Prayer is always the most essential part of our lesson preparation, and in this lesson especially we need to pray that we may be given such heavenly wisdom and so much of love in our own hearts that we can make the children see the heavenly Father as a God of infinite love and compassion, one who hates sin but loves the sinner. Many people who are now teaching children have testified that in their own childhood, from the way in which these Old Testament stories were presented, they saw in God only an avenging Deity, eager to punish or destroy. We must always remember that Jesus never presented his Father and ours in that way, and that he whose life was given to provide a way of escape for sinning humanity said, “He that hath seen me hath seen the Father.” LESSON PRESENTATION Introduction (Describe the happy home life of a family of children, each having his own work to do in the home, each taking a pride in doing his work in the best way, and tell of the playtime following the work. Picture the children going down the street to meet their father as he comes home from work, and the joys of the evening time when all are together. Then tell of a day when the playtime was not so happy because one of the boys did not care to play. He said he was not sick, but he certainly was cross, and took no pleasure in any of the things that he generally loved to do. When the time came to go to meet father he would not go, but instead went to his own room. Of course the father missed him and when he found his boy was not ill he was anxious to know what the trouble could be.) Can you guess what it was that made Walter wish to hide from his father that night? The Lesson Story What a beautiful garden that was of which we heard last Sunday! And how happy Adam and Eve were as they did the work God had given them to do, and enjoyed the loveliness of the place which God had given them for a home, looking forward each day to the time when he would come and walk and talk with them there! But there came a sad day, when all that was changed. The garden was just as beautiful, but Adam and Eve found no pleasure in it. The work was there to be done, but they had no heart for it. Open your Bibles to the second chapter of Genesis and read with me verses 16 and 17. That does not mean that the moment they disobeyed they would die, but that the sin would open the door for death to enter the world, and that some day death would come to them as the result of disobedience.