I purchased a water squirt bottle years ago to try to train the cat not to (fill in the blank). It worked ... after a fashion. I could always make sure that the cat behaved when I was in the room, but after I left the room... well. It doesn't work for the long run.
So when I was teaching confirmation last year, I taught a lesson on Baptism. We watched lots of clips of the Baptism of Jesus from my DVD collection and that funny video on Youtube where the kid cannonballs into the font.
We also discussed believer baptism and infant baptism, sprinkling and dunking... I like to always give a "bad example" and have the kids discuss why the example is bad. So I made the squirt bottle into the "Bapto-Matic" and added the label "Fill to this line with Holy Water." I would squirt the kid and say, "Repent! And remember the Gospel!" or "Repent and remember your Baptism!" We all agreed that for a real baptism, the Bapto-Matic was a really bad idea and they actually could list some reasons.
Tonight the Bapto-Matic made a comeback. Chaos likes to say bad things to her little sister to make her unhappy -- and then they fight. So (at the dinner table) I pulled out the Bapto-Matic and squirted her every time she said something cruel to her sister. I told her that it would burn if she had done something really evil, like the witch in the Wizard of Oz.... Of course, they thought of it as funny and by the end Entropy kept saying, "Squirt me, mommy!" It may have lost its effectiveness.
The good thing is she won't need a shower tonight. Does this make me a cruel person?
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