I’ve taught kids the Ten Commandments for years, so when Sunday came around, I didn’t worry.
I love the way we share them in Godly Play. God’s people have finally escaped Pharaoh. Yay! They’re no longer enslaved. They can go where they want, do what they want, and live however they want. “God loves the people so much,” I say to our first and second graders, “that God shows them the ten best ways to live. Sometimes we call these ways the Ten Commandments.”
I take out the heart-shaped box that holds the ten stones, and I tell them the story about Moses and Mount Sinai. Before I share each commandment, I give a summary: Love God. Love people. God loves us. Everybody nods.
In Godly Play, we usually wait to discuss the story until the leader has finished sharing it, but I bend that practice a little this time. I want to make sure we understand each commandment as we go along.
The first one (Don’t serve other gods) makes sense to everyone…until my grandson raises his hand. “But I love the Greek gods,” he says. “They’re very interesting. Plus, they have all kinds of powers.”
I look at Josiah. He’s serious. “The stories are fun to read,” I say. “But do you serve the Greek gods?”
“I read them,” he says. “I enjoy them.”
“But are the Greek gods real to you?” Josiah thinks for a moment. “Do you pray to them?”
“No,” he says. “I don’t pray to them. I just pray to God.”
Moving right along…
For the second commandment, (Make no idols to worship), I add, “Some people treat money as an idol. That’s all they think about.”
“Oh, I know all about that,” a child says.
“Yeah,” says another. “I’ve always wanted a yacht.”
The children understand #3 just fine (Be serious when you say my name), as well as #4, (Keep the Sabbath holy.) “That’s what we’re doing!” a child says proudly. Honor your mother and father make sense to them, too, as well as Don’t kill.
“Obviously!” one child says.
“Well, sometimes it’s tricky,” I add. “Some people take this best way very seriously when they plan their meals. Like, what about chicken nuggets?”
“Oh, that’s right!” a child says. “Somebody has to kill the chicken!”
Another child raises her hand. “But maybe the chicken is a very old chicken, and it dies and somebody finds it and they make it into nuggets. You could eat that one.”
“THAT’S NOT HOW IT WORKS!” they say.
“Like I said, it’s tricky,” I say. “Families have to figure out what they think about that.”
I barely get the words out to commandment #7 (Don’t break your marriage) before the children start talking about divorce. “That does happen sometimes,” I say. “When people get married, they want to be married forever. But sometimes it doesn’t work out, no matter how hard they try.” Everyone nods. “These best ways to live are hard! Sometimes they even seem impossible. But we have to try.”
The next two commandments make sense to them. Don’t steal. Don’t lie. Before they start sharing the lies they’ve told, I move onto #10.
Don’t even want what others have.
“WHAT?” Josiah said. “HOW CAN THAT BE A COMMANDMENT?”
“I hear you,” I said. “That one’s super hard.”
“I DON’T LIKE THAT ONE,” Josiah said. “I DON’T LIKE IT AT ALL! We need to get rid of that one. HOW CAN YOU KEEP FROM WANTING SOMETHING?”
“That’s a good question,” I said. “What do you all think?”
“You could think about something else,” a child said.
“THAT WON’T WORK,” Josiah said. “If you want something, it stays in your head.”
A girl raised her hand. “I think that #10 is connected to #1, the one about not serving other gods. See, if you want something real bad, it might become your god.”
“Yeah,” said another child. “And if it belongs to your friend, you might fight over it!”
“Yeah!” said another child. “And before you know it, you might lie! And you might be sassy to your parents! You might even steal it!”
“Or kill!” said another child.
“It’s a toughie, for sure,” I said. “But Josiah, you know what’s good?” He refused to look at me. “What’s good is that you don’t have to try to follow these ways alone. You can ask God for help.”
“Okay, but nine commandments are enough,” Josiah said. “I don’t think that last one is fair.”
“I understand,” I said.
“I mean, it’s almost Christmas!”
“I know,” I said. “All we can do is try our best. And when we mess up, what do we do then?”
“Say sorry,” the kids said, “and try again.”
Once we finished all the wondering questions, sharing our favorite commandments and the hardest ones, (you can guess Josiah’s answer) we moved to the art tables. The kids wrote out each commandment on a slip of paper and put it into their very own heart-shaped boxes. It was a lot of writing and they worked super hard. Josiah wanted to roll up his commandments like ancient scrolls, so he only got through commandment #7.
“Here, Josiah,” said my co-teacher, Jennifer. She offered him three slips of paper so he could finish them at home.
“Thanks,” he said, “but I only need two.”
I got a Christmas toy catalog in my mailbox today. I usually share it with the boys, but maybe I’ll keep it to myself for a while.
