Christie left me this comment on my post "Pieces of your heart part 2." Sorry to highlight you on my blog without your permission Christie, but it was so worthy of an analogy in my opinion. If you want me to take it off, just let me know. I'm almost certain, I will be doing this little exercise with my boys sometime in the future.
"One time while having a discussion on marriage with the guys, we took a wrapped piece of chewing gum and had them hold it, and we kept passing it around while we were talking. When we were done talking, we asked "Who wants to eat the chewing gum?" Nobody wanted to . The wrapper was all messed up and so was the gum, from people holding it. We said, "Why not, nobody has chewed it! Go ahead!" Nobody wanted to. We asked them to let that be an object lesson for dating. Our hearts are not the same if we give them away, even though we remain pure in body. Just a thought."
9 inspiring thoughts:
Wow. You're up late! I guess that means I'm up later. :)
(needed to drink some hot water)
The idea came from a conference we went to.
2 really good books for when your children are older:
"I Kissed Dating Goodbye" by Joshua Harris
"Boy Meets Girl" by Joshua Harris
Also: "Young Man Be Strong" by Rod and Staff Publishers.
"Christian Manhood" "Eastern Mennonite Publications". (this book is not perfect and discusses very personal things. Some conclusions we didn't totally agree with, but it was a great way to discuss things openly.
"Beautiful Girlhood" Rod and Staff Publishers
Not the punch line I was expecting so obviously you could use the same story lead in for several different maturity levels by changing the ending.
I would like to add one more thing to this Christine. Mercy, grace and forgiveness. Without those, where would we be?
That is one of the reasons I really like the book "Boy Meets Girl". While Mr. Harris, changed his heart, and chose to find a wife differently, so did his wife. They had much to discuss, much to ponder, and it is the LORD that brings us together.
I have a friend who almost didn't marry her husband because of something he had done as a young man. That would have been a tragedy. They now are happily married with 6 beautiful children.
Whom God forgives, we have no place to bring up their old sin. As, we are not perfect either. That is the other side of this coin.
Pride. Pride is one of top sins that God HATES. It is mentioned as THE sin of Sin's in Proverbs, "I hate Pride, Arrogance AND the Evil way. (Proverbs 8:13)
There is a poem called "Other's May, You May Not"... I'm going to drag it out and put it on my blog.
It is about being set apart, but not judging.
And another thing. Boy you got me going....:)
The Lord uses the failures in our lives to draw us close to him and guide us. That doesn't mean we should sin so we can experience grace, but he does teach us by our experiences too. :)
BUT.... let's encourge each other to do rightly.
COOL COOL COOL. That is a great analogy!!
♥ I love that analogy! Defiately want to use it, eventually! Thanks for posting this and thanks Christie for the Idea!
Great word picture.
And I love the reminder about grace.
Great analogy. It sounds vaguely familiar.
Angela :-)
(Thanks for commenting on my blog!)
The unfortunate part is that NONE of my kids would have any problem chewing gum with a messed up wrapper. I'm confient that if it had been passed around WITHOUT the wrapper they wouldn't even mind, and I regret to say that I believe one or two would chew the gum if it had already been chewed. I guess you need to know your audience. (Sometime I might use in religion class, though!)
This is great. We use the analogy of the candy bar with a bite off the corner. Our boys are committed to courtship and it is nice to meet others who believe in purity,also!
Blesssings, Justine
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