Basics

Teach them the story. Let it breathe with questions. Don’t smother it with pat answers. There’s more here than you can answer.

Those words were spoken by Rev. Neil MacQueen, on teaching kids the story of Adam and Eve. With Neil’s thought in mind, plan to spend some time together as a family, re-reading and pondering this story, knowing that your questions may not have definitive answers.
Did you miss the first questions post? View it here.

Talk about choices:

• Allow everyone to tell about what they’d pursue if they could do whatever they wanted, with no limits!
• Kids: Why do adults sometimes say no to things that kids want?
• Adults: Tell about choices that you face every day.
• God specifically made that tree and then asked Adam and Eve not to eat its fruit. He knew they’d eat from it! Why do you suppose he even put that tree there?
• What does this teach us about God?

We were created by God with the freedom to make choices. We have the option to thumb our noses at God; to decide for ourselves what’s right and wrong! God gave Adam and Eve a choice to obey or disobey. Note: Adam and Eve’s bad choice did not “infect” us with sin! Humans are not perfect; sometimes we are disobedient and choose the wrong thing to do.

Stay tuned for part 2 of Family Talk Time: about consequences and hiding.

What comes to mind when you hear the words “Adam and Eve?”

Is it…

• The Garden of Eden?
• The Tree of Life?
• Forbidden Fruit?
• The Fall?
• Fig leaves?
• Casting blame?
• Being cast out?
• Animal skins?

Or is it something else?

It would be easy to focus on the above list of images from Adam and Eve; to go into great detail, picking apart and analyzing the meaning of each component of this story.

But then we might miss the key points.

What core themes of this intriguing story are we trying to teach?

Here’s what our Cool Disciples (our 1st – 6th graders at FUMC in Ann Arbor, MI) are learning as we tackle this Bible story…

Rotation Objectives — After completing this Rotation, students will be able to:

• Name that the story is found in the first book of the Old Testament, Genesis.
• Retell the story in his/her own words. (Build on their understanding of the story.)
• Recognize that is a story about God and about each of us, and choices we make.
• Identify temptations and wrong choices in their own lives, and ways to be obedient to God.
• Discover that God forgives even when we do wrong; God is our guide to doing right.
• For those in 4th grade and above: Recognize that this story is not historical.

That’s a lot to accomplish in three short weeks! (It would greatly benefit your children if you could continue talking about this story at home.) Here are a few questions to talk about… Start off with “fact” questions such as:

• Who are the characters in the story?
• What was the name of the beautiful place God made for them to live?
• What did Adam and Eve do to disobey God?

Then progress to questions which dig a little deeper (and lead to more discussion!):

• What ways do you notice people disobeying God today?
• What tempted Eve? [Note: not who!]
• What tempts you the most?

This would be a great spot for the adults to tell about a time when they’ve been tempted. Did you give in to the temptation? What were the consequences? It’s important for your kids to see that we all make bad choices sometimes.

Stay tuned for more questions!