A Tale of Two Apples:
I have a dear friend who teaches preschool, and at the beginning of the year, she brings two apples to school. One is lovely and pristine, and the other one has been ‘pre-bruised’ (at home so the kids don’t see it), but still looks perfect on the outside.
She sets the bruised apple out and has the kids say nasty, mean, and hurtful things to the apple. They tell it how ugly it is and that they don’t want it because it probably tastes bad, etc. The insults come easily.
Then, she takes that one away and puts out the good apple. She tells them to say nice, uplifting, encouraging things to that one. Sadly, the kids struggle with this. They have a hard time saying nice things to the apple. She helps them learn to say nice things to it.
Then, she tells them they get to basically ‘eat their words’ as she cuts open the bruised apple. Of course, the kids make faces and yucky noises and such at the brown insides. Not one of them even wants to taste it.
She then cuts open the nice apple and they all want some of it.
She uses this opportunity to teach them about the Fruits of the Spirit (Galatians 5) and how their words have power over how other people feel inside, even if they cannot see the effects on the outside. They get to choose if they speak life or death. When one of them says something ugly later in the year, she reminds them of the apples. The kids ‘get it’ and change their attitudes.
What a FANTASTIC visual life lesson.
“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, And those who love it will eat its fruit.”
Proverbs 18:21
