A Fun Way to Teach Kids About Hiding Sins

A Fun Way to Teach Kids About Hiding Sins - Parenting Like HannahI love to bake. To me it’s a relaxing way to show my love to others. Usually, I am a fairly decent baker. Last week though, I was tired and a bit distracted when I tried to make a batch of cranberry scones. I grabbed the bread flour instead of the normal self-rising flour I use in that recipe. I didn’t realize my mistake until too late, but decided to bake them anyway. Let’s just say the scones which are normally light and fluffy looked and tasted more like bricks. The absence of the leaven or rising agent made a huge difference!

There is a great scripture you can use while baking bread with your kids that can teach them a lot about the ability they will have to hide their sins. Find a simple bread recipe that calls for yeast (fast-rising yeast is the best if you can find it). Have your kids watch as the little granules of yeast foam when added to warm water or milk and sugar.

Mix the other ingredients and ask your kids if they can see the yeast. How will someone just walking in the room know whether or not the bread dough includes yeast? For very young children, you can even make a game of trying to “hide” the yeast in the dough so no one can find it. Have your kids find a way to mark where the dough reaches in the bowl where you place it to rise (Don’t tell your kids about how it will rise). Cover it and place the bowl in a warm place.

After letting it rise for a couple of hours, go back and have your children see how tall the bread has risen. (Note: If you forget and leave it rising too long it will rise and then fall again!) Explain to them that anyone who understands about baking will know the bread dough contains yeast even if they didn’t see you add it to the dough and they can’t see the granules of yeast in the dough.

While your bread is baking, read Luke 12:1-3 to your children. Ask them what they think it means. Explain that sometimes when people sin, they think if they hide the sin from other people and/or God it will be as if they didn’t sin. Help them understand their sins are like the yeast (leaven) in your bread dough. Even if they can somehow hide their sin from other people, God is like an experienced baker. Just like the baker can tell your dough has been made with yeast, God can see their hearts and know they have sinned. Take a few more minutes and explain that God wants them to repent and ask Him to forgive them when they sin.

While you are enjoying your hot, freshly baked bread, you can even make the lesson take a positive spin by reading Luke 13:20-21. Ask your kids to think of ways they can be the positive leaven of spreading the news about Jesus to the rest of the world. How can their “granules of yeast” leaven the world in a positive way?

Pull out those bread recipes and have fun helping your kids learn in a very concrete way some important godly concepts. It’s definitely worth the time and effort.

Published by

Thereasa Winnett

Thereasa Winnett is the founder of Teach One Reach One and blogger at Parenting Like Hannah. She holds a BA in education from the College of William and Mary. She has served in all areas of ministry to children and teens for more than thirty years and regularly leads workshops for ministries and churches. She has conducted numerous workshops, including sessions at Points of Light’s National Conference on Volunteering and Service, the National Urban Ministry Conference, Pepperdine Bible Lectures, and Lipscomb’s Summer Celebration. Thereasa lives in Atlanta, GA with her husband Greg, where she enjoys reading, knitting, traveling and cooking.

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