St Mary's Dalton

This morning I went along to do an assembly at St Mary's Dalton.  After saying hello to the children I introduced them to a new song (for them not me) So Many Ways to Praise the Lord.  I then asked for a boy and a girl to come and join me at the front.  I gave one of them a plate and the other a tube of toothpaste.  I then instructed them to draw a face with the toothpaste onto the plate - I did get a bit of a funny look when I said this from the two children.  I then encouraged them to do some more only this time I helped out and made a load of toothpaste come out making a messy everywhere.  This got a laugh from the children but an even bigger laugh was had when I asked them to put the toothpaste back into the tube.  What was the point of this - simple whenever we speak out a wrong or bad word from our mouth that's it we can't take it back like the toothpaste can't go back into the tube.  I then demonstrated this by shouting at a teacher (it was OK as he is a very good friend of mine) this too got a laugh until I said can I take those words back.  I brought a bible verse from James which talks about a small spark is all that is needed to start a big fire.  The fire can make a mess and destroy things just like a wrong word can to a person.  So I encouraged them to think about how they speak to each other and to adults they know.  To finish we sang Shine I then closed the assembly with a prayer.