How good and pleasant it is when God’s people live together in unity!
Psalm 133:1

Most Americans will eat 3,000 peanut butter & jelly sandwiches during their lifetime. Three thousand!! That’s a whole lot of sandwiches. Most kids in the US are introduced to this wonderful invention by the age of four. Though I was slightly disadvantaged in this regard (I don’t even remember a PB&J sandwich until I was twelve), I have to say the combination is great!

This simple sandwich is a great everyday object lesson for one of the hottest topics out there right now–marriage. The tendency is to AVOID subjects that are hard to explain. But that’s all the more reason to plunge right in and serve up truth on a plate.

Supplies: two pieces of bread, peanut butter (almond butter, etc.), jelly (nutella, sliced bananas, it needs to be something you can see so not honey), knife

Making your PB&J sandwich

• Place two pieces of bread side by side on a plate.
• Slather one piece with peanut butter and then a second with jelly. More is better!

Then ask your kids to compare the peanut butter with the jelly. How do they look different? How do they feel different? How do they taste different?

• Put the jelly side together with the peanut butter side and press them together.

Squish that ooey-gooey goodness together.

• Take a couple of bites. Yum!!

Does that ever taste good!

Then say, “2 pieces of bread, one with peanut butter and one with jelly, came together to make 1 sandwich. The sandwich doesn’t taste just like PB; it doesn’t just taste like jelly. It’s a special combination of both.”

Peanut butter and jelly marriage

Say, “One of God’s most amazing and special inventions is marriage. He brings a man and a woman together, TWO completely different people, and makes them ONE. Genesis 2:24 says…

A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one.

• Think of the names of a married couple you know.
• Talk about how those two are different e.g. personalities (shy, outgoing), looks (eye color, hair color, physical build), likes/dislikes (sports, math, cooking)

Then say, “When ___________ (fill in the blank with the husband’s name) got married,
he didn’t stop being _________ (his name).
When ________ (fill in the blank with the wife’s name) got married,
she didn’t stop being __________ (her name). They still look different and like different things.

BUT

when they got married, GOD put them together in a way that no one else can–not a pastor or a judge or a church. They can even live in the same house but only God can make them into one. More than anyone else, that couple can show others what UNITY is. That just means getting along and loving and serving each other. And that’s the whole point!

• Pull the two slices of bread apart. What do you see? Explain that God never meant for two people to be pulled apart. Things can get messy. It hurts and God understands that!

God tells husbands and wives the same things he tells ALL of us to help us live “in unity” or in harmony.
Check it out…*

Romans 12:10: Be  _________ to one another in love. Honor one another  ______  yourselves.
What’s one practical way you could do this in your family?

Ephesians 4:2: Be  ______ humble and gentle; be _______, _______ with one another in love.
What could you think of that would help you be patient with someone?

Why? Because…

“How wonderful, how beautiful, when brothers and sisters…”
[or moms and dads, husbands and wives, moms and sons, dads and daughters]
“get along!”
Psalm 133:1 msg

*All references are from NIV.

Copyright © Carol Garborg 2018