Flame: Creative Children's Ministry

Here is a craft and prayer activity to help children to explore the unique person that God has made them. It works well with looking at Psalm 139:14, but also works with the creation story or any situation when we are thanking God for who He has made us to be. Craft Activity: You will need: Paper circles, scissors, pens/pencils  Give each child a circle of paper.  Fold it in half and in half again.  Use the scissors to cut patterns, as in making paper snowflakes. Open the circles out and talk about how each snowflake the children have made is beautiful and unique.  No two will be the same.  Now get children to write and draw on the snowflake the things they like about themselves and their favourite things.  Encourage children to look at each other's snowflakes.  Have you learned something new about any of your friends?  Talk to children about how God has made them all unique and special and that he knows all about them and loves them for ...

A lot of children suffer from some degree of negative self image and one of the things we'd really like them to do is learn to see themselves as God sees them- loved and precious. This is an activity we did both in our school lunchtime club and (with a bit more elaboration) at our church mid week club for 8-11s.  Once we'd established the rule that only 'good'  words could be used about ourselves and others this turned into quite a joyful and encouraging session, though one or two children struggled to begin with! First we told the story of Gideon hiding in the winepress (click  here  for details of how to tell the story with a folding picture).  Out of the story we drew the idea that, even though we feel small, weak and useless sometimes, that's not how God sees us!  He sees how great we can be with His help! Next we drew round our head and shoulders on A3 paper.  We sat silently for a short while and asked God to give us encouraging word...