Week 3 FAMILY DEVOTION

Week 3 FAMILY DEVOTION

Topic: Sins of Speech

 

ACTIVITY

Play the quiet game. Everyone must be quiet. Those who speak are out.

Who was the winner? How hard was it not to talk?

We talk all the time. Sometimes we are mindful of our words and sometimes we are not.

 

Optional activity: If you have some fall leaves and it is a windy day, choose to find an open area to do the following. Go out with a bag of leaves and let them go into the wind. Try to collect all the leaves. On a windy day, it is impossible.

How hard was it to let the leaves go? How hard was it to retrieve all the leaves?

The leaves are a lot like words. Once you let them out, it is very difficult to get them back.

(Option to the option: use the old “toothpaste tube” illustration , emptying a tube of toothpaste onto some old newspaper and then asking the kids to put the toothpaste back into the tube. Same debriefing.)

 

SCRIPTURE

Proverbs 26:18-19 (HCSB) ¹⁸ Like a madman who throws flaming darts and deadly arrows, ¹⁹ so is the man who deceives his neighbor and says, “I was only joking!”

 

1 Thessalonians 5:11 (HCSB) Therefore encourage one another and build each other up as you are already doing.

 

QUESTION

When was the last time you said something to someone that could have been hurtful and then responded with “I was just kidding!” or “I was only joking!”?

To do so is like a madman who is throwing flaming darts and deadly arrows. There is no aim and no intentionality, but the wounds are still real and the pain is still there.

We need to be careful with the words we say.

 

 

SCRIPTURE MEMORY

 

Psalms 19:14 (HCSB) May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable to You, Lord, my rock and my Redeemer.

 

 

AS WE GO

Let’s pay special attention to our speech this week and try not to hurt someone while “kidding.”

 

PRAYER

Dear God, help us to use our words for encouragement and not for harm. Amen.