ARMOR OF GOD PUPPET SKIT
Sergeant Cornbread: (enters) Attention! Where’s the cornbread? I smell it and I am going to sniff it out. If someone comes forward then I won’t punish you, but if nobody tells me where it is then all of you are doing push-ups until you collapse!
Granny Grace: (enters) Sergeant Cornbread! You will not punish these beautiful children!
Sergeant Cornbread: I won’t if they tell me where the cornbread is. I smell it! They’re hiding it!
Granny Grace: You won’t punish them and they’re not hiding it! I’m hiding it!
Sergeant Cornbread: Why would you do that?
Granny Grace: Because it’s for after church. You can have as much as you want then but not before.
Sergeant Cornbread: Awe. Roger that.
Carlos: Excuse me, but has anyone seen Melody. She’s late for church.
Sergeant Cornbread: Late is unacceptable!
Granny Grace: Sergeant Cornbread! Stop that. Let’s try to figure out why she is late. Show her a little grace.
Sergeant Cornbread: You’re right. I’m sorry. It just comes out sometimes. All those years in the army.
Carlos: It’s not like Melody to be late.
Melody: (enters sadly) Here I am. I’m sorry that I’m late. To be honest, I didn’t want to get out of bed this morning but my mom made me.
Carlos: Are you feeling sick?
Melody: No. I’m not sick.
Granny Grace: What is it, dear?
Melody: I’m sad. Really sad. I just want to stay in bed and never leave the house.
Sergeant Cornbread: That’s no good, soldier. You have to get outside and feel the sunshine on your face.
Melody: I want to hide my face!
Granny Grace: Melody, why would you say that? You have a beautiful face. What’s going on?
Melody: I don’t have any friends at school and there is a group of girls that are telling everyone lies about me. They’re saying horrible stuff that isn’t true. Other kids believe them and make fun of me too. They’re always making fun of me and calling me names. It makes me wish I was someone else, anyone else.
Carlos: I would never want you to be anyone else, Melody. God made you to be exactly you and nobody else. The Bible says you are wonderfully made and I think so too.
Melody: Everyone says I’m ugly and weird.
Sergeant Cornbread: Everyone doesn’t think that. We don’t think that, but I know it must surely feel like it. This is a time when you really need to take your shield of faith and put out all those fiery darts of the enemy.
Granny Grace: All those lies that others are telling you about yourself that make you feel like you’re not enough are just that, fiery darts, lies. Satan wants you to start doubting yourself and not liking yourself.
Carlos: Yeah, he uses others that don’t know Jesus to try to make you doubt yourself and God.
Melody: I just want to have friends.
Sergeant Cornbread: You don’t want anyone like that to be your friend. They don’t know how to be a friend because they don’t know the love of Jesus.
Melody: Life feels so hard right now. Like why am I even here. People think if you’re young that you can’t have it hard, but this is so hard on me. It feels horrible.
Granny Grace: Things can be hard when you’re young, Melody. I know it’s not easy, sweetie, but God knows you can handle it. God doesn’t want those kids to act like that towards you, but since everyone has freewill to make their own choices, sometimes people hurt other people.
Sergeant Cornbread: God created you to do a job that nobody else can do. He has an amazing purpose and plan for your life and that makes the devil scared so he is using others to try to make you feel bad about yourself so you give up and don’t even try.
Carlos: I never thought of it like that before but that’s so true. If the devil can get us to give up on ourselves and not have faith in what God says about us then he can stop us from doing all the wonderful stuff God has planned for us.
Sergeant Cornbread: Hold your head high, soldier. You have a heavenly army surrounding you and you are never walking alone. The devil wants you to feel like you're alone, but you’re not. You’re so important to the Kingdom of Heaven that the devil is trying to defeat you and make you feel bad about yourself. The enemy doesn’t attack things that aren’t a threat.
Melody: Wow. The devil is scared of me?
Granny Grace: He sure is. The more it seems like others are trying to bring you down, the more of a threat satan knows that you are.
Melody: God must have really great plans for me then. It’s hard to believe that right now though. I know his word says I am loved and beautifully made. I have to remember to listen to God and not people.
Carlos: God always keeps his promises. God always keeps his word.
Sergeant Cornbread: Affirmative, soldier! God said that he has a purpose and plan for you.
Granny Grace: Hebrews 11:1 tells us, Now faith is confidence in what we hope for & assurance about what we do not see.
Melody: So… I am confident that all the promises of God are true and I know that everything that I hope for according to God’s plan will be done even if I don’t see it yet?
Sergeant Cornbread: Affirmative, soldier! That’s why it is so important to know God’s word. His word builds our faith so we can’t be destroyed by lies, those fiery darts the enemy tries to throw our way.
Carlos: I’m learning that we know who we are because we know what God says in his word. It used to really bother me a lot when people talked about me or didn’t like me, but now I just use my faith to let those things bounce off.
Granny Grace: That’s wise, Carlos. Our faith protects us and we know God always keeps his word.
Melody: Thank you everyone for helping me. I feel so much better now. I know God will always keep his word. Every good and wonderful thing he says about me is true!
Granny Grace: God’s word is always the truth!
Sergeant Cornbread: I hope yours is too, Granny Grace, because you said I could eat all I want and I want it all!
Granny Grace: Oh my goodness, save some for the rest of us.
Sergeant Cornbread: Negative! (exits)
Carlos: Come on, Melody, let’s go get something to eat before he eats it all! (exits)
Melody: We better hurry! (exits)
Granny Grace: Nobody eats anything until we say grace! (exits)
