Dark Heart

We begin the Color Me Christian series right where our Creation unit left off, with the fall of Adam and Eve.  Sin is a heavy topic to teach little ones, but if they are old enough to understand obedience and disobedience, they are old enough to understand sin.  As you will see in this lesson, it is important to reassure our preschoolers about God's love for them, as we teach them that they are sinners.  God loves us all the time, even when we have sinned and disobeyed.  Adam and Eve had to leave the garden, because God said that was the consequence for their sin.  God was sad that Adam and Eve disobeyed Him, but He was not mad at them.  He still loved them, and promised them a Savior.

Bible Truth: Dark: See my dark heart stained with sin.
Bible Story: Adam and Eve disobeyed God.  I have sin in my heart when I disobey.
Bible Study: Genesis 3; Romans 3:23; 1 John 1:5-6

sing

• See My Dark Heart (see this post for an explanation of the visual)

This entire unit of lessons is based on this song.  Sing it a few times each week, to reinforce the lessons that you are teaching.  Before we sing the song, this week, I will hold the dark heart and explain that this is a dark heart stained with sin.  Sin is when we disobey God.  The Bible says that we all have sinned.

teach

the fall

For this lesson, I like to use an interactive read-aloud.  I read the story from a children's Bible.  The one pictured below is the one that I recommend for this age group.  I read the story aloud, and show them the pictures, stopping at several key places to explore and emphasize certain points.  Keep reading to find out where I pause, and how I interact with the children throughout the story!

found here

Begin by showing them a picture of Adam and Eve in God's special garden from your children's Bible. Ask the children if they think Adam and Eve look happy or sad?  Talk about how happy they were to be with God in His garden.  They took care of the garden and walked with God.

Read the story aloud.  When you get to the part of the story about the tree that they should not eat, stop to explore this point a little further.  Pass out a piece of fruit (such as an apple, banana, orange, etc.) to each child.  Talk about how God said they could eat the fruit from ALL of these trees, but this one tree they should not eat.  I like the children to repeat after me, "God said, 'This one tree (hold up one finger), do not eat' (wave your finger side to side)."  Then I'll ask the question, "What did God say?" Now they have the opportunity to answer the question by repeating the phrase again, "This one tree, do not eat."

When you come to the snake's lie, stop and ask the children, "What did God say?"  Wait for them to respond with the phrase, "This one tree, do not eat."  The way to overcome the enemy's lies is with the truth of God's Word.  You are laying that foundation in their hearts when you stop to contrast what the serpent said with what God said.

As a side note, I am very careful to not call the forbidden fruit an apple, or any other fruit name.  Often times children's version of this story call the forbidden fruit an apple, but the Bible does not say what kind of fruit it was.  This may seem like a minor detail, but I strongly believe that it is our responsibility to teach the Word of God with as much accuracy as we possibly can! :)

Continue reading the story from the children's Bible. When Eve takes a bite from the fruit, stop to expound on the moment.  Talk about how delicious the fruit was, and that it seemed like nothing bad happened to her!  The Bible teaches us that sin is pleasurable (Hebrews 11:25).  We do children a dis-service if we don't acknowledge the pleasures of sin.

At the end of the story, ask the children, "Now how do Adam and Eve look?  Are they happy or sad? Why are they sad?"  Explain that now they are sad, because they disobeyed God.  They have to leave the garden, and can't be with God.

dark paper heart

Follow up the Bible story with this object lesson to further explain sin to your preschoolers.

You will need:

• a white paper heart
• a couple strips of black construction paper
• a glue stick

SAY:  Disobeying God and breaking His rules is called sin.  Adam and Eve sinned when they disobeyed God.  They broke God's rules and ate the fruit from the tree that God said no to touch.  The Bible says that we have all sinned and disobeyed God's rules.  When we sin, darkness fills our hearts.

Show the white heart.  As you give each example of sin, tear off a piece of black construction paper, and lightly glue it to the heart.  Sin is when mommy tells us to clean up, and we keep playing.  Sin is when Daddy tells us to come inside and we say, "No, I want to stay outside!"  Sin is when we take something that does not belong to us.  Sin is when we hurt our brother, or sister, or our friends.  Sin is when we disobey our teachers.  Sin is when we tell a lie, like if we say we didn't break something, but we really did. Sin is when we cry and throw a fit, because we don't get what we want.  You may give more examples if you like.

Now this heart is full of darkness and sin.  When we have sin in our heart, we cannot be friends with God. Did you know that God still loves you, even when your heart is full of sin?!  God loves us all the time!  He never stops loving us.  Even though Adam and Eve had to leave the garden, God still loved them!  God wants us to be His friend, so He promised Adam and Eve that He would send Jesus to save us all from sin. God loved us so much that He sent Jesus to die on the cross, so that His blood can wash away our sin. God really does love us!  I leave it at that for now, since next week we will talk about Jesus forgiving our sin in much more detail.

Let's pray and tell Jesus that we are sorry for sin, and ask Him to forgive us.  Ask the children to bow their heads, close their eyes, and repeat after you.  As you are praying, remove all the black pieces from the heart.  God, I have sinned and disobeyed.  I am sorry for my sin.  Please come into my heart and take all my sin away.  Help me to obey and follow you.  Thank You Jesus.  In Jesus name, and all God's children said, AMEN!  Wow!  Look what Jesus did for us!  He took away our sin so that we could be friends with God!

craft

Here are a couple simple activity sheet crafts to accompany this lesson.  For both crafts you will need:

• black construction paper
• scissors
• glue
• crayons

adam & eve sin

To prepare, download and print this activity sheet.  Cut small hearts out of black construction paper.  In class, provide crayons for the children to color the picture.  Help the children glue a black heart to both Adam and Eve.

sin separates

This craft compliments the paper heart object lesson.  To prepare download and print this activity sheet. Cut black construction paper into approximately 1/2" strips.  In class, give each child a strip of construction paper to tear into pieces and glue onto the heart.  Provide crayons for the children to color the picture as well.