You’ve got a great lesson planned to teach kids the Lord’s prayer but what about object lessons? When you reinforce a teaching session with visual aids, you keep kids’ attention and give volunteers a chance to dip their toes into the teaching waters. Illustrate this important lesson with object lessons inspired by the Lord’s prayer.
Which bread? A few days before your class, you’ll need to get your hands on a loaf of moldy bread. You’ll also need a loaf of fresh bread. For greater visual impact, select a whole loaf, like the kind you find at a bakery. Place both breads on a table in front of your class. Read the Lord’s prayer and focus on the “daily bread” verse. Talk about how bread is only fresh for a little while–eventually it gets moldy and you need new bread. Explain to kids that we have to read the Bible often so it will stay “fresh” in our spirit. Point to the breads and ask them which one they want to eat?
Weighing in now. One important facet of the Lord’s prayer is the passage that talks about “forgiving.” We must forgive others if we want to be forgiven by God. One good way to illustrate this concept is by weighing items on a scale. If you can find an old-time scale but a modern digital scale will work too. You need two bowls filled with pennies. Each bowl needs to weigh the same as the other. Place the first bowl on the scale and weigh it. Tell kids that this bowl represents our personal sins. Then remove that bowl and replace it with the second bowl. Say that this bowl represents the sins others commit against us. Dump out one bowl and say, “Yeah! You forgave your friend! Now take a look at this–” Dump out the second bowl, “Now God forgives you!”
I’m sure these aren’t the only ways to illustrate the Lord’s prayer but these object lessons will get you started!
You can follow Mimi on her blog at Tools for Kids Church.