849) When I need to illustrate to my students what kind of impact our actions have on others, I have sometimes used a bowl of water. I have the students gather around it and I take a small bottle of food coloring. I squeeze out one tiny drop into the water and as they watch, that one small drop spreads out, eventually coloring all the water. I tell them that this illustrates how our acts of kindness or selfishness spreads to those around us.

In Matthew 5:8, Jesus said that a pure heart is of great value because it illustrates to others, on a much smaller scale, a characteristic of God. We were created in God’s image and we need to make sure that we don’t color that image by the bad things we say and do.