Heart Glue

My mom always told me when I was younger that my heart was like a piece of pie and each time I was in a "serious" relationship I was giving a piece of my "pie" away. I was reading my friend Heather's Emotional Purity blog and she blogged about another awesome visual regarding emotional purity:

Are you looking for a craft to help your pre-teen or young teen understand the concept of emotional purity?

Yesterday, I taught the 7th grade girls at our church. I knew I needed a good visual aid for them and this craft idea came to me.

I gave them each a heart with the words: emotions, feelings, dreams, goals, respect, trust, hopes, passions, and devotion written all over the heart.

Then I gave them a black piece of construction paper with boyfriends written on the top of it. I explained that emotional purity is about guarding your heart, saving it for your mate.

Then I glued their heart to their "high school sweet heart". I explained that our hearts have the ability to stick to boys, I call it heart glue. About five minutes laters we tore the heart off of the boyfriend.

They didn't like how much black they took on their heart and how much red was left on the black paper. I told them that their hearts are left with who ever they date and don't marry.

Then we glued their hearts to their "college boyfriend". He stayed put for about 10 minutes, which allowed it to really dry. When the girls "broke-up" with him, a lot of their hearts tore or ripped.

Then I glued a third boyfriend to their black paper. By this time, most of their hearts were thin, ripped and far from well put together.

As I was sharing more of the concept of emotional purity the girls started picking at the red paper that was left behind on the other two boyfriends. As they were picking I said, "See you're trying to get your heart back, but it's stuck with that boyfriend."

Finally, they ripped their heart off one last time.

At that time I pulled out a white piece of paper with husband written on the top of it. I went around and glued their ripped, thinned hearts on to their husbands.

Here are pictures of the one I tried at home before class:

I finally gave them a piece of paper with a perfect heart glued on to a paper that said husband. I wrote these two verses: Prov. 31:12: She does him good and not evil all the days of her life. And Prov. 4:23: Above all else, guard your heart for it is the wellspring of life.

I heald up the ripped up heart on one husband and the perfect heart of the second paper. I explained that these are their choices, to save their heart or not.