The Play-Doh Did It!

So last night we had teen group and I was preaching out of Ephesians chapter 2, specifically verses 8-10. Most Christians are familiar with verses 8-9 for it speaks of the saving Grace that we have done nothing to earn nor anything to keep. Thank God for his Grace! But the next verse caught my attention and that was the focus of our teen group last night. Verse 10 says, “For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.” When I thought about this I started to answer one of the age old questions, what are we here for? For the Christian we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto GOOD WORKS. So we spent some time there. Where does the play-doh come in? Well let me explain my brilliant, yet failed and I will never do it again, idea.

I thought of using play-doh as a way for the kids to “Create” something using their imaginations. Whatever it was, however good or bad, it would be their creation but whatever it was it would be nothing more than play-doh and would not do anything. I wanted to demonstrate our creativeness, but the idea that God’s surpasses ours and the fact that his creation is for a purpose. At this point it sounds like a really good idea, or at least it did to me. It sounded even better when I thought how well it would work for the kids to express their creativity. Well that is where it stopped.

So I passed out the play-doh, gave them about five minutes to sculpt something, which went really well, but that is where it stopped. I could not get most of their attentions back when I tried to regroup and teach the lesson application. Stupid Play-doh! The message fell to the intoxicating smell of gooey play-doh. The sounds of my voice were overshadowed by the pliability of the dough in their hands…Stupid Play-doh. In all honesty I can say that our teen group is a great group and listens so well to the messages given, but we found our kryptonite, Play-doh is its name! Oh sure, somebody could say that I was a flop and didn’t present the message well or that our kids attentions were on other things, but that somebody is probably drunk on play-doh!

Does this have a point? Um…no except I realize that sometimes something as simple as play-doh can distract us from the Lord and his message. We are created by God to do his works, but sometimes play-doh gets in the way. I guess we just need to move on, send an email saying boycott buying play-doh on Tuesday to stick it to the manufacturers, and just say “Stupid Play-doh!”