When I brought the pumpkins out and set them on the table, I immediately got all the kids attention, which is huge to get the boys to pay attention. I read this poem to them, which the blogger Toni Johnson made up! She is quite talented.
The Parable of the Pumpkins
Once in a pumpkin patch, not far from here,
There were two little pumpkins, both friends so dear.
They were so much alike, both orange and round,
They both had a stem, and they both grew on the ground.
But that is where the similarity ends,
You see, there is one big difference between these closest of friends.
Patty the pumpkin is not always nice,
She often tells lies, hits, screams and fights.
She never says sorry, and she really is quite mean,
Though she looks fine on the outside, her insides are not clean!
Then you have Perry, our other pumpkin friend,
Perry is someone on whom you can always depend!
Perry can make mistakes like all of us do.
But Perry says he's sorry, and you know what he says is true.
He tries his very hardest to be the best he can,
It's not always easy, but he has a plan!
He knows how important it is to be truly clean,
Not just on outside, but also where it CAN'T be seen.
He knows of the importance to stay clean and pure.
By saying I'm sorry, repenting, telling the truth and more!
As we leave our two pumpkin friends, there are great lessons to learn,
Our actions WILL determine what kind of insides we earn.
We all make mistakes, that is for sure,
What makes our insides different is our DESIRE to be pure.
As we strive our hardest to be the best we can be,
There will be rough times, days we have to say "Sorry!"
But just like in the pumpkin patch not far from here,
The way I want my insides is SO very clear!
I'll choose Perry over Patty every day of the week,
Even though I may look okay on the outside, clean on the inside is what I truly seek!
After I read the poem, I let them take the tops off the pumpkins. I had cleaned out all the seeds and goo from pumpkin Perry, but when they lifted the top off of pumpkin Patty, she still had all that yucky stuff inside her. It was such a great visual for them to see how if we do what is right, we can keep ourselves pure and clean. Then we talked about making mistakes, because we all do, but that we can repent and try to be better. As we talked about this, we cleaned Patty's insides out. They loved this part! It was a great lesson and Laurel and Savannah talked about it being one of the best family home evenings we had done, so that was a success for me!
