Love One Another: Spreading Hearts Prayer

Very soon we're going to be exploring Jesus's command "You must love each other just as I loved you. All people will know that you are my followers if you love each other.” (John 13:34-35.)

This is a fun visual prayer activity that will help children to think about the idea of sharing love and to pray for people they find it hard to love sometimes.

You will need: cups with about an inch of water at the bottom, strips of kitchen roll, felt tip pens (cheap and cheerful are good and definitely not permanent markers- you need the ink to run!)

Draw a heart about about 2 inches up the strip and colour in with pen. Write the initials of someone (or draw a face of someone!) that you sometimes find it tricky to love- maybe because you don't get on very well. Loving others is one of the ways that we show that we follow Jesus, but sometimes this is hard and we have to ask God for help.

Put the end of the strip in the water and pray that God will help you to show that person that you love them and that God loves them.

Watch as the water slowly climbs up the strip and the ink in the heart spreads out to cover and absorb the initials. This is a symbol of how you want your love and God's love to reach out to that person.

Talk about:

What does love feel like?
Why is it sometimes hard to love someone?
How do people show love?
How do we know that God loves us? (adults could share some testimonies here!)
What could you do to show someone that they are loved?

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