To make a large flower come from a large pot you will need foam and cardboard. Glue the foam to the cardboard with contact cement. Draw a flower on the cardboard. Cut out the flower. Cut out the center of the flower where the face will be. Spray the cardboard black. Spray paint the flower, including the edges with any color you would like. Hot glue an elastic strap across the back to hold the hood on the head. Sew a sack with opening on the side and bottom for the arms and legs to go through. Put a draw-string in the top of the sack. Make two leaves like you did the hood. Attach two elastic straps to hold the each leaf on an arm. (To use under black light. Spray a light coat of florescent paint over the base coat.) Make a flower pot out of masonite or cardboard. Paint it brown or clay. The flower should wiggle out the top of the top like a flower might burst from the ground and grow.

 

S:FPC"> Go to the catalog to purchase this puppet or see more like this »Flower Power Book & CD  Product # SFPCD

IMPATIENS

Under the moss draped live oaks in my yard I have planted flaming red impatiens. Toward the end of the growing season I noticed seed pods forming. I watched until they grew fat and long, then I decided to gather some for Spring planting. But when I touched the seed pod, it burst shooting the seeds everywhere. I was surprised, but touched the next pod. Then I noticed empty curled pods that had burst when a drop of rain  or a gentle swaying of a leaf touched it. Maybe you know what I’m talking about.

            Then I understood why I had little impatiens growing all over that part of the yard. When that seed pod would burst into a coil, the seeds would be scattered over the yard and the tiny seeds would form new plants.

Do you think maybe God would like for you and I to be more like those seed pods? I believe we need to be so full of God’s Word and love for souls that we are ripe and ready to share it with lost people. The Mission Field is not the church pew in most cases. If you want to catch fish, you don’t take your pole to the back row of the church. You go to the pond or the river. If you and I want to reach souls for  Christ, we must go where they are. Where are the lost? Outside the walls of your church. We’ve got to take the gospel outside the stained glass windows. We’ve got to take it to our neighborhoods and our schools. We’ve got to take it where people are hurting and sick.

It was amazing to notice the tiny plants already blooming. The bloom was bigger than the little stalk that held it. I’ve never seen anything so anxious to bloom. Maybe that’s why they call them impatiens. They’re just so impatient to bloom. When the children in our class love God, it is only a natural thing for them to bloom. When we train them to share Jesus with their friends, families and neighbors, when we equip them to be a witness, we will see many of them bloom like those tiny impatiens.

Those impatiens keep blooming and blooming until the cold kills them in the dead of winter, then at the first sign of warmth they are back, blooming again. My earnest prayer to God is, make me like the impatiens. Let me bloom by being a soul winner. Let my life bring glory to your name like the beauty  and fragrance of flowers. Don’t let me become so comfortable enjoying your blessings that I forget there is a lost and dying world that needs Jesus! Maybe you would like to pray that prayer with me?

A GIANT OF A TEACHER

She sat on the front row alone. When I asked everyone to share with the group what they did in ministry, she was the first to speak. Her voice was quiet, almost shy. I could hardly believe my ears. Her list was long. Her dark brown eyes sparkled with excitement as she listed her responsibilities. In motherly concern, I advised before thinking, “You be careful that you don’t get over loaded with too many jobs.”

If I have known a hero was sitting on the front row I would have written down her name. She didn’t look outstanding. She looked and sounded very ordinary, at first. She was young, much too young to be wearing all the hats and carrying all the responsibilities she shouldered even if her church was small.

When she responded to class questions the love for “her” children, the boys and girls in her class,  and excitement over teaching bubbled in her voice.

            I asked the class, “Share  some ways you teach children to pray?”  Several shared  great ideas, but her answered impacted me. “Oh, I let all my children pray aloud if they want to. Sometimes several will ask to pray and I let each of them take a turn. They are doing it at home too.”

“One day I was visiting the home of twin’s in my class. Their mother asked if I would like to go out to eat supper with them. Then the mother cautioned this Sunday School teacher, ‘Now don’t preach to my husband. If there’s one thing he won’t stand for is anybody preaching to him.’ “

“When the food was brought to the table. The twins  bowed their heads to pray. The adults bowed their heads. 'Thank you Jesus for dying on the cross for my sins. Amen.’  “

“‘The girls pray that prayer over every meal,’ the mother explained. That teacher couldn’t share the gospel with the twin’s Daddy yet, but every time the girls prayed over the food he was hearing the Gospel of Jesus Christ.”

I realized as I heard her speak, I was listening to a giant in God’s sight. She may never speak at a conference. She may never pastor a church, but she is a giant in my eyes. Why was I so impressed?

1.       She loved “her” girls. Not that she was their guardian, but that they were her responsibility to train and nurture with the Word of God.

2.      She realized her responsibility didn’t stop after the lesson was done on Sunday morning.

3.       She cared enough to visit their homes.

4.       She taught them to pray and to love Jesus.

Empty Flower Pot

“Oh, look how pretty!”

“My yes. It is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. And the fragrance is scrumptious.”

The flower pot swelled with pride. “I am beautiful. Everyone says I am.”

Karen decided it was time to re-pot her plants, to give their roots room to grow, she explained to her little helper. The child took the plain clay pot and started toward the trash pile. “Do you want me to throw this old thing away, Mama? It’s ugly.”

"Who does she think she is calling me ugly? Why everyone says I’m beautiful. I’ve heard this kid say so too! Why if he wasn’t half blind, he could see how beautiful I am.”

No, put it over by the washtub and I’ll clean it up and put another plant in it. The child obeyed. On the shelf by the washtub filled with sparkling clean water, the pot leaned over to see its reflection in the water. The pot was shocked. He blinked his eyes. Then he blinked again. He wasn’t beautiful. He was just a plain clay pot, just like the child had said. But everyone had said, “Oh, how pretty. What were they talking about? Then slowly but surely it dawned on the plain clay pot, that it wasn’t him everyone was talking about, it was the beautiful flower inside.

You may be dripping with talents and abilities, but you are still a clay pot or earthen vessel. Jesus wants to fill you. His presence and glory in your life makes you beautiful!  

  2 Corinthians 4:7 “But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us.”