Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

I've been thinking a lot about the parable of the mustard seed (Matthew 13: 31-32) recently, and for some reason it keeps cropping up all over the place! Because it's been on my mind, I've made a play dough mat to help children in their exploration.  The seed is a little bit bigger than it should be if we're going to keep accurate proportions, but I wanted children to at least be able to see it! As usual, if you laminate the printed sheets, its much easier to clean up the play dough and you can also keep the mats for repeated future use! To print the mat click here .

I was recently trying to come up with some different visual ways of saying sorry to God and wanted something that would be symbolic of the forgiveness He gives. That's when I came across dissolvable paper! From what I gather, this paper can be used to draw patterns which can then be sewn over and when the embroidery is complete, the paper will dissolve, leaving only the stitching in place. Suffice to say, that is not what I used it for! You will need: Dissolvable paper cut into small strips, warm water (this helps the dissolving process), a large bowl, pens Talk about the fact that when we say sorry to God for the things that we have done, we know that he will forgive us and give us a new start.  Ask children to write or draw something they would like to say sorry for on a strip of paper. They might even just want to write the word 'sorry' and keep things entirely between themselves and God. Place the paper strip in the water and watch as it s...