Last night Lydia and I did an experiment based on the Seeds Worship Song called “The Mouth”. It’s from the Seeds of Praise
For out of the overflow of the heart the mouth speaks.
This is a really fun experiment my husband and I used to do in our children’s ministry. It’s such a perfect example of this verse.
First, I grabbed 2 mason jars, some dixie cups and a bunch of yucky stuff: oil, dirt, mud, rocks and dead leaves. Then I found some yummy stuff lurking in our kitchen: an old can of strawberry soda, some orange juice, frozen cherries and ice.
Lydia and I poured all the gross stuff in one jar. I pretended we were just making something together. I didn’t talk about it being gross or nasty. I let her smell the oil and see what she thought.
Then we filled the second jar with the sweet smelling ingredients.
I asked her, “What happens if I pour out this jar full of dirty stuff?” She said, “Dirty stuff will come out.” So, I poured a little dixie cup full of the oil-dirt drink and a cup of the strawberry-oj. I let her decide which one she’d rather drink.
She easily picked the sweet juice. I let her drink it and she thought it was delicious.
Then I said, “Lydia, let’s pretend this dirty jar is your heart. If you put dirty things in your heart like bad attitudes, whining and disobedience, guess what’s going to come out of your mouth? Dirty bad things.” Then I proceeded to whine and complain as I poured the sludge into a cup.
I showed her the strawberry jar again and said, “But if you can fill your heart with scriptures like Philippians 2:14 and Honor Your Father and Mother and other ones that we learned. Guess what will come out of your mouth? That’s right, good words. Pleasing, gentle, nice words.”
Then we turned on “The Mouth” song again and sang along as we went off to take a bath. I think it was a brilliant (as in bright, not genius!) picture of what God asks of us and desires for our heart! And our lips!
See how easy that was? Use whatever you’ve got to tell your kids about God’s Word!
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Obviously, if you put something like motor oil in the glass, please don’t let your child drink it! You might have a kid who wants to be silly and drink the gross drink. That’s ok, too! You can still discuss the difference in taste between the two drinks. And how it’s a choice to put good things in so good words come out!
{Super Hero Note: As you do this experiment, talk about the different kinds of bad words that can come out of our months–curse words, complaining, arguing, whining, making fun of others and more. (Or just focus on the one your kids have the most problem with!) Explain that these kinds of words do not make us super examples of Jesus. Imagine that dirty nasty drink coming out of your mouth every time you spoke those bad words! Not very super, huh? Instead, when we fill our hearts with good words, songs & scriptures, we’ll easily be able to choose to build others up with our words, say nice things and choose positive words–to have SUPER SPEECH! And that is a SUPER example of how Jesus wants us to be!}
