Bouquet for Prayer
I’ve been talking to the kids about Valentine’s Day and that it is a day about love. Love is such a huge part of the Christian way that I wanted to share with them the message from Mark 12:30-31: Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength. The second is this: You shall love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other commandment greater than these. Dani Rea said “Good that we love each other because Jesus told us to. Jackson asked me if it was a holiday where people get presents. Ah, the mind of a 5 year old. Anyway, I told him that sometimes people DO give each other gifts on Valentine ’s Day to let them know that they are loved. A typical gift would be anything from jewelry, a box of chocolates, or a dozen roses. That got me thinking that we could make a bouquet of flowers for prayer, plus it looks really cute as a centerpiece on my kitchen table.
Materials needed:
- 1 piece each of red, bright pink, light pink card stock
- 1 piece of paper for heart template
- 12 green pipe cleaners
- Tape
- Scissors
- Sharpie
- Glass vase (I got mine at the 99 cent store)
tart by folding paper (not card stock) in half, and draw ½ of a heart on the seam. Then cut out.
Then I had Jackson use the center as a template and he traced the heart onto the cardstock, 12 times, 4 each color.
Dani Rea is 3 so she cant use scissors yet, but she likes to practice counting, so I had her count out 12 “stems”. When she was finished, I asked the kids to take turns telling me people that they loved. Jackson yelled out “GOD” first. Of course, Dani Rea said “Jinny”, that’s our dog. We went back and forth taking turns between the 2 of them naming people they had love for. It’s so cute to hear them and their ideas. The very last one that Jackson said was so thoughtful and made me feel like he really was listening to the message. He said, “Our neighbors”. Perfect!! I wrote the names down one by one on the front of the hearts with the sharpie.
After that we turned the hearts over and taped a stem on each one. When they were done, we place them in the vase. For the days leading up to Valentine’s Day, the kids will pick a “flower” and we will pray for that person.
