Sowing and Reaping – Lesson 4...Sowing and Reaping – Lesson 4 Natural Laws Use juggling balls to show that when you don’t catch a ball it falls to the ground – every time!

Sowing and Reaping – Lesson 4

Natural Laws

� Use juggling balls to show that when you don’t catch a ball it falls to the ground – every time! If you can’t juggle just throw one up and let it drop. A beanbag or a small cushion would work well too. An ordinary ball isn’t so good because it will bounce all over the place!

� A child who doesn’t understand that an oven is hot will still burn their

hand if they touch it. Sowing and Reaping

� Draw one by one (or have them prepared already) 4 pictures to put in a square. 1. A seed planted in soil 2. A seed being watered by a watering can and fertilizer being put on 3. The sun and rain, shoot growing 4. A tree fully grown.

� Spiritual laws are similar to the natural –planting spiritual seed, watering it with prayer, and awaiting fruit at the right time.

� Demonstrate planting cress seeds in a paper cup

using a kitchen towel or cotton wool, and then water it. Explain that cress is fast growing, and that you planned ahead, and a week ago (ideally it needs a full 7 days, 5 is just about enough) you planted some cress for them. Give each couple a paper cup with cress in it to remind them of the principle.

� Use pictures to demonstrate that an apple seed grows an apple tree etc. It reproduces after its own kind. It takes time and patience but the fruit will certainly come.

Good and Bad Seeds Over time different variations of ‘seed bag’ examples have been developed. Here are a few of them.

� Have two paper bags, one attractive, filled with weeds, and the other a plain bag filled with seeded fruit, perhaps grapes. Point out that there are only two bags, no third alternative. What looks attractive on the outside doesn’t isn’t necessarily attractive on the inside.

� Have two paper bags, one marked LIFE and the other DEATH. Set the

bags on a table of on a tray in front of you as you teach page 1. Put the directions on each bag as to how to fertilize each bag of seeds. Read aloud.

� Use a wheat stalk, ear of corn etc to demonstrate how one seed produces more than is sown. (You may wish to have one for each couple to meditate on and take home with them).

� You may also wish to fill the ‘Life’ and ‘Death’ seed bags with

examples, you can either put in actual objects or the words written on cards instead. Go around the group with the ‘Death’ bag first and ask the couples to take a seed. Most couples will – occasionally someone will say ‘no thank you’. This is a good illustration that we don’t have to accept what Satan offers us but sometimes we accept it through habit. We need to break that habit and only accept things from the ‘Life’ sack.

� Multiplication factor

Use the example of a tornado to explain how the downward spiral in a marriage can gain velocity. A tornado can get up to speeds of 300 miles per hour and cause major destruction. We can choose to stop the downward spiral by not sowing bad seeds.

� On page 39, when talking about weed killer,

use the example of 2-4-D, a weed killer that makes the plant overgrows itself. It soon dies. 2-4-D on weeds of your life may cause them to look like they are flourishing, but they will eventually die.

Strife

� Using a spinning top or other object, which can be spun, get the couples to gather around a flat surface. Spin the top a bit to demonstrate the effect of nasty words. The spouse can choose not to say anything nasty back in which case the top will soon stop. However, if the spouse says something nasty back the top will be spun faster and as they add further comments it will get faster and faster. By the time it is impossible for it to be stopped easily without someone getting hurt. Then talk about the method in this course to stop arguments the ‘strife break’. As you say the word ’strife break’ put your hand on the top and stop it immediately. Then ask couples to return to their seats and carry on with you explanation.

� After you have taught strife break you can model a disagreement

and how to resolve it by using the ‘strife break’ technique.

� Each year Christmas trees are cut down and displayed in homes through Christmas, but they will die in time because they no longer have any roots. When we cut the roots from strong holds in our lives the may look green for a season but they will eventually go brown and die.

� Some sins can be stopped dead –others are like bells. After the bell

ringer has stopped pulling the ropes the bell stops ringing, but the bell will continue to swing while it looses momentum.

� Use a small tree, weed, or dandelion with its root

system still attached. Use scissors to cut off the roots in front of the group to demonstrate the severing of the root causes.

� Prepare two jars or glasses (the same size) – one full of clear

water, the other with dyed water (food colouring). Have an empty third jar in the middle of them. Begin the lesson by pouring a little clear water into the third jar. This represents good seeds planted in our marriage. Add coloured water taints the purity of the water (sin taints purity). Add more clear water and try to ‘wash’ the water clean. It takes a lot of good seed to choke out the bad – to dispel the harvest of bad in our lives. You might want to have the third jar sitting in a dishpan so the water can overflow as you pour.

Quotes: “When you do what you always do, you get what you always get.”

‘Wit and Wisdom for your Life Together’ by Mike Yaconelli p.20

“Believe there is nothing too small to do well.”

‘Your Daily Walk through the Bible’ by Bruce H. Wilkinson p. 116

“Parents who are afraid to put their foot down usually have children who step on toes.”


“Starting a quarrel is like breaching a dam; so drop the matter before a dispute breaks out”. Proverbs 17:14

“It is to a man’s honour to avoid strife, but every fool is quick to quarrel.” Proverbs 20:3

“Repay evil with good, and deprive the evildoer of all the pleasure of his wickedness.”


“Lord make my words gracious and tender, for tomorrow I may have to eat them!”


“Your mind is a garden for your thoughts. If you plant flowers, you will get flowers. If you plant potatoes, you will get potatoes. If you plant nothing, you will get weeds.”

‘150 ways to make your life Ten out of Ten’ by Richard Wilkins

“When anger is greeted with anger, the result can only be more anger.”


“Losing a temper is a good thing, who wants one anyway?”


“When it comes to giving, some people stop at nothing.”


“Let us at least give according to our income, lest God make our incomes match our gifts.”


Sowing and Reaping – Lesson 4...Sowing and Reaping – Lesson 4 Natural Laws Use juggling balls to show that when you don’t catch a ball it falls to the ground – every time!

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