Bad Habits
Theme: Make sure your habits are positive so they will be a strength rather than a weakness, and rely on God’s strength to break bad habits.
Bible Verses: Cleanse me from secret faults. Keep back Your servant also from presumptuous sins; let them not have dominion over me. (Psalm 19:12–13)
Materials Needed:
• Roll of masking tape or adding machine paper
• Volunteer
Bible Lesson
David prayed that God would forgive and protect him from two kinds of sin: “hidden faults” and “presumptuous sins.” Hidden faults are problems that we may not be aware of. These weaknesses, or bad habits, can become such a part of our lives that we don’t notice their effects. Presumptuous sin is disobedience that we are aware of and make a conscious decision about. Either kind of sin is a failing before God that needs our confession and his forgiveness, just as David prayed.
Science Activity
This lesson calls for a volunteer to stand before the group. A roll of tape represents a fault or problem. Wrap the tape around the person a couple of times, with his or her arms down. Ask the person to break loose from the “fault,” which is easily done by spreading their arms and breaking the ribbon of tape.
When a sin is repeated often, however, it becomes a habit that is hard to break. Repeatedly wrap the tape around the person’s arms while you talk, ten or twenty times around. Again ask the person to break free, but this will prove a more difficult task than before. The small strength of each individual section of tape now combines with the others to add up to a confining barrier. Likewise, bad habits can completely take over a person’s life. Finally, carefully cut through the strands with scissors to represent God’s power through prayer. We can have freedom from bad habits with the Lord’s help.
A person can be tied up with many coils of tape.
Science Explanation
A single strip of masking tape or paper tape can be broken easily like a thread, especially by snapping it. Suppose, however, that a person is wrapped twenty times around by the tape. It will take twenty times as much force to break loose, and the snapping motion is no longer possible.
Many small sections add up to a strong barrier. Further investigation of strong cords or ropes will show that they are made up of weak individual threads. As Ecclesiastes 4:12 reminds us in a positive way, a cord of three strands is not quickly broken.