text: Your Life is Leaking
  by Deb Brammer
  (Spend your time serving the Lord.–Matthew 16:24-26)
  [Uses a boy and girl puppet. Props: a lightweight piggy bank with no plug and a dime (Insert something that will rattle like money inside the back in a way it will not fall out.); and a sign with Matt. 16:24-26]
  (Two human arm puppets are ideal for this script. Or you can use rod arm puppets by attaching the piggy bank to Claudia’s arm and using the rod to move the arm and show it to Max. Or you can just set the piggy bank on a table in front of the stage and have the puppets look at it. Max can hold a real dime or only pretend to.)
  (Claudia enters holding a piggy bank. She walks across the stage, shaking the bank.)
  CLAUDIA: (mumbles) I wonder how much money I’ve got.
  (Max enters after her, holding a dime.)
  MAX: Hey, Claudia! Look what I found!
  CLAUDIA: Hi, Max. What is it?
  MAX: It’s a dime! Oh, boy, I can’t believe I’m so lucky!
  CLAUDIA: (looks at coin) You are lucky.
  MAX: I’ve been really lucky lately. Yesterday I found a quarter and this morning I found a silver dollar! Both coins were just lying on the sidewalk.
  CLAUDIA: I wonder if there’s any more money around here. (begins searching ground all around )
  MAX: Mom said I can keep the money because there’s no way to find out who lost it. I can hardly wait to use it.
  CLAUDIA: Maybe you should save it. I keep my money in this piggy bank. (shakes bank)
  MAX: Nope. I have plans for this money. Mom’s birthday is coming up. I usually just make her a card, but this year I’m going to get her a present. She likes blue glass that sparkles in the sun, so I’m going to get her a pretty blue vase to put flowers in.
  CLAUDIA: Doesn’t that cost a lot of money?
  MAX: Maybe. But making people happy is a good way to use money, don’t you think?
  CLAUDIA: Mmmmm. Why can’t I find any money?
  MAX: Since I’ve been finding money everywhere, I have just about enough money to buy my Mom the pretty vase. Who knows? If I keep finding coins all over, maybe I can buy her a flower to put in it, too.
  CLAUDIA: (stops searching for money) Boy, Max, I wish I could find money like you.
  MAX: What would you do with it?
  CLAUDIA: If I found money, I wouldn’t spend it on stuff. I’d put it all in my piggy bank (shakes bank) and save it until I had LOTS of money.
  MAX: Then what would you do with it?
  CLAUDIA: I’d just keep on saving it and saving it. Sometimes I’d take all my money out of my piggy bank and count it and see how much money I had. Then I’d put it back in again. Maybe I’d get so much money I’d have to get another piggy bank to keep it all in.
  MAX: But then you would have to use some of your money to buy another piggy bank.
  CLAUDIA: Hmmm. I don’t want to do that. Maybe I’ll just ask Grandma for another piggy bank for my birthday.
  MAX: (scratches head) I don’t get it, Claudia. Saving money is good sometimes. But if you never, ever use the money, what’s the good of having it?
  CLAUDIA: If you get lots of money, you’re rich. Everyone wants to be rich.
  MAX: (points to self) I don’t want to be rich. I just want to give Mom a pretty blue vase for her birthday.
  CLAUDIA: After you do that you won’t have any money left. You should save your money like I do.
  MAX: How much money do you have?
  CLAUDIA: I don’t know. It’s kind of weird, but last time I counted my money I didn’t have as much as I thought I would have. I’m afraid I’m not getting rich very fast. I’ll just have to work harder to save money.
  MAX: Could I see your piggy bank for a minute?
  (Claudia hands the piggy bank to Max. Max turns it over. If using rod arm puppets, Claudia just shows it to Max.)
  MAX: I think I found your problem, Claudia. You don’t have a plug in the bottom of your piggy bank.
  CLAUDIA: What? No plug? (takes bank back and looks at it) You mean there’s nothing to keep the money from falling out? No wonder I haven’t got much money.
  MAX: Yeah. I guess you’ve been losing money faster than you’ve been saving it. In fact, maybe that’s why I’ve been finding so much money. It must be your money, Claudia. I’ll go get the rest of it and give it back to you. (turns as if he’s going to exit)
  CLAUDIA: Well, that’s really nice of you, Max. But if you give me back the money, you won’t be able to get a pretty blue vase for your Mom.
  MAX: (turns to face Claudia again) Maybe next year I can buy her a pretty blue vase. She wouldn’t want me to buy one with someone else’s money. You know, Claudia, I think I’m beginning to understand what our Sunday School teacher, Miss Dooright, was trying to tell us on Sunday. Remember? She said that whoever wants to save his life will lose it. But whoever loses his life for Jesus will find it. I couldn’t figure it out.
  CLAUDIA: Me neither. How can you save something by losing it?
  MAX: Don’t you see, Claudia? When I try to save my life and live it for myself it’s just like when you tried to save money. You put it in a piggy bank with a big hole in the bottom, and it all just dribbled out the bottom. (mimics the motions of putting money in the bank and it coming out as he says this)
  CLAUDIA: What does that have to do with saving your life?
  MAX: Well, life is just a lot of time added together. You can’t save up time. You either spend it for Jesus or you spend it for yourself. When you live life just for yourself you end up with nothing. The only way to save your life is to spend it doing something for Jesus.
  CLAUDIA: I guess you’re right, Max. I may be good at saving money, but I have to admit I spend a lot of time doing stuff that doesn’t matter much. Time just sort of leaks out of my days. I don’t know where it all goes.
  MAX: Me, neither. I wish we could buy a “time plug” to plug up our “time leaks.”
  CLAUDIA: I don’t think they sell that sort of thing in the stores. But maybe if we learned that verse it would help up to plug up our own time leaks. How does it go again?
  (A sign with the verse on it pops us behind them.)
  MAX: (turning to read sign) Jesus said, “For whosoever will save his life shall lose it, and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.”
  CLAUDIA: I’m going to keep saying that verse over and over. Maybe it will help my time to quit leaking. But now I’m going to go look for the plug to my piggy bank. Then maybe my money will quit leaking, too. (searches ground for more money as she walks out)
  MAX: See ya later, Claudia.
  MAX: I wonder if God stores up our time in a piggy bank in heaven?
  (Max exits, quoting verse as he goes.)