TO MAKE. Print and cut out the Choices & Consequences match game cards for each child.

TO PLAY. Mix cards and lay them facedown. Divide children into two teams. Take turns turning cards over to make a match. The team with the most matches wins.

ACTIVITY:

Talk to children about their ability to make choices for themselves and explain how each choice has a consequence. Play this game to show what can happen when we make good and bad choices. Notice the pointed cards are the choices and the indented cards are the consequences (making it easier to match).

THOUGHT TREAT Choose the Right Crackers. Give each child four soda crackers. Ask each child to make up three good choices and one bad choice. As children share their three good choices, have them eat their crackers. When they name a bad choice, have them CRUSH one cracker into a bowl (symbolizing they do not want that choice). Crush it!

IDEAS FOR (the above activity):

Discuss the consequences, good and bad, that come from our actions. Emphasize that God blesses us when we make GOOD choices. We can’t have God’s blessings and protection when we make BAD choices. Here are some examples of choices and consequences to discuss (found on the cards):

GOOD Choices & Consequences:

#1 ⇑ Pray (receive help or guidance in God’s time)
Matthew 7:7: Jesus promises, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you.”

#2 ⇑ Attend church (learn the gospel of Jesus Christ)
Matthew 18:20: The Savior promises, “For where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them”.

#3 ⇑ Be cheerful at home (you make home a happy place)
2 Corinthians 9:7 “Every man according as he purposeth in his heart, so let him give; not grudgingly, or of necessity: for God loveth a cheerful giver.”

#4 ⇑ Be kind to a new neighbor (make a new friend)
Proverbs 17:17 “A friend loveth at all times.”

#5 ⇑ Be reverent in church (feel Heavenly Father’s Spirit) Leviticus 19:30: “Ye shall keep my sabbaths, and reverence my sanctuary: I am the Lord.”

BAD Choices & Consequences:

#1 ⇓ Be grouchy at home (family does not get along)
Proverbs 15:13 “A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance …”

#2 ⇓ Lie (people will not believe you next time)
Tell the story of the boy who cried “wolf” (see video below)
Exodus 20:16 “Thou shalt not bear false witness against thy neighbour.”

#3 ⇓ Steal or cheat (People won’t trust you. You can lose the influence of the Holy Ghost)
Proverbs 12:22 “Lying lips are abomination to the Lord: but they that deal truly are his delight.”

JOSHUA 24:15 “Choose you this day whom ye will serve.”

God will not force us to heaven, allowing us to choose where we want to live after death.

DEUTERONOMY 30:19 “Life and death, blessing and cursing …”

Moses pleaded with the Israelites to follow God’s commandments (he set before them).

ROMANS 14:12 “So then every one of us shall give account of himself to God.”

While we are free to choose our actions, we are not free to CHOOSE THE CONSEQUENCES, and we are accountable for our choices.