Sawdust, Logs, & the Golden Rule
Children's Ministry Lesson
Your financial support makes resources like this available! Give now!
(Choose two children “Alice and Brady” to help tell the following story. You will also need small colored stickers, such as color coding dots. Emphasize the bad behavior (bolded text) of the child mentioned and then place a sticker on his or her face. The children will begin to understand the purpose of the stickers as you tell the story. You might have another adult place the stickers on their faces as you tell the story.)
Tell the Story
Today’s story is about two friends, Alice and Brady.
Alice is always getting into trouble.
Just this morning Alice's mom told her to clean her room before going to
school,
but Alice didn’t obey her mom, instead she listened to music.
While riding to school on the bus, Alice kept throwing spit balls at the other kids. Brady tried
stopping her, but she wouldn't listen.
When they got to school, Alice saw one of the shy kids in the hall and started
bullying her, calling her names, and made her cry!
Brady joined in laughing at the shy girl. But a teacher saw Brady laughing,
and told him to apologize. But Brady lied about it and said that he was laughing about something else.
Alice and Brady also sit next to each other in class. But Alice is always talking when the teacher is teaching,
which makes it difficult for the other kids to hear the lesson.
At lunch, if Alice sees another kid with her favorite chips, she will often grab some and stuff them in her mouth.
And then, if another kid tells on her, she’ll even lie about it!
But today, as Alice and Brady were eating lunch together, Alice grabbed someone else’s chips again. But this time a teacher saw
it happen.
Of course Alice denied it, but then she did something unbelievable, she said,
“Brady, tell the teacher I didn’t take those chips!”
And Brady, wanting to be a good friend, said, “I’m sorry, Alice, I can’t lie for you anymore.”
“Well la-dee-da, Brady! You’re the liar!” Alice shouted, “You lied to the teacher in the hall this morning! You need to go tell her the truth! You’re always misbehaving! And may I remind you that God
IS WATCHING YOU!” then she ran out of the lunch room.
The end.
Alice is something else! Do you think she treats others like she wants to be
treated?
Today’s funny skit helps us understand
one of the truths that Jesus taught in his Sermon on the
Mount. Listen now as I read what he taught in Matthew chapter 7:
Read
“Do not judge other people. Then you will not be judged. You will be judged in the same way you judge others. You will be measured in the same way you measure others.
“You look at the bit of sawdust in your friend’s eye. But you pay no attention to the wooden plank in your own eye.
How can you say to your friend, ‘Let me take the bit of sawdust out of your eye’? How can you say this while there is a wooden plank in your own eye? You pretender! First take the wooden plank out of your own eye. Then you will be able to see clearly to take the bit of sawdust out of your friend’s eye” Matthew 7:1-5.
"In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you—" Matthew 7:12.
Discussion
1. When you think of a judge or judging, what comes to mind? (A judge is someone who decides cases in a court of law or the winner in a contest. Judging is also about deciding right from wrong.)
2. What warning does Jesus give about judging others? (You’ll be judged in the same way you judge others.)
3. How did today’s skit illustrate the point of taking a bit of sawdust out of someone else’s eye, before taking the wooden plank out of your own eye? (Alice had a lot faults—the Bible calls this sin. She correctly identified Brady’s sin. However, she should have been more concerned with her own sin! Alice was quick to
judge Brady’s sin, but overlooked her own sins.)
4. If you had to decide between the two, which person was a better friend? (When we compare people to people, some people behave better than others. But our sin isn’t judged against other people. Our sin is judged against
our Holy God, which means we all have giant “wooden planks” in our eyes. We all need to be forgiven for our sins. And that is why God came down out of heaven.
Jesus took the punishment that we deserve for sinning against him by dying on the cross; he washed our
sins away! He then rose from the dead to give us life here and in eternity with
him.)
(Remove stickers from “Alice and Brady.”)
5. One more thing, the verse goes on to say that once you take the wooden plank out of your own
eye, then you will be able to see clearly to take the bit of sawdust out of your friend’s eye. This means there is a
time and place for correcting our friends when they go the wrong way and do the wrong things. But we don’t do it to judge them, but to help them grow closer to Jesus—to help them restore their friendship with God!
Jesus wants us to treat others how we want to be treated. We call this the
Golden Rule, because like gold, this is a valuable way to treat others!
Memory Verse
"In everything, do to others what you would have them do to you—" Matthew 7:12.
Close in Prayer
This skit coordinates well with our Sermon
on the Mount Bible lessons for children. Learn
more!
Copyright 2025 S.A. Keith
Help keep the site going, support our site!
Subscribe to our Newsletter - Learn More