Puppet Ministry with Noah's Ark
by Richard W. LaFountain, all rights reserved.

"Learning to Pray"

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copywrite Richard W. LaFountain, all rights reserved.
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Characters:
   MC: Master of Ceremonies
   Puppet: Any puppet will do

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MC: Good morning, Milton. How are you today?

PUPPET: Oh, I am very fine today. It is a beautiful day.

MC: Me too. You know I always feel better when I start the day with
prayer.

PUPPET: Pray!  Oh, yes I love to pray. In fact I am best prayor
around! I remember once I even got a prize for praying in the
Olympics!

MC: Now you are exaggerating!  Do you really know how to pray?

PUPPET: Of course. I start every day with prayer.
  
MC: That's great Milton. Perhaps you could show us how to pray. 

PUPPET: OK. The first thing I do when I get up is I do my exercises
and say, "Thank you Lord for making me stronger than all my friends."
Then I look in the mirror to comb my hair and I say,"Lord thank you
for making so handsome and not ugly like some of my friends. Then I
eat breakfast and say, "Lord, thank you that I am not poor like other
people but I can eat anything I want. Finally, when I go to school I
pray, "Thank you Lord that I am not stupid like so many students."

MC: Milton, is that really how you pray?

PUPPET: Sometimes its even better!

MC: Goodness Milton, you are certainly proud and self-centered.

PUPPET: Thank you!

MC: I didn't mean that as a compliment.Did you know that God said that
says that he doesn't hear our prayers when they are self-centered or
proud. Our prayers should be humble and repentant, not proud.

PUPPET: Repentant... what's that? I don't know that kind of prayer.

MC: It's true. God says the kind of prayer he likes is like this. "God
be merciful to me a sinner." If we recognize our sinfulness and admit
to God that we are sinners, he is pleased.

PUPPET: But Marilyn, I am not a sinner!!! I am a good guy!


MC: Milton, being a sinner means that we have done things wrong, we
sin. When we sin we are sinners. Sin is dirty and makes us unclean to
God. When we come to God we need to ask him to make us clean, that
means, to wash us. That is what happens when we ask God to forgive us.

PUPPET: But I already took a bath this morning. 

MC: We are not talking about your body but about your heart. 

PUPPET: So can my heart take a bath?

MC: By asking Jesus to forgive your sins and cover them so that God
will not see them anymore. God promises to wash away our sins and make
us clean and white as snow.  Would you like to ask God to clean your
heart today?

PUPPET: OK, I really want to learn to pray.

(Director leads him in the sinners prayer and asks the children to
pray along with them.)



END