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Sieves: Sifting and Keeping what is worthwhile

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AGE: Infants and Juniors (especially Infants)

THEME: Sieves: Sifting and Keeping what is worthwhile

AIM: To think about how Christianity can act like a sieve in our lives, helping us let go of the bad so we can focus on the good.

PREPARATION:
Gather a tray of small items, sand, rice grains and sparkly beads - some things that appear to be precious. Also add a couple of larger, clearly attractive items, e.g. jewellery, toys or (wrapped) sweets.

You will also need a colander or sieve. Check that the holes are the right size to separate the beads from the rice/sand).

INTRODUCTION:
Show the children the tray and explain that it is a 'busy' place, full of lots of things - some good, some less good. Encourage two or three children to help sort the contents into good things and bad.

Comment on what the children are doing. Some decisions are easy - the obvious good things are easy to pull out. However, sometimes it is harder to separate the good and bad (e.g. the beads and the rice). The difference between them is less clear. Can the children think of anything they can use to make the job easier?

Give the children the colander or sieve. See how quickly they can separate the good and bad. What an easy job it becomes!

Our lives can be a bit like the full tray. They contain plenty of wonderful things (like the beads in the tray) but there are also things that we come across that are not so good (like the rice and sand). We are faced with temptation and difficult choices: should we avoid getting into trouble, or should we take something that isn't ours because we want or need it? We can make God our sieve, by remembering his teaching in the Bible. By remembering his rules for how we should live our lives, he can help us separate the good and the bad so that we leave the bad things - cruelty, lies, temptation - behind.

FURTHER IDEAS TO DEVELOP IN WORSHIP OR THROUGH THE WEEK:
Explore the idea of differences - read about the farmer's seeds from Matthew 13.
Again we see the idea of good and bad being separated and the good soil created where God's message and love will grow.
  • Read the story of the Good Samaritan from Luke 10. Encourage the children to think about who was using their 'God sieve' and leaving the bad or unimportant things (prejudice) behind.
  • Using a picture of a sieve (or a sieve) as a focal point for a display, encourage the children to think what behaviour and what aspects of their lives God would want to fall through the sieve and be lost (jealousy, being unkind, lying etc.) and what good characteristics would be kept in the sieve (kindness, forgiveness, honesty etc.).
  • (For older children, as development from second bullet point above.)
    Read about the Ten Commandments from Exodus 20. It is these things, and others that God teaches through the Bible, that can help form a sieve for us to sort out the good and bad things in our lives.

SONGS:
From The Complete Come and Praise, BBC:

'When God made the Garden of Creation' (16)
'Give me oil in my lamp' (43)
'One more step' (47)
'When I needed a neighbour' (65)
'Cross over the road my friend' (70)

PRAYER:
Lord, when I have difficult decisions to make, help me leave the bad things behind and remember the good things instead. Help me to remember all the important lessons you have taught me and to live my life with kindness and honesty.
Amen.

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Copyright © Culham Institute 2000-2012