Worshiping Idols

I feel pretty confident about my Elijah lesson. It's a fun story that I'll enjoy sharing, and, thanks to some help from my friends, I now have a good answer to a concern I had about how the story ends.  However, there's one thing that we haven't discussed about this lesson yet: the moral. The story's great, and I think it'll maintain the class's attention, but I need some message to leave them with. I don't want to just inform or entertain my class; I want to instruct and inspire them. Most stories in scripture, and perhaps elsewhere, leave the reader with some wisdom regarding what the y should or should not do, or some examples that we should or should not follow. The story of Elijah and the false prophets is no exception. From this story, we learn that it's foolish and sometimes dangerous to worship false gods. However, it takes a bit of interpretation in order to learn how to apply that moral.

Most people know better than to worship idols these days. At the very least, I'm pretty sure most of the kids in my class don't pray to statues. But prayer isn't the only way to worship, and statues aren't the only things we idolize. People commonly worship idols by spending too much time on and showing too much devotion to anything other than God. There are a handful of things that I spend too much time on, and probably a few things that I am too devoted to. I would do well to spend less time on the internet and to care less about certain games and webcomics. In moderation, such things can be wholesome, but when we consume too much of anything, our lives will be thrown out of balance.

So, this Sunday, I'm going to teach my class that, while we should obviously avoid literally worshiping actual idols, we should also avoid figuratively worshiping anything other than God.