Helping kids (and adults) understand about sin

When I was a little girl, my second-grade teacher Sr. Doris illustrated sin by drawing a circle on the blackboard and then making marks (each dirty mark represented a sin). Only with confession (an eraser) could the soul become clean again. I've always liked that illustration and have used it with my own children. The May 2009 issue of St. Anthony's Messenger offered a similar way of demonstrating the effect of sin. Take a white T-shirt and draw on it with washable markers - letting each mark represent a sin. Then put it in the washing machine. Some marks will wash out completely but there will still be residue from others. This helps to illustrate that sin has lasting effects, even after we have been forgiven.