need to live in a way that points people to Jesus and we need to love others. The only way we can do it is with the help of the Holy Spirit while we keep our thoughts on the prize – a forever life with Jesus in heaven.

Does that make sense? The little girl could do unpleasant tasks because she wanted the pony. We can endure uncomfortable situations on earth and do hard things for Jesus because we want to spend forever with Jesus in heaven

Today is YayDay. Thinking back on this week’s readings, it all comes back to the little tree, rooted in healthy soil. When you do this experiment (it will be explained in full under the "Experiment" bullet), you will be reminded of the devotion a few days ago. We said a plant in a pot can only produce fruit that resembles the soil. If the soil is sick, the fruit will be bad. This experiment will show you how where you are rooted will have an effect on your fruit. If you have one foot in the world and one foot rooted in Jesus, your fruit won’t resemble Jesus but will be influenced by your surroundings. Ask Jesus to show you in which areas you are rooted in the world and NOT IN HIM. Pray with someone about this.

§ experiment

What you’ll need:

§ Small plastic cups or glasses

§ Paper towels 

§ Food coloring in primary colors

§ Water

Take one full sheet of paper towel and cut them in half. Place 3 cups in a row and pour water in the 1st and 3rd cups. Make the cups about 3/4 full. Add 5 drops of red food coloring to the 1st cup and add 5 drops of yellow food coloring to the 3rd cup. Take a half sheet of paper towel and fold it in half lengthwise and in half again lengthwise. Trim off some of the lengths so that there isn’t too much excess paper towel that will stick up in the air between each cup. This will make the water walk more quickly. Place one half of a rolled paper towel in the 1st cup and place the other half in the cup next to it. Then another paper towel from the 2nd cup and into the 3rd cup. Stare at the cups and watch what starts happening. You should quickly be able to see the coloured water begin to crawl up the paper towel.