THE PLUMB LINE

Lesson:  Life your life in God's teachings
Bible Passage:  Ten commandments, Love thy Neighbor, the Greatest Commandment, and others


You will need a plumb line – a large string (so the children will see it) with a heavy object at the bottom.  You will also need blocks of wood, the larger the better.

After inviting the children down, tell them, “I am going to read from the Bible; the first part of the Bible before Jesus comes.  What do we call that first part?  (The Old Testament).

One of the folks writing in the Old Testament is a fellow named Amos.  Not a lot of Amos’ running around today, are there?  Well, this fellow Amos is talking to the Lord and this is in a time when the good Lord spoke to folks like a regular man.

Amos says “The Lord was standing by a wall that had been built true to plumb, with a plumb line in his hand. And the LORD asked me, "What do you see, Amos?" “A plumb line," I replied. Then the Lord said, ‘Look, I am setting a plumb line among my people.’ ”

Does anyone know what a “plumb line” is?  I’ll show you.  A plumb line is used to measure how straight something is when it is being built.  You see, I have this string with a weight at the bottom of it.  When I hold this line at the top, it creates a straight line against which to measure things.

Now if you are building something and you don’t have a plumb line, if what you are building is even a little bit off, that building is not going to stand for long.  Yet, if you are careful and use the plumb line, your building could stand for years.

Let me put it another way.  Let’s pretend these building blocks are the things you do each day.  If you are careless, let’s say you wake up grumpy, (casually add a block) and you are rude to your folks, (add another block in an unsteady way) and you don’t eat a healthy breakfast (continue to add blocks in a way they will be sure to fall) and you don’t take care of yourself by brushing your teeth and you make fun of your class mates and you don’t listen to the teacher and you are a bully at recess and you steal someone’s lunch… (eventually this carelessly stacked wall will collapse).

Well, if you don’t use the rules that God has taught us, that is what is going to happen.  Now, help me with the plumb line and we will try again. 

Get a taller child to hold the line.  And you speak, begin stacking the bricks.

Let’s say you go to bed at a good time and wake up rarin’ to go.  (Put a block down)  You get dressed right away (carefully add another block) and help fix breakfast continue to carefully add blocks).  You wash your face, brush your hair and brush your teeth.  You remember to say “please” and “thank you.”  You help others at school and greet your friends cheerfully.  If someone is in trouble, you help them.  You pay attention in class and do your best work.  If somebody has something you would like, you figure out if you could do something to earn it

By using the plumb line God gave us; by using the Ten Commandments we learn in Sunday School and at home, we can live a good, strong life, the kind of life that makes us proud to be a Child of God.

Do you think you can do that?  Because if you don’t eventually…” (knock over the wall).