Pretzel Object Lessons

As you probably already know, I’m a big fan of simple object lessons. I love presenting an everyday object to kids and helping them to see the gospel or bring them to a greater understanding of a biblical principle. When looking for a new object lesson recently, I turned to my pantry and noticed the big bag of pretzels hiding there. A little research turned up some interesting facts about pretzels, like how the story of how pretzels began. Apparently, a teaching monk made tiny pretzels from left over dough to give students who remembered special prayers. Still a powerful teaching tool today, pretzels are the perfect object lesson/treat to share with your class. Use these ideas to teach!

Pretzels for prayer: See this treat? It’s a pretzel! You’ll notice how the pretzel is shaped. You see how in the center of the pretzel the arms are crossed? This is to remind us to pray always. Show me how you pray. (Kids will claps their hands.) See how the inside of the pretzel looks like that? Now let’s look at the outside shape. See how the pretzel is a circle? This reminds us that we can always go to God and pray, over and over again. He will always listen and answer us. Every time you see a pretzel it is a reminder to always pray.

Broken pretzels: Look guys! I have two bags of pretzels except one is a little damaged. One bag of pretzels looks delicious and perfect for snacking. The other bag contains dozens of crushed pretzels–it’s basically pretzel dust! These broken pretzels have fallen apart. People are a lot like pretzels. Sometimes people can be broken by sadness and grief and other circumstances. If your family or someone you love is more like the broken pretzels, pray for them. God can heal broken people!