Empower children to avoid temptation and give them the tools to do it! Find out what Firefighters, the Armor of God, Joseph of Egypt and My Gospel Standards have in common, then grab this printable kit to help reinforce the tools!
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To help us fight fires. Firefighters learn what to do and where to put out the fire. In the bible it says Ephesian 6:16 “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” We are going to talk about fiery darts or temptations and what we can do to protect ourselves.
A fire can keep us warm when it is cold and can help us cook our food. I love to make smores over a campfire. Fire can be a blessing, but it can also get out of control and can harm us.
What is a temptation? Temptation is when we are tempted to do something wrong or break a commandment. For example, you might be tempted to yell at your sister or hit your brother.
You might be tempted to be unkind to someone or watch something that isn’t good. Anything that is not helping us choose the right or following Jesus is tempting us to do something wrong.
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We need help to fight temptations just like we need help to fight fires. It takes training and practice!
A firefighter wears clothes and uses tools to help them, we also have things we can do to help us fight temptations. Let’s dress our friends Fred and Faith the Firefighter kids.
First, we put on the helmet of salvation. We need to protect our heads and keep our minds on our goal for salvation which means to live with God forever. Add the boots to help us share the gospel of peace.
Sharing the gospel helps strengthen our power and belief in Christ. Add the belt of truth and the breastplate or coat that reminds us to choose the right.
Now that we are dressed we need an ax or the sword of the spirit. An oxygen tank or the shield of faith. This will save our life! It says in the bible having faith in Christ can even move a mountain, nothing is impossible when we have faith in God.
We can use the My Gospel Standards to help us know what we should do to help us. This is also part of our training. There are 14 gospel standards for kids to help us with our escape plan. When you know what God wants you to do so you can be happy it gives you power!
- Follow God’s plan.
- Remember my baptism promises
- Listen to the holy ghost
- Choose the right and repent when I mess up
- Be honest
- Don’t say God’s name in vain.
- Keep Sunday for Christ
- Help strengthen our family
- Keep my body and mind clean
- Dress modestly
- Read and watch good things
- Listen to good music
- Make good friends and be kind.
- Follow Jesus to get ready to go to the temple
Now we know our standards or the things we should do and when temptation or a fire comes we are prepared. We can take the hose and attach it to a fire hydrate. The fire hydrate holds the water or Jesus Christ since he is called the living water. We now can connect to God’s power to run away from temptation just like Joseph did in Egypt.
Joseph was the son of Jacob, the prophet. Remember he is the one whose dad gave him a beautiful colored coat?. His brothers were jealous of him so they sold him to Potiphar. Potiphar’s wife tempted Joseph and wanted him to break God’s commandments. Joseph told her no and he ran away. We can be like Joseph and run if we need to when temptation comes.
Joseph teaches us that we need to learn how to Stop, Drop, and Roll. Just like if your clothes caught on fire, you need to stop, drop and roll to put it out. So when you are tempted to do something you are not supposed to do, you need to stop, drop, and roll.
Let’s use #9 from My Gospel Standards, “I will keep my mind and body sacred and pure.” When a bad thought comes, you hear something or see something that isn’t good for you, we can use stop, drop and roll to: Stop looking at it, Drop the phone or close the computer and Roll away, tell a parent and replace what you saw or read with a primary song and prayer.
- Stop what you are doing. Maybe you are tempted to cheat at school, or something pops up on your computer that isn’t good.
- Drop, close the computer screen, turn off the monitor, flip your phone upside down, or turn away.
- Roll, move and get away from the temptation, get help from a teacher or parent and replace that thought with something else like a primary song, prayer, or scripture. When faced with temptation or when you are tempted to do something wrong, stop, drop and roll.
This is part of your escape plan and will help us exit when we are tempted. Have you ever seen the little circle things in your house on the ceiling? Those are fire alarms.
If there was a fire in the house or smoke it will make a loud noise to tell you something is wrong. It is kind of like the holy ghost, although it doesn’t make a loud sound, usually, it is a small voice or feeling that helps to warn us when temptation comes. We can listen to the holy ghost to help us escape temptation.
What would you do if your house caught on fire? Would you run to the flames and stick your hand in it to see how warm it is or stand still and stare at it? Of course not, you would run or if you had flames on you, you would stop, drop and roll.
Now you are ready to fight the fires of life! You have your escape plan to Stop, Drop, and Roll. As you choose to follow God and roll to things that will make you happy by following Jesus Christ, you will have power from God.
