There were once two 11-year-old kids that had a wonderful idea. They needed some extra spending money, so they decided to start their own custom lawn mowing business.
The first thing that they did was to put up signs all over town advertising their custom lawn mowing business. They did not want their signs to be boring, so they decided to give themselves exciting business names; the girl called herself ‘Flash’ and the boy called himself ‘Spark Plug’.
The next thing they needed to do was to get a lawn mower. Spark Plug went to the junk yard and found a lawn mower that had a broken back wheel. Flash found some bicycle wheels that they could put on the back of the lawn mower and so they fixed it up. The lawn mower was really quite nice: it was a riding mower with lever-controlled zero turn radius, and it actually ran quite well. Flash knew that their parents would be worried about them spending so much time mowing lawns that they would not get their homework done, but she had a plan! Flash installed a powerful tablet on the lawn mower and loaded all their schoolbooks and an encyclopedia onto the laptop. Flash also loaded the complete Bible and a Bible dictionary onto the tablet, so that they could read the Bible each day and learn more about God while they were mowing lawns. Spark Plug also had a plan! He knew that they would need to go all over town to mow lawns, and they would need to know how to get to all those places and be able to get there fast, so he installed a GPS system on the tablet and installed a turbo charger on the lawn mower’s motor so that they could travel fast between lawn mowing jobs! Since both would have to travel on the lawn mower between jobs, Flash put an extra seat behind the driver’s seat, right above the motor.
The day finally came when they got their first lawn mowing job. It was clear across town in an area where Flash and Spark Plug had never been before. So, they made sure the gas tank on the lawn mower was filled, and Spark Plug entered the address into the GPS and started the lawn mower. Flash got in the driver’s seat and Spark Plug sat in the extra seat behind her. Flash drove the lawn mower carefully out into the street and when there was no traffic coming, she pushed the throttle lever up to full power! The turbo charger kicked in, and the lawn mower went down the street at an incredible speed! The GPS told them to take a short cut through a patch of woods, so Flash pushed and pulled the steering levers and made a left turn onto a path that ran through the woods.
As soon as they entered the woods it happened! Smoke began pouring out of the lawn mower’s motor, the lawn mower began to shake like a marshmallow roasting on an open fire, Flash began to scream, and the turbo charger began to make a noise like an ostrich singing in the rain.
When the smoke cleared up, the lawn mower was racing like the wind across an open meadow. Flash stopped the lawn mower so fast that both she and Spark Plug went flying off the lawn mower and landed in a clump of flowers.
Spark Plug looked around and said, “Flash, I don’t think this is the other side of town, there are no houses in sight.” Flash was not paying attention to him; she was busy with the flowers. They were bigger and more beautiful than any flowers she had ever seen. Flash was putting flowers in her hair and decorating her clothes with flowers. Suddenly Flash screamed, “Help me, something is trying to eat me! A creature a little taller than the Flash and Spark Plug was biting at her hair and at her clothes. Spark Plug grabbed a stick that was on the ground and ran to attack the creature, but he tripped on the end of the stick, did a double summersault and landed in the flower bed and got a mouth full of flowers. The Flash heard Spark Plug screaming, “Help, the thing is trying to kiss me!” Flash started laughing and said, “It’s not trying to kiss you! It’s trying to eat the flowers stuck in your mouth!” Spark Plug spit out the flowers and said, “Well it wasn’t trying to eat you either, it was trying to eat the flowers that you put in your hair and on your clothes.”
Both children now looked at the creature that was happily munching on the flowers and said, “What is it?” Flash had an idea, she took the tablet off the lawnmower and took a picture of the creature, then she asked the tablet to identify the creature. The tablet processed for a moment and then identified the creature as an Iguanodon, an extinct plant-eating dinosaur.
Flash and Spark Plug felt all fear leave them. The Iguanodon would not eat them or hurt them. The Iguanodon was about the same height as they were and he would eat flowers right out of their hands.
They were having a great time with their new friend when suddenly they heard a heavy footstep behind them. Spark Plug turned around and screamed! It was another Iguanodon, but this one was as big as a bus! Flash and Spark Plug now realized that their friend was a young Iguanodon and now the Mom Iguanodon had arrived, and she did not look too happy!
Flash and Spark Plug ran to the lawn mower and took off as fast as they could! The young Iguanodon did not want to lose his new friends, so he ran after them, and the Mom Iguanodon ran after the young Iguanodon!
It looked like Flash and Spark Plug were going to get caught, but at that very moment the lawn mower went into a grove of trees! Then it happened! Smoke began pouring out of the lawn mower’s motor, the lawn mower began to shake like a marshmallow roasting on an open fire, Flash began to scream, and the turbo charger began to make a noise like an ostrich singing in the rain…
What Can we Learn from this Story?
Flash and Spark Plug’s encounter with the Iguanodon is a lot like our encounters with sin.
Sin is when you do something that God says is wrong. God gave us the Bible to show us how to live our life in the way that pleases Him, and also to show us the wrong way to live life. God also gave us parents, teachers, Sunday School teachers and pastors to guide us through life.
If Flash had not put flowers in her hair and on her clothes and if Spark Plug did not have flowers in his mouth, then they would not have had to be afraid of the Iguanodon at all (since the Iguanodon ate only plants). In the same way, a lot of our temptations and struggles with sin happen because we experiment or play with sin.
Once on Facebook I read a post from angry Mom. She thought it was unfair that her daughter had to go through the agony of having a friend get shot and killed. The Mom chose to ignore that the shooting was caused by a problem with a drug deal. If the teenagers involved had chosen to stay completely away from drugs, then the shooting probably would not have happened.
In the Bible in the book of James chapter 1 verses 14-15 it says:
“But people are tempted when their own evil desire leads them away and traps them. This desire leads to sin, and then the sin grows and brings death.”
You need to decide that you want to stay away from sin. Try to avoid situations where you will be tempted to sin. You will find that no matter how hard you try, you will still sin quite often (all of us do). God understands how weak we are, and He is ready to forgive us because His Son Jesus died on the cross and rose from the dead to pay for our sins. The first step in overcoming sin in your life is to give your life to Jesus. When we sin, we need to come to God and ask Him (pray) to forgive us and to help us to not give in when temptations come to us.