Purpose: To show youth how easily our minds can be filled with garbage by music, media, pornography, and things of this world, and how it affects our heart.
Got this idea when we were going through a study of “Every Young Woman’s/Man’s Battle” with our youth. One chapter discussed our constant battle between spirit & flesh and the winner is whichever you feed the most! If we feed our flesh with sexual images, violence, & things of this world, our flesh will be winning. If we feed our spirit, with the Word of God, prayer, and surround ourselves with God, then our spirit will prevail!
Materials Needed: 3 new sponges, 3 bowls, 3 glass bowls/jars, dirt or cocoa powder
Set up: Put water in all 3 bowls and set one sponge and one clear container beside each bowl.
Illustration: The sponge represents our minds. The clear jars/bowls represents our hearts. The bowls of water & dirty water represent what we put into our minds.
Start with the bowl of clear water & let the sponge absorb it. then squeeze out the sponge in the clear container so they can see that it is clear water that came out.
Then move to the 2nd bowl & sponge. Put a little bit of dirt into the bowl to show that the phrase, “Just a little wont hurt” is WRONG. Squeeze out the water into the clear container to show that the water is a little bit dirty.
Now move to the 3rd sponge/bowl and add the remaining dirt/cocoa. Let the sponge absorb it, then squeeze it out in the clear jar. Explain how when we continue to fill our minds with images & lyrics that are impure, it eventually trickles down into our heart, filling it with dirt.
This also works well with Phillipians 4:8 if you are discussing worries & anxiety. “Having a Mary Heart in a Martha World” chapter 3 has great info & examples about “The curse of anxiety”.