It’s Not Over Yet!

Material

• Pen (without ink)
• Clock with dial (which has no hands)
• Glue (which does not stick)
• Block of “post-it”

Steps

1. Tell the children that you have incredible inventions to show them.

   • pen

     Look at that pen. Can you see what’s special about it? It never stops working, because it has no ink. Don’t you think it’s wonderful?

   • Clock

     Look at this next invention: a special clock. Can you see what’s special about it? It never needs to be adjusted because it has no hands. Are you impressed?

   • Glue

     Now how about the following: a “miracle” glue. If you have it on your fingers, it will pull out easily, because it just doesn’t stick! Don’t you think it’s some kind of incredible glue?

2. Ask the children. “Would you say that these inventions are a success or a failure? A pen that does not write, a clock that does not give the time, a glue that does not stick very well … Looks like they’re failures. They remind me of someone in the Bible. Someone who was supposed to be a disciple of Jesus but, under pressure, he even denied knowing him. Who was he? (Peter) Peter seemed to be a failure, didn’t he? Have you ever felt like that?”
3. Continue with this story.
   • “But I have not finished my with my inventions. It’s the story of a researcher called Dr. Spencer Silver. His job was to improve the adhesives used in the products sold by his company. One day, he managed to make a glue that didn’t glue very well. It was very, very easy to take off and he noticed that, once removed, it remained very sticky. For most people, this would have seemed completely unnecessary. However, Dr. Silver was convinced that his unusual adhesive should be able to be used, but he did not know how. He spent several years trying to get other people in his company interested in his special adhesive, but no one could think of what it might be used for. One of these people was a man named Art Fry. He was intrigued by Dr. Silver’s glue, but like everyone else, he couldn’t find a good use for it.
   • Art Fry sang in the choir of his church and used to put scraps of paper in his songbook so that he could quickly find the right page of the songs he was repeating. But sometimes those pieces of paper would fall off and he’d lose his place. He thought, “If only I had bookmarks glued like magnets to the pages but they didn’t damage the pages.”
   • Suddenly, he remembered Dr. Silver’s adhesive and that’s when one of the most popular office products of the last 50 years was born. Does anyone know what it was? The company was the company 3M and the product was “Post-It Notes” (show the post-it block). When 3M created the first post-it, people didn’t seem too interested. But 3M sent free samples everywhere, and once people tried them, they wanted more and orders came in abundance. The product was first sold in 1980 and, ten years later, “Post-Its” was named one of the best consumer products of the decade. But it all started with something that seemed to be a total failure, until a man with his songbook realized that it could be used in a wonderful way.”
4. “Again, it reminds me of the Apostle Peter. People probably saw him as a failure when he denied Jesus! And yet he became a courageous leader. Sometimes people think, “I’m worthless – I’m just a failure – how can God use me?” The heavenly Father can take a “failure” and change it and use it to achieve something wonderful. So if you ever feel you’re a failure, remember Peter and the story of the “Post-It Notes”.