Have you ever felt sad, left out or lonely? God cares about how you feel, and he can help you when you’re feeling hard emotions.
The Bible is a great place to go when you feel this way. There are lots of comforting verses to read. You can also pray when you read the verses, asking God for help. And guess what? God hears you!
Sometimes it can be hard to think of verses when you feel really tough things like anger or fear. You might not know what to pray. Kids around the world have a hard time when they have big feelings, too. Scary things happen to them, like when they don’t have enough food to eat for dinner. But they are learning about how God hears them and loves them, just like you are.
The next time you feel really big feelings, a “comfort catcher” can be a fun way to have verses and prayers ready. You can give it a try with this craft.
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Supplies:
- Piece of square paper (or a regular piece of paper cut into a square).
- Bible (or a parent to read verses to you!).
Instructions:
- Fold your square piece of paper diagonally across both ways so that you end up with an X on the front.
- Fold each corner of your paper to the center of the X, making sure to crease each fold.
- Flip the folded paper to the other side.
- Fold each corner to the center of the X again.
- Fold the paper in half with the top over the bottom.
- Push all the points to the center on the side with the X.
- Pull out the flaps on the side that looks like four squares. Try opening and closing your comfort catcher!
- Now you’re ready to add words! Pick four hard emotions you‘ve felt before, like loneliness, fear, anger and sadness. Write the four words on the four outside flaps of your comfort catcher.
- Flip your comfort catcher over and find (or ask your parents to help you find) two verses to put on the two insides of each flap. They should go with each emotion.
(For example, under the flap for fear, you could write Psalm 46:1: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” on one side and Psalm 56:3: “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you” on the other.)
- Open the flaps you wrote the verses on. Under each verse, write a prayer you can pray to ask God for help with that feeling. The prayers should relate to the feeling and verse on each flap.
(For a flap with fear on the outside, under the flap with Psalm 46:1, you could write a prayer like this: God, help me to trust in your strength and not be afraid. Amen. The prayer under Psalm 56:3 could sound like this: God, help me to trust you because you love me. Amen.)
Now you’re ready to play the comfort catcher game!
- Put your fingers inside the comfort catcher. Make sure you or your friend can only see the four top flaps with the emotions.
- Pick an emotion. Open that comfort catcher flap so the verses can be seen.
- Pick a verse.
- Open the flap to see the prayer under the verse. Pray that prayer to ask God for help with the feeling.
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