Saved from Knowing Right and Wrong

Look at the picture below.

Some children are laughing, but one is crying. Do you think something bad is going on in this picture?

 What do you think that is?

If I told you that, in this picture, the child crying was telling a joke to his friends and, as part of that joke, he was pretending to cry, so the other children were laughing at his very funny joke, then who would be doing something bad?

If I told you that the child who is crying is just pretending to cry because he doesn’t like the other children and wants to get them in trouble by pretending they hurt him, then who would you say is doing something bad in this picture?

What are they doing that is bad?

 Let’s suppose that the children in this picture had a fight. The child who is crying lost the fight, his feelings are hurt, and that is why is he is crying. In that case, who did the wrong thing?

What did they do that was wrong?

 Let’s suppose that the child crying started the fight by calling the other children names. Then who did wrong?

 What did they do that was wrong?

 Let’s suppose that the child who is crying called the other children names because his dog just died and, when the other children saw him crying because of his dog, they told him that that was a silly thing to cry about, which made him mad. Was he still wrong to call them names?

 Are you really confused now? You’re right to be confused. Because knowing what is right and what is wrong is not always easy. It’s often a really hard thing to figure out. But do you know what’s weird? People usually think it’s a really easy thing to do, knowing what is right and what is wrong. Do you know why they think it’s an easy thing to do? Because they have sin in their lives.

Let’s look again at two words we have looked at before:

SIN
SINS

Let’s look at what they mean one more time. Can you remember what sins are?

Sins are the bad things we do. Do you remember what sin is?

Sin is the reason we do bad things. Sin is something that is wrong with us inside – in our spirit. Sin is wanting to live our lives without God. Sin is believing we know the right and wrong things to do all on our own without God. When people say they know what is right and what is wrong all on their own, they are showing that they have sin in them.
But when we give our lives to Jesus, He takes away our sin. He takes sin out of our lives, and He becomes part of our lives. That is really neat, because Jesus always knows what is the right and what is the wrong thing to do, and He is willing to share His wisdom with us. All we have to do is ask Him (James 1:5).[1]
You can ask God anytime what the right thing to do is. One really good time to ask is when you get mad. Getting mad isn’t wrong. But sometimes when we’re mad, we may do or say wrong things. We may call names, or hit the other person, or tell them we aren’t going to be their friends anymore. But if we ask God what the right thing to do is, He’ll tell us, and we can do that instead.
But how does God tell us? How can we hear His answer? That is for the next lesson.

Sharon Currens