Love of God Bible lesson for Kids Church / Sunday School
- Eljoh Hartzer
- Feb 12
- 8 min read
Updated: Mar 13
This Love of God Sunday School Lesson offers a new and fresh way to engage with the popular theme of God's love. It starts off with an icebreaker and two games to gently introduce the themes found in the Bible about love. The teaching portion consists of fun facts about God's love, a Bible memory verse, and a lesson. After that, a worship song allows the kids to respond to the message with praise which is followed by a craft activity. Lastly, there is a prayer prompted by the love of God.
Icebreaker
Energy-level: High
Teacher: Friendly & Engaging
Kids: Stand in a circle
Supplies: None
Instructions:
To kick off this lesson on God's love, ask the children to tell you what they love as part of the name game. Question: "What is your name and what do you LOVE?"
Example:
Child 1: “My name is Ben and I love my pet parrot!”
Child 2: “I am Jenna... I love... ice cream? Can I say that?”
Try saying:
Hello everyone! Welcome to church! My name is _______ and I’m so happy to be here today. Can you try saying my name? (Give them a chance to respond) That was super good. We’re going to have lots of fun learning a Bible story all about love. There once was a man named Adam… Can everybody say “Hi Adam”? (Give them a chance to respond) Awesome. Well, God created Adam as the first person to ever live. We will learn what happened later, but for now, can you think about this: What do you love?
Everybody will have a chance to tell us 2 things:
1. Your name
2. The thing / person you love
Focus: Each child is loved by God and created with a purpose.
Game 1: Created from dust
Energy-level: Medium – High
Teacher: Playful
Kids: Start by standing in a line
Supplies: Go outside and play with sand / soil (So, you also need a place where they can wash their hands afterward). If you cannot go outdoors, use something like clay or gel to do this game.
Instructions:
This game is rather simple. Talk to the kids about how God created Adam from the Earth and blew breath into his body. Ask them to make a man from the sand / soil. They'll soon realize they need water. Tell them that the water is like the love that was needed to make Adam.
Focus: Each child was made with love and care by God.
Game 2: Catch the apple
Energy-level: Medium
Teacher: Playful
Kids: Start by sitting in a circle
Supplies: None
Instructions:
Play a round of hot potato but use an apple as the ball. You can also consider playing a variation of musical chairs but instead of chairs, there are apples...
Focus: We can find an apple in the story of God's love for Adam and Eve. (More on this later)
(*To avoid chaotic situations with younger children, you might want to bring in more volunteers and helpers from this point onwards as the program’s energy-level and entertainment focus will shift a little for the next 3 parts.)
Fun facts about the Love of God and Creation Story
Energy-level: Medium – Low
Teacher: Clever, Encouraging
Kids: Sit down, facing teacher
Supplies: Bible
Instructions:
To make this a memorable Bible lesson for the kids, we will start by doing a little bit of Q and A.
Example:
Teacher: “Here’s the first question. Is the story of God making Adam in the Old Testament or the New Testament? Child 1: “New?”
Teacher: “Ah, no, it’s actually in the Old Testament. But let’s try again. You’ll get this next one…”
Focus: There is much to learn about the love of God.
Content:
1.
QUESTION: Complete the sentence… God created people using _______
ANSWER: The ground, soil, earth, His breath, love
2.
QUESTION: Where did God make Adam?
ANSWER: A Garden called Eden
3.
QUESTION: Adam had a friend, was her name a) Anna or b) Eve
ANSWER: b) Eve
4.
QUESTION: Did God love Adam and Eve?
ANSWER: Yes He loved them very much. He walked with them in the garden and taught them all about it.
5.
QUESTION: How was Eve tricked into stepping out of God's love?
ANSWER: The evil, devil, enemy came as a snake and whispered lies to her.
Memory Verse on God's love
Energy-level: Medium – Low
Teacher: Guiding
Kids: Stand up, facing teacher
Supplies: None
Instructions:
The key Bible verse about the relationship between God and Adam and Eve will help kids understand God's love better. Memory verses take a long time to remember, so I suggest asking them about the past week’s memory verse and perhaps doing this verse a second time as well.
Focus: We need to get the Bible into our minds and hearts.
Content:
Let’s see what the Bible says in Genesis 2:27: “Then the Lord God took dust from the ground and made a man. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nose, and the man became a living thing."
Genesis (Make a letter G with your hands)
2 (Show the number 2 with your fingers )
verse 27 (Show another 2 and a 7 with your fingers)
Then the Lord God took dust from the ground (Bend down and pretend to pick up sand)
and made a man (Shape something like a statue with your hands)
He breathed the breath of life into the man's nose (Breathe in and blow it out)
And the man became a living thing (Dance around)
Sunday School Lesson on God's Love
Energy-level: Low
Teacher: Teaching
Kids: Sit down and listen
Supplies: Bible & optional: toys / pictures of apple, tree, snake, and people
Instructions:
Now it’s the time that comes in all Sunday school lessons when you are going to teach the kids with a Bible reading and a lesson.
Try saying:
You guys, we’ve been having so much fun. I’m pretty tired from all of that playing- aren’t you too? Let’s see if we can sit still and listen to the lesson for a while. Can you touch your ears? (Let them respond) Great – We need to use our ears to listen well right now. Let’s get our last wiggles out. (Shake your body and let them do the same) Ready? Let’s go…
Focus: We can learn a lot from the story of Creation.
Content:
Introduction
God decided to make people. Did you know that God made you? (Let them respond) We don't always understand when or how God made us, but we know that He dreamed us up. God looked at the world and thought it needed one of you! You are very special to Him!
God loves you very much, just like He loved the first people. He was friends with Adam and Eve. He was their teacher and they went on long walks where they asked Him all kinds of questions. They were close.
Adam and Eve were made to live in this love. So are we: Living near God's love will make you flourish. Psalm 1 says a person who stays close to God is like a BIG tree planted next to a river.
A plot twist
But, darkness came into the story and it wanted to mess with all that love and light. A snake came to the woman, Eve, and whispered lies in her ear: "God does not really love you. He is not really kind. You are not smart." The snake said all kinds of ugly things to Eve.
Sometimes we also hear these kinds of lies in our minds. Even if nobody is saying them to you, it can feel like a soft whisper but it really hurts. I want you to know you are not alone if you've felt like you do not deserve love.
And I want to tell you the truth. God loves you very much. Even when we mess up, God pulls us close to Him again in a hug. He is always full of peace, joy, patience, and love!!!
Eve believed the lies that the snake whispered and she picked the fruit from a tree that God said was "off limits".
Eyes closed to God's love
Genesis 3:6-7 says, "So she took some of the fruit from the tree and ate it. Her husband was there with her, so she gave him some of the fruit, and he ate it. Then it was as if their eyes opened, and they saw things differently."
What do you think their eyes were opened to? I know their eyes were closed to the goodness of God. Suddenly they saw shame and sin and sadness. A massive gap came between God and them, so that they were hiding away. They went from being God's friend to hiding from Him. Imagine if your best friend hides from you - how would that make you feel?
God was very sad that the people who He made and loved so much could go against Him. They could no longer stay with Him in the garden, because of the massive gap between them now. It is like a plate that was cracked and now the darkness seeped into the light.
The punch line
But God loved people too much to just leave it broken. The whole Bible (pick up Bible) is the story of how God planned to fix what we broke. In His great love, God made a way to cross the gap that existed between Him and humankind. It was through the cross of Jesus.
Jesus came because God loved the world and He wanted to save us. Now, we get to live near God again and help build His Kingdom here on Earth. Do you see? It's ALL because of love.
(*This might be a good natural break to do a snack if that’s part of your program)
Worship with our bodies in Sunday School
Energy-level: High
Teacher: Join in!
Kids: Spread out
Supplies: Phone / Speaker / Screen
Instructions:
Encourage the kids to stretch their bodies and get moving. Then, play the worship song and do some dance moves. If they get bored, change it into a round of freeze-dance.
Focus: Eve did not remember God's love when she did what was bad. When we worship, we teach our bodies to do things that please God.
Content:
Here is a worship song / video you can show for the kids to remember what they learned today.
Craft and artful response to the Love Sunday School Lesson
Energy-level: Medium
Teacher: Encouraging
Kids: Spread out in the room and sit down
Supplies: Paper, coloring supplies, scissors
Instructions:
They’re going to make a large cross with a heart in the middle. For older kids, add an apple to the heart and ask them to explain how God who created Adam and Eve out of love is the same God who sent Jesus to Earth.
Focus: God loves us so much that He sent His son, Jesus.
Sunday School Prayer inspired by God's LOVE
Energy-level: Low
Teacher: Present (Discerning)
Kids: Lay down on their backs, spread out
Supplies: None
Instructions:
Pray this prayer over the kids while they rest. This is a time to speak good things over them. This kind of extended prayer time is usually more challenging for the teachers than for the kids. Pray for peace, and even if the kids get fidgety, try not to lash out at them. If you stay in the state of prayer, the kids might change their behavior. If not, gently pray out loud and ask the Holy Spirit to calm down everybody in the room.
Focus: Simply make space for the kids to hear from God.
Content:
Dear God, thank you for our lesson today. You made each one of us because You love us very much. Sometimes I hear lies whispered into my heart, help me to cling to Your truth. You say I am good enough. You say I am loved. In fact, You love me so much that You sent Jesus to bridge the gap. Now I get to live close to You. Remind me of this every day, Amen
If you enjoyed this Bible lesson for kids, you might be interested to know that I offer a service where I craft a custom curriculum for your unique needs. We can meet via video call to verbally process and brainstorm your needs. Even though the rate is flexible depending on what's included, a 4-week custom kids' church curriculum containing a story, Bible lessons, and crafts is usually around $100 (or R2000).
___________________
On a different note, I just published my first kids storybook!
It shares the Gospel in a beautiful and unique way that young kids relate to. A big focus is placed on developing the Fruits of the Spirit in a believer's life. You can read it on Kindle here.
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