The Taming the Tongue Chapel

It seems that the majority of issues in my own home stem from our words.

Complaining.  Whining.  Arguing.

So most of the verses I feel we are memorizing lately have to do with our tongues and learning how to use them for God’s glory.

As I was planning for my chapel this month, I thought I would share some of the things my boys and I have been studying and, by God’s grace, trying to apply.  But boy am I thankful the Lord is patient! 🙂

To start the chapel, I told the kids that I was going to show them some funny pictures on the screens and they were going to have to guess what they thought my chapel topic would be.

I shared a bunch of ridiculous photos of animals sticking out their tongues that I found on the internet.

Of course, they all shouted, “TONGUES” when the photos were done.

And I said, yes, we are going to talk about the tongue and how God wants us to use it to honor Him.

I shared James 3:5 –

“The tongue is a small thing, but what enormous damage it can do.”

I asked the kids if any of them had ever had a puppy before and what happens when you leave something so small alone in the house.

Then I showed another photo I found on Google of a giant mess a puppy had made with a roll of paper towels.

In the same way, our tongues are a small thing, but we can make enormous damage to people’s hearts and situations.

Then I taught them another verse that is a favorite in our house,

“Keep your tongue from evil,” Psalm 34:13.

We had some fun and got into it with a rhythm and some hand motions. 🙂

Next, I said, how can we keep our tongues from evil?

We need to look to God’s Word!

Then I invited 3 volunteers up and placed them in front of a table which I had prepped with some props.

I instructed the first volunteer to take what was in the bag and dump it out.

BLOCKS!

Next, I told him to build a tower.

I shared the verse from 1 Thessalonians 5:11 –

“Encourage one another and build each other up.”

I had the kids repeat it and sing it with me to help them remember.

When we say kind words to others, it helps their hearts grow.  It makes others stand taller and stronger.

On the opposite side of that – have volunteer knock the tower down – when we say unkind words, we crush people’s hearts.

So with our tongues we BUILD EACH OTHER UP.

The second volunteer had a bowl of cotton balls.

I said, “Aren’t those cotton balls so hard and pokey?”

Haha – no.  They are so soft.  Soft things make us feel good.  I asked the kids if they have a lovey at home – typically bedtime lovies are not made with spikes.  They are soft and cuddly and help us feel comforted as we fall asleep.

In a similar way, when we use gentle, or soft, words, we can calm a person down.

I had fun with this one and as I taught, I kept rubbing the volunteer’s face with the cotton balls. 🙂

Then we memorized Proverbs 15:1 –

“A soft answer turns away wrath.”

I had prayed and prayed for a relevant illustration of this and the morning of the chapel, I remembered a scene from the movie Moana where at the end, Moana is singing all of these beautiful and gentle words to the crazy lava lady and it totally calms her down.  You can take or leave that – but I thought it was helpful and so many of the children had gone to see the movie with their families over Christmas break.

So we can use our tongues to BUILD EACH OTHER UP and we can use SOFT WORDS to help others.

Finally, the last volunteer had a tambourine.

We talked about how the best thing we can fill our mouths with is PRAISE.  I shared one of my favorite verses, Psalm 34:1 –

“I will praise the Lord at all times; His praise will ever be on my lips.”

I had the volunteer play the tambourine while we all practiced memorizing this verse.

We tend to want to whine and complain about things, but God’s Word challenges us to use our words to praise Him at ALL TIMES – no matter what’s happening in our lives.  How instructive and life-giving!

I went back and we reviewed all 3 verses and concepts of how we can use our tongues in ways that honor the Lord.

Finally, we prayed and committed these things to God and asked His Spirit to help us grow in how we use our words to build His kingdom!

When we said “Amen,” I had one last funny picture of an animal sticking out its tongue hit the screens.

In case it is helpful, I am including the Powerpoint that I used for this presentation.  If you choose to download it, please know that I used images that I found off of Google and I didn’t properly credit them, so maybe don’t share that part lol and extend to me all the forgiveness.

I hope this blesses you and helps you teach kiddos this important topic!

CLICK HERE FOR THE POWERPOINT

CLICK HERE FOR MY SCRIPT

Joyfully,

Julie 🙂