Love Part of Me, Love All of Me

OMG, when was my last post?! Well, in honor of Valentine's Day, an object lesson about love. I am a Large Group leader of our Preschool worship and have tested this with our 4 and 5 year olds. LOVED IT! Definitely, solidified my love of teaching children.

I have several containers full of different things from my kitchen (supplies and preparation are at the end of this post). I will ask volunteers to come up and take a guess of what is inside. Some of the things are easy to guess: granulated sugar, brown sugar, salt, chocolate chips. Some things are not so easy to guess: flour, baking soda, vanilla.

In addition to asking my volunteer what the item is. I also ask them, "Would you like to take a spoon and eat some of the (butter)?" Some items, the volunteer is very happy to take a spoon and eat. Some items, not so much. I do not actually have the volunteers taste the item.

So some of these things are very tastey by themselves, but some of them are not. BUT if you put all these things in a bowl and stir them up really well, then press the mixture out on a pan and put it in the heat of the oven; in time you will have a very wonderful chocolate chip cookie.

This is a lot like how God made me and how God made you. Inside you are some super great things like knowledge, love, kindness, generosity, and lots of other great things (not the verbiage I used in preschool but it works here). Inside you are some not so great things like impatience, jealousy, anger. God knows about all the good things and all the bad things. God knows that when you put all these parts together He gets all of you, a wonderful person.

God wants to mold you into something fantastic, and to make you that wonderful person, He will put you through the fire to assure you become one fabulous person.

God knows all about the good, all about the bad, all about the pressure you are under, all about the fires you've been through, and He loves you, all of you. So no matter what it is that you do not like about yourself, know that God knows all about that and loves you anyway. No matter what hardship you are suffering, God knows and He still loves you. No matter what fire seems to be consuming you today, God knows all about it and He loves you. He will turn whatever this trial is into something fantastic and you will become a greater whole.

In Jesus Name, I pray for you a Happy Valentines Day!

Supplies: 9 or 10 small clear containers (baby food bottles or Tupperware), masking tape, marker, ingredients listed below, and at least one (1) chocolate chip cookie. Optional: chocolate chip cookies to share with the kids

Preparation: label and fill each container with one of the following: 2 ¼ flour, 1 tsp. baking soda, 1 tsp. salt, 1 cup butter, ¾ cup granulated sugar, ¾ cup brown sugar, 1 tsp. vanilla, 2 eggs, 2 cups chocolate chips, and optionally, 1cup nuts. NOTE: exact measurements are not necessary unless you plan to make a batch of chocolate chip cookies.