Impress Your Kids » Blog Archive » Psalm 119:9 {Magnificent Purity}

This morning (like before breakfast!) I put a bowl in front of the kids. I told them it was them–their heart and their mind. We began to talk about what “purity” is–about being clean of body and mind–without any yucky stuff inside. Then we thought up impure thoughts and actions–saying mean things, listening to someone say a bad joke about someone else, watching something on TV that’s bad, etc. We drew sad and mean faces on some ping pong balls as we talked about them. We dropped each ping pong ball into the bowl. Soon our bowl was full!

I asked the kids how we could get these bad things out of our hearts and minds. They wanted to just scoop them out with their hands. I told them this is why impure thoughts and ideas are so bad–you can’t just get rid of them! They will not leave on their own!

So, how do we get this impurity out? Psalm 119:9 tells us, “How can a young man keep his way pure? By living according to your word.” (NIV) It’s God’s Word that makes our minds clean and pure.

We poured clean water into our little bowl to represent God’s Word cleaning our minds and hearts. The more water we added, the more the impure thoughts and actions rose to the top and fell off!

The kids thought this was hilarious because the ping pong balls were falling all over the kitchen! I love this picture–it’s not the picture of salvation (Jesus’ washing our sins away) but of how God’s Word can keep our physical minds clean and pure! I want my kids living by, keeping, holding onto and filling their minds with God’s Word so the impure things won’t have a place to stick!

This would also be a perfect activity to do if your children had been watching, doing or saying something impure. You could learn some specific scriptures that would help “wash” the impure thoughts out and say them as you do this activity.

If you do this activity, I’d love to know about it! Share in the comments or leave a picture on our Facebook page!

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20 Comments so far

LOVE IT!!! I want to do this with my little ones! Soooo thankful for your web site and ideas!!

Thanks, Amy! Let me know how your kiddos like it!

I must need some sleep because I was wondering why you were using eggs for this lesson, LOL.

You were very creative in teaching your children about the core values of life. I would like to do this to my children too. I hope they’ll understand it.

Thanks for sharing!

Menchu Sy

Another wonderful idea! Thanks so much for sharing your ideas! God is using you!
Jessica

That is so clever!

LOL! Now THAT would be somethin’ to see!

Such a super idea!

This is great! My kids learned at their daycare about their heart being dirty and how that makes God sad…it has stuck with them and also allowed us to explain why lying, taking things that don’t belong to them makes their heart “dirty” and how you want to keep it clean.

What if you used Dry Erase marker? would it come of as you fill the bowl with water? That would show it clean and show forgiveness too…Just a thought Thanks for sharing this idea! Love it!

We just used this in our kindergarten Sunday School class to talk about repentance and God’s forgiveness. We added a step where we tried to push the balls back into the bowl and show how they’d bounce back out to the top. We used this last step to reinforce that a heart that is full of God and His Word will fight to push the impure things out.

AWESOME. I love it! Thank you for sharing it with me–honored that you used it w/your kids!

Oooh, Dry Erase might be a great idea!!

LOVE this!!!! Thanks for sharing this

This is such a creative teaching tool! It is a great idea for Grandmas too when wanting to influence our grand children spiritually. Thanks for sharing.

Yes! Perfect example of Grandparents working together with parents!!

Thanks for this visual! I just had the experience today of God’s word convicting my youngest. David was struggling with an attitude, and after his older brother said his memory passage for the week, I told David how Mt. 6:22-23 applied to him. In a bit he teared up and said, “Mommy, can we do God time because I want my life to change.” God’s Word is living, active, and powerful!! And I’m thankful!

I’m going to use this tomorrow to illustrate John 3:30 “He must increase, and I must decrease.” I’m excited – I was really struggling to find a way to illustrate that, and I think this will be perfect… even showing the kids that the “good things” that we want to fill our lives with are just filler – they don’t allow God to fill us the way He wants to … Just wanted to let you know and to thank you for being a blessing in my life!

Awesome. LOVE this idea! You’re so clever!

This is a very creative idea! I saved it to teach in Childrens Church. I love object lessons, because they really stick with the kids. Thanks for sharing!

What a great visual lesson!! I have enjoyed recieving your posts in my email inbox. This Magnificent Purity lesson time is brilliant. and very timely. Thanks for sharing!

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