Respond to the Word

Activities for children and young people

For children

The winding path

This activity should illustrate to the children the difference between life under the old covenant and life under the new covenant.

You will need: a three-metre piece of string; a blindfold.

Lay out the string along the floor (it does not matter if there are joins in the string). The children are going to follow along it but you want to make it as difficult as possible so include twists and turns appropriate to the ability of the group.

Blindfold the children one by one, and ask them to follow the string along only by walking on top of it. They are not allowed to reach down and feel for it.

As soon as they go off track, send them back to the beginning.

Let everyone have a turn. Second time around, let them follow the string without having to wear a blindfold.

Once everyone has finished make a point of the fact that nobody was able to stick to the string without going off course. Liken the experience on their first attempt to living under the old covenant, where the people tried, but kept failing, and then liken the second attempt to living under the new. Now God has revealed his way to us it is easier to follow.

Rainbow quilted heart

You will need: A4 sheets of card (one for each child), rainbow heart template , scraps of ribbon, card and fabrics, glue sticks, coloured pens.

Copy the template onto the A4 card.

Invite the children to use coloured ribbons, card and the fabrics to decorate the heart and the rest of the card.

Make each strip on the heart a different colour of the rainbow.

Younger children could be helped to write ‘God loves me’ in the border spaces.

Older children could use the border spaces to write a memory verse: ‘I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts’.

One to one

We do not always get the time to spend quality time with individual children; this week, as we consider unconditional love, make the time to do so.

While the children are engaged in another activity, find time to sit with each of them individually.

Spend a minute or so chatting to them, making a point of really listening to them and concentrating on what they say.

After you have finished, thank them and tell them that they are very special. Give them a sticker to wear that says ‘I’m special’.

Enjoy the conversations you have; you are trying to replicate something of the unconditional love of God for us. Try to focus on the child and not on everything else that is happening.

For young people

Hearty quotes quiz

This quiz is full of quotes of famous people’s idea of love.

You will need: sets of 12 strips of paper with the quotes and 12 strips of paper with the speakers on them.

Divide the young people into teams, and give each team a set of 24 strips with quotes and speakers.

Ask them to try to match each quote with the person who said it.

Invite them to select their favourite quote.

‘Being popular and loved by people in universal ways is absolutely no substitute for truly being loved.’ Madonna
‘The greatest evil is the lack of love and charity.’ Mother Teresa
‘Grant that I may not so much seek to be loved as to love.’ Saint Francis of Assisi
‘He who loves 50 people has 50 woes; he who loves no one has no woes.’ Buddha
‘All you need is love, love, love is all you need.’ Beatles
‘Where there is love there is life.’ Gandhi
‘Love grants in a moment what toil can hardly achieve in an age.’ Johan Wolfgang von Goethe
‘The supreme happiness of life is the conviction that we are loved.’ Victor Hugo
‘Greater love has no man than this; that a man lay down his life for his friends.’ Jesus
‘One man come in the name of love, one man come and go.’ U2
‘Your love means everything.’ Coldplay ‘Love bears all things.’ St Paul