My usual thing with assemblies is to talk about myself . . . by that I mean relate the topic / theme / point to my own life, how I live, what I find easy, difficult, scary, exciting etc!  Being personal without being too personal . . . children love this . . . I don’t just talk about myself – my purpose is to illustrate living with Jesus as our friend and guide.

My premise for this assembly was simple – it is lent, (Church School by the way), so during lent some Christians decide to stop doing stuff or start doing stuff . . . as part of their preparation for Easter.

I talked about my start / stop relationship with running – and my desire to get a bit fitter so I could run around with my children without collapsing and have more energy and stamina!

I got six children out to help me and they were given lamenated cards with pictures on (crisps, sweets, chocolate, water, apple, carrot) . . . I put three on one side of me and three on the other – we talked about the need for balance in our “start / stop” lives.  I need to start drinking more water . . . I need to stop eating quite so many crisps . . . (I try to be relaxed about food, all food is fine . . . the key thing is balance, so kept it light!)

We had some banter and I named the kids “mr crisps” etc, and got them to try and think like a crisp or a bottle of water . . . I illustrated my running technique . . . (much laughter).

I drew us back to lent, Jesus in the Wilderness and Easter . . . I talked about Jesus being tempted.  I referred to Philippians 2 and all that Jesus “stopped“, all that he gave up – so that he could come to earth and with his live and death “start something” new, fresh, real . . . when His life stopped and He died something changed for us – forever . . . When he rose again, the potential for something amazing “started” for each of us!

I finished with the thought that if you have “stopped” something over lent, think about what you are “starting“, what will you build and grow in your life that will make a difference to you and to others . . . and make sure you keep your balance.