Sometimes God’s commandments can be tough to understand as adults, and as kids especially. There are even people out there who believe that Jesus “freed” us from God’s commandments. But here’s the problem with that thought:
- Jesus IS the God of the Old Testament who gave us the commandments from the very beginning, to the middle, and right up to the end of the Bible. It’s ALL Jesus. (see John 1:1-14)
- Jesus tells us that if we love Him, we will strive to obey His commandments (that’s right, all of them…) (see John 14:15)
- And finally, we are told that the very definition of sin is to disobey God’s law (see 1 John 3:4)
So God’s commandments (all of them) are still very valid, still very much in effect, and still EXTREMELY important for us.
But why is that? Well this object lesson serves as a way to teach why that is. Why God gave us commandments and why they are actually GOOD for us to have. Let’s dive in…
Supplies Needed:
- A plate without too much of a rim (these ones or this one with the earth printed on them would be cool, but any would do)
- A deep bowl (one with a prayer or scripture on it like this would be cool, but any will do)
- A marble (and maybe some extra back up marbles in case you lose some while doing this object lesson)
Object Lesson Activity Instructions:
First gather up your supplies. This is a super easy one with very little prep and all stuff you probably already have on hand. Hint: if you don’t think you have marbles, be sure to check your game cabinet for Chinese Checkers, or something similar that has marbles in it.
To begin have your child start to roll around the marble on the plate. Tell them that the marble on the plate represents when we go our own way and do whatever we want, without any rules or instructions to guide us.
Inevitably and probably pretty quickly the marble will roll off the side of the plate. When it does tell them that like the marble, when we don’t have any boundaries in our lives, we can easily spin out of control, fall down, and even get lost (this is especially helpful if your marbles get lost under the furniture!).
Let them continue to try to roll the marble around on the plate a bit, continuing to reiterate the parallel between having no boundaries to easily spinning out of control in our lives.
Now give them the bowl and let them spin the marble around in the bowl. As they do, the marble will be able to get going really fast because it has the walls of the bowl.
Point to the sides of the bowl and tell them that God’s commandments are just like the sides of the bowl. They create safe boundaries for our lives so that we can move more freely and without having to worry about spinning out of control, getting off track, and getting lost in dark places.
God didn’t give us His commandments to make us miserable, but because He can see beyond what we can see. And He wants to keep us safe. God knows that when we follow His commandments we are set free of the burden that sin places on us and which can cause us to easily get distracted and out of control.
Want to teach your children more about sin and forgiveness?
I hope you and your children enjoy this object lesson which will help them to learn more about why God’s commandments are GOOD and have our best interests in mind. And if you liked this sin object lesson, then you’ll love my Sin Separates Us From God Balloon Object Lesson too! Just fill out the form below and I’ll send you a free printable object lesson booklet for it.
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