Balloons: A tale of Morals and Passion

A couple years ago, I was volunteering at Vacation Bible School. I was scanning through journals recently, and came across this entertaining story that occurred during that time.

During this particular summer, for VBS, I ran the 1st-3rd learning station, which is where emphasis on learning the verse and how the verse applies in life.  

Every day, we unscrambled the words verse (I had two sets of the verse in different colors that I scattered-every word in the verse on individual flash cards-all over the floor. The two teams would have to try to find the correct colored cards and put it completely together before the other team). After both teams had assembled their verses, we would discuss the hard words in the verse(1st-3rd graders do not know what the word "among" means), why some words are there, and overall, make sure everybody understands the meaning of the verse. 
 

Courtesy of Google's free to use images.

After this, I also tried to incorporate an extra game that reinforced some key idea from the verse in it, in hopes that it will help the meaning of the verse to stick in mind.  On Tuesday, the verse was Psalm 56:3, "When I am afraid, I will trust in you."  The emphasis was on trusting God. It is a very simple concept, but sometimes, children-who tend to trust everyone-have a difficult time understanding the real meaning of trust.

So, I did an awful thing to them. I broke their trust a little. I told the kids that the team that got the most whole balloons in their bags by relaying the balloons to the 2 leaders per team that held the bag would win. Every unpopped balloon counted as a point. The thing I did not tell the kids was that back when the group entered the room, I pulled one leader aside, handed that leader a thumb tack, and told her it was her job to pop any balloon that came to her.

And with great excitement, the game began. The children raced fervently, performing their tasks as they toted a balloon to their team's bag, and as each game progressed, the kids slowly caught on that the popping was not accidental. 

Courtesy of Google's free to use images

There was anguish, shock and betrayal in their eyes before they gathered their wits about themselves and began shouting to each other, "Don't take the balloon to him! Not to him! He'll pop it!" At the end of the game, we went into the classroom and counted the balloons and had a discussion that often had to include forgiveness of the poor "bad guy" leader. Most of the discussions went a lot like this one, but only one kid finished the discussion the way this one finished:

"So... one of the leaders kept popping your balloons, and one of the leaders did not pop any.  Which leader are you more likely to give balloons to?" 

THAT ONE! 

"Why?" 

Cuz she didn't pop the balloons! 

"So she proved herself trustworthy?" 

Yes! 

"Because his popping of the balloons wasn't good for you, was it? People earn our trust by doing things that are good for us. What are some things that God has done for us that lets us know we can trust him?" 

And one boy piped up adamantly, casting a glare to the supposedly forgiven leader,

"God didn't pop my balloons, either!"

 And so ended the moral of the day, 

Courtesy of Google's free to use images

Cast all your cares upon God, for he is not a balloon popper... 

 

1 thing for the 1st day of the 1st month of 2015

1. How often do you get to eat the first strawberry of the year on the first day of the year?  Odd.  Tasty, but odd!