Don't Build Your Life On Popsicle Sticks

For a children’s sermon I like to divide the children up. Boy, girl etc. Then each team is given popsicle sticks and glue to create a building that will be stronger than the other teams. While they are doing this I like to have the accompianist play a cute children’s song or two. The congregation doesn’t mind the extra time, they think it’s great that I would devote such time to their kids. Then after the two teams have made somewhat reasonable facsimiles of a building, you have to of course test them to see which is the strongest. At this time I call up my "Building expert" he is usually about six foot two and two hundred twenty pounds. Then explain to the kids that "Wesley" is going to test the stability of the structures. He then jumps on top of each one only to see them destroyed. I then explain that neither one of them was strong enough because they were only made out of popsicle sticks. Then I read my scripture passage (anyone of your choice) dealing with building your life on a firm foundation or making right choices etc. Then explain that God is the same way he doesn’t want us to build up our lives on popsicle sticks because they won’t stand up to when hard times jumps on top of them. Instead we should build our lives on a solid foundation of Prayer, reading the bible, etc. I enjoyed doing this so much I even did my adult sermon on the same topic and even used the popsicle stick as an illustration to show how fragile and easily breakable they are. It is very memorable to all who hear it. I can ask them now about the popsicle stick and they can tell me alot about the sermon.