I am a child of God. I will wear His armor

I am incredibly behind on my blogging. The last month of summer was so busy with tons of activities, both family and church! I have 6 blogs in the draft stage. Not to mention the ones that I've been able to sneak in since school has started.

Every summer, I plan a Primary Water Activity at my house for all of the kids in our ward. Last year the kids memorized the Articles of Faith to earn water balloons to throw at the bishop or I. We ended up filling up over 700 water balloons!









Even though it was a VERY fun activity, I didn't feel inspired to fill that many water balloons again this year!

This year I thought of how much fun it would be to have a water tank dunking machine for the activity. Those are hard to find, you know! I told Terry of my thoughts months ago. In May, he came home from work & told me about a "Sploosher" that a co-worker of his made for the youth auxilliaries in his ward. It is the same idea as a dunking machine, just without the tank of water. In place of the tank, there is a garden chair to sit in. Above the chair is a basketball hoop and net. The net is tied at the bottom to hold a 12" party balloon filled with water. The balloon should be the size of a volley ball or basket ball. Quite heavy!! Behind the net is a long board that extends about 5 feet or so. It is angled with the high end behind the net and the low end with a round target attached. A sharp nail or screw is attached to the net end for the purpose of popping the water filled party balloon when the target is hit. The lucky person sitting on the chair gets soaked! PERFECT!

The next step was to think of a way to turn it into a gospel oriented object lesson. This year, our primary is focusing on The Armor of God. Each month we add a piece of armor, with it's scriptural reference, to posters of children hung in the primary room. This has been great because as a ward, we are focusing on scripture reading. We combined the two ideas & the kids are having a great year learning about the scriptures and the blessings we receive when we read them & apply its teaching in our lives.

Orchard Heights Ward Annual 

Primary Water Activity, August 2008

Theme: "I am a child of God. I will wear His armor." 

Object Lesson:
The target-throwing balls were likened to the "fiery darts of the adversary".  These are the temptations that Satan throws at us every day.  The kids came up with examples such as choosing not to pray or read scriptures, fighting with others, lying, stealing, complaining, etc.... The water filled balloon represents all of these temptations that surround us every day.  They are always there.  Then we talked about the purpose of armor.  We discussed our scripture reading goals & how the scriptures tell us how we can wear the armor of God (I used a clear rain poncho for the armor) & how this will help protect us from the "fiery darts".   We all will experience temptations, but as we try to choose the right & keep His commandments, we will be better protected from the affects of temptations.  The popped water ballon is likened to the way temptations & sins affect us.  Then just for looks, I had a foam knight's shield & a homemade wooden dagger for a sword.  I wanted the kids to see the difference it made to have the protection of His armor as well as when we tend to forget, or put aside those things such as scripture reading, prayer, etc.... and we lose that valuable protection.   I wanted them to see how the temptations & sins can get us "soaked" when we aren't clothed in His armor.

This is our bishopric advisor, whom we love and adore!  Above his head is a huge black water filled balloon.  Notice what his shirt says? WARNING!  He is showing the kids the affects temptation can have without wearing His armor.

I am throwing those "fiery darts" at the target.  (It was so much fun!)  The kids named off a temptation with each ball as it was thrown, the anticipation growing with each one he got away with.  I don't think it was more than 3 before........

SPLOOSH!!!!  He sure got "soaked"!    It's amazing how cold & shocking you feel when this happens.

Now, I display the "armor" and ask the kids how "soaked" they think I'll get.  Because I wasn't totally protected, some were a bit worried.

Payback.....Bro. Bushman was quite eager to place that balloon over my head!  However, I knew the damage would be minimal for I was wearing the "armor"!

One of my presidency counselors wanted a chance 

to get me with the "fiery darts".

It took her only 2 throws!  But, I didn't get more than a few drops on my face.  I was well protected!

The kids LOVED this!  For the rest of the time, they were allowed to throw the "fiery darts" or be the one to get "soaked".  Some chose to wear the armor, others didn't.  It was amazing to feel the temptations dump on you, yet not wear the affects, so to speak, when the armor was on. But with the warm weather, it also felt good to get cooled off without it!  

This was a fun memory & was one of the 

highlights of my summer!