Sin is crouching

Yesterday morning, our girls were really struggling. About fifteen minutes into their 'free play' time (our break time from our homeschool and daily routine) they had already had several arguments. It's not that they don't fight with eachother from time to time, but yesterday, their relationship seemed especially strained. It felt like sin and temptation were lurking and the Lord put a scripture on my heart to memorize with Wubs and Bella. It is found in Genesis 4- "Sin is crouching at your door and its desire is for you but you must master it." The Holy Spirit gave me an idea on how to share this scripture with our children. I read this scripture to the girls and then our conversation began:

"Does anyone know what I mean when I say, 'The lion was crouching, waiting for the zebra.'?"

"Oooh! I do! That means that the lion is hiding and crunching up his body so he can JUMP out and eat a zebra!" (Wubs loves any conversation about animals!)

"Yes, that's exactly right! Can you and Bella pretend to be lions and show me how you would crouch down, waiting for your lunch... the zebra?" Both girls crouched on our kitchen floor and role played jumping up and catching a zebra, several times! I pretended to be a lion a few times ,too... wink.

"Wow! Okay, now I have another question. What does the zebra do when he sees that lion?"

"He runs away!"- Bella

"That's right! The zebra tries to get away, as fast as he can. Now, let me try another one. What if... the lion is crouching, and he sees a little baby rhino. But the lion doesn't see the mama rhino. When he tries to attack and eat that baby rhino, what do you suppose that mama rhino would do?"

"Oh, she would ram the lion with her horn! And she would try to stomp him!!"- Wubs said, matter of factly.

"Whew! You bet, that mama rhino would fight back, wouldn't she? Well... let's think again about our scripture. God could have used any word when he was describing the way sin waits to attack us. God could have said, "Sin likes to play peek a boo with you" or He could have said, "Sin will tiptoe around you". But that's not how God describes the way Satan waits to tempt us. God tells us that sin is crouching, ready to attack, simply waiting to hurt us and get us. What can we do when sin tries to get us? "

"I know! We could run away!"-Bella

"You're right, baby. Sometimes, the best thing we can do is to turn and run away from that sin that is tempting us. And just like that mama rhino, we can fight back! How can we fight back againt sin? Does anyone know?"

"We can read our Bible and love Jesus."- Wubs was loving this illustration! She loves anything that I can somehow relate to animals! wink.

"That's right! We can learn the Truth by reading our Bible, so we will know when sin is trying to attack us. We can pray and talk to Jesus, and ask Him to protect us and forgive us. Sin is crouching, but we don't have to be afraid."

Wubs copied Genesis 4:7 for her handwriting work and we posted it on our refrigerator. It is a good memory verse for all of us!

Below are some pictures of my little crouching lions! (And just for your entertainment, I am posting the picture that Bella took of mommy being a pouncing lion. ha ha ha!)

"Sin is crouching at your door and it's desire is for you, but you must master it."- Genesis 4:7