Leader Guide
Tape Object Lesson
- Bible or the Superbook Bible App
- Roll of masking tape, enough for each child to have a piece 24" long
- Optional: you may simply use one piece of tape to demonstrate this for the class as you narrate the object lesson
- Trash can
- Ten Commandments Minibooks from Teaching
Have children sit at tables with their Ten Commandments Minibooks made in Teaching.
Using your Ten Commandments Minibook, find commandment number nine and read it aloud. What does it mean to testify falsely?
It means to say something that is untrue or false about someone, which can hurt others and damage their reputation. It is basically telling a lie.
Proverbs 12:22 says:
The Lord detests lying lips, but He delights in those who tell the truth.
Have you ever been lied to? How did it feel?
Let’s take a look at what often happens when we tell just one lie.
Loosely hang a piece of masking tape approximately 24" long on the edge of the table by each child. Hold up your own piece of tape and demonstrate as you do this teaching. Show them how to tear off a piece about 2" long, then stick it on the table.
That piece of tape represents one lie. It doesn’t seem very big, does it? But if we tell a lie and someone catches us, what are we tempted to do? We tell a second lie to cover up the first lie.
Have them tear off a bigger piece of tape and stick it over the first piece on the table.
What can happen after we tell a second lie? A third lie has to be told to cover up the other lies.
Tear off an even larger piece of tape and place it over the first two. Oh, my! We have to work hard to cover up our lies, don’t we?
Children continue placing all of their tape pieces on top of previous ones to create a stack. If we keep telling one lie after another, it’s hard to remember all the pieces of the story we made up!
Pick up a tape stack. How quickly one “little” lie grows into a big, sticky mess.
Our SuperVerse today says,
“You shall love your neighbor as yourself.”
How many of you like to be lied about or lied to?
No one likes to be lied about or lied to! If we don’t like it, we should never treat others in that way, either!
It’s much better to tell the truth from the very beginning—even if it’s embarrassing, or if we face some discipline. It’s better to come clean right away instead of creating a mess that just keeps getting bigger and stickier!
Have the children pick up their stacks of tape, roll them into a ball and toss them into the trash.