Verse to Remember:

Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God. – 1 John 4:7 (NIrV)

Ahead of Time:

Cut out several paper hearts of various sizes. Use construction paper, notebook paper or anything you have available.  If you have enough time, let the kids cut them out.  For the quick version, do it yourself ahead of time.

Keep one heart back to represent God’s heart.   Write the word “PEOPLE” on it. If you’re really feeling ambitious, make it bigger and fancier than the rest.

Talk About This:

What special holiday do we have coming up? Valentine’s Day. What are some things you think of when you think of Valentine’s Day? (love, hearts, candy, chocolate, cards, etc).

Let’s use these paper hearts to think about some things we love. Take a heart and write down one thing you love on it. It could food, a toy, a person, a song, or whatever. If you love it, write it down.

(Parents should write some things down too. After kids fill out their paper hearts, have kids share what they wrote, and share yours with them.)

Okay, now lets put them in order in front of us. Put the heart with the thing you love most at the top and put the heart with the thing you love least at the bottom.

We use the word love for a lot of things, especially around Valentine’s Day, but if we want to learn what true love is, we need to look at God’s heart. Do you know what God loves most all?

(Show kids the heart with the word “PEOPLE” written on it.)

God loves people. People are at the top of God’s list and at the bottom of God’s list and everywhere in between. For God, people are always more important than things.

God loves you, and now we get to share that love with others. Check out what this Bible verse says, “Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God.” -1 John 4:7. Let’s say it out loud together. “Dear friends, let us love one another, because love comes from God.” -1 John 4:7

It’s great to have things you really like, things like pizza, puppies and ice cream. But the longer we follow Jesus, the more we learn to put people at the very top of our list.

Let’s flip our hearts over and make a list of people we can show love to this week.

After kids make their list, have them pick one heart and talk about how they can share God’s love with the person whose name they wrote down. Help them make a plan and put it into action.

Prayer:

God, thanks for loving us. Thanks for putting us at the top of your list. Help us to have a heart like yours. Amen.

Extra Prayer Activity:

Put the hearts with names on them somewhere you’ll see them all week and choose one each day to pray for together.

Just For Fun:

Check out this awesome Valentine’s Day breakfast idea for kids.

Don’t Miss a Devo

Sign up here to receive more family devotions and parenting tips delivered straight to your inbox.