Children's Moment: Rotten to the core

WOW! What beautiful rain we have had this week!  What a blessing to have rain during the summer heat.

With all this rain, my garden is thriving.  I have more cucumbers, squash and zucchini than I can pick each day.  Yesterday was an exceptional day for gardening.  In the morning we had a cool breeze flowing so it was a perfect time to work in my tomato patch.  As I worked staking up my tomatoes and pulling weeds, I ran across some beautiful red and yellow tomatoes.  Of course I was soooooo excited to see these little jewels, they are my favorite summertime garden pick.  Aggie was kind enough to pick and wash the tomatoes and then she bagged and gave most of them to some special friends who visited the farm yesterday.  She kept a few back for me to enjoy though and for that I am soooo grateful.  They were delicious!

I was a little hesitant to eat the tomatoes though.  You know why?  Well, the other day I found the perfect, round, red tomato.  I was thrilled as it was our first tomato of the season!  I carefully picked and washed it, then sliced it in half.  Do you know what I found?  It was awful!  The bloom had never fallen off the tomato and had grown inside the tomato causing it to rot inside the tomato.  Do you know what would have happened if the tomato would have been left alone?  It would have eventually rotted all the way to the outside becoming as ugly on the outside as it was on the inside.

When I was thinking of the rotten tomato it made me think of us and how sin can do the same thing in our lives.  Sin comes in many different forms such as lying, taking something that doesn’t belong to you, being disrespectful to parents or friends, talking badly of others, or being unkind to someone.  If we do not ask God to forgive us of our sins and ask Him to help us do better, we are like the rotting tomato . . . we may look good on the outside, but rotting on the inside.  Eventually our sins will begin to show themselves to others and we will be like the rotting tomato, not only will our sin be in our hearts, but it will show on the outside to others as well.

Psalm 51:10-12 states my prayer for all of us the best

¹⁰ Create in me a clean heart, O God,
    and renew a right spirit within me.
¹¹ Cast me not away from your presence,
    and take not your Holy Spirit from me.
¹² Restore to me the joy of your salvation,
    and uphold me with a willing spirit.

I pray that we will be able to turn to God and ask Him to forgive us of our sins and ask him to help us to become more like Him.

Let us pray: Dear God, thank you for this beautiful day.  Thank you for letting us worship in your house today.  Thank you for all that you provide.    I pray that we can turn from our ways and look to you for help today.  It’s in Jesus name, Amen.