Valentine’s Day may be past, but it is still February and you may possibly have an opportunity to pick up some discounted Valentine’s candy or just happen to have some left over. Here’s an activity you can do using conversation hearts that has a message about God’s love. You can do this with your kids at home or with children at Sunday school, children’s church, AWANA or Olympians. I’ve included the activity as a free printable download.
Photo by Obi Onyeador on Unsplash
It’s a fill in the blanks puzzle using conversation heart candies where each of the answers corresponds with a conversation heart message. This was designed specifically for the Sweet Tarts brand candy hearts and the eight possible messages that they have: Cutie, XOXO, Love You, I Love You, Yes, Maybe, Kiss Me or Hug Me. It may seem strange that those particular phrases can fit into a Bible game, but you will see.
You may be able to sort through candies of a different brand and find ones with these phrases or even create little paper heart tokens with the phrases.
I will post the fill in the blank puzzle below in full. Scroll down to the bottom to download puzzle and answer key in PDF format.
Have children sit around a table. Give each child a copy of the puzzle sheet. Put a bowl of the Sweet Tart candies into the center of the table and some small paper plates by each child so they can take a handful of candy hearts to sort through. Have children race to put the candy hearts on the puzzle papers into the appropriate blanks.
Acknowledge the child who is first to put the hearts in the correct places. You will want to read the paragraphs aloud and possibly look up some of the Scripture references. You could even do a Bible Sword Drill activity with them. If you do this activity at church, give children little bags of candy hearts to take home.
Before you begin the game, explain a few things to the children.
- Some candy hearts have several words on them. There will be a blank for each word, so “I love you” will be ____ _____ _____ and XOXO will be _____ _____ ____ _____.
- Some phrases are repeated, so there isn’t just one of each phrase in the puzzle.
- Be sure to look out for punctuation. The first sentence ends with three blanks followed by a period. Then, there is another blank, the start of a new sentence, followed by a comma.
God’s Valentine
Phrases:
Cutie, XOXO, Love You, I Love You, Yes, Maybe, Kiss Me or Hug Me
God ______ (s) ________ . _____, He does. He says so many times in the Bible such as in John 3:16. Reading certain parts of the Bible is like reading a Valentine from God and getting a big __ _______ ____ from Him. I may not feel him ______ ______ or _______ ________, but I know He loves me and you too. He shows His love and care for us in other ways, by protecting us from harm, providing for our needs, answering our prayers, comforting us and giving us peace and joy in times of trouble.
Abraham thought Sarah was a __________. The Bible says she was very beautiful. God thinks you’re a ________ too. You were made in God’s image (Gen. 1:27) and “fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Psalms 139:14)
Sometimes, people let us down and leave us in doubt about whether they care for us or not, and, sometimes, leave us in no doubt that they don’t care. There is no _______ about God’s love for us. God says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love. (Jeremiah 31:3) He loves us in spite of our imperfections and sin and even before we believed in Him. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. (Romans 8:35-39)
God wants us to love others too that our joy might be full! (John 15:11) This includes our friends, our family and others. You may not often say “___ _____ _____” to everyone, but say a quick “_____ _____” to your mom, and she will love it. If you give her some ___ ___ ___ ___, she’ll like it even better.
A person might sign a Valentine, “_____ _____” or “___ ______ _____” or even “_____ _____ _____ ____.” Some of Jesus’ last words on earth were to encourage us to tell others about Him, and in that way, we share His love with others.
Answer Key
God love (s) you . Yes, He does. He says so many times in the Bible such as in John 3:16. Reading certain parts of the Bible is like reading a Valentine from God and getting a big I love you from Him. I may not feel him hug me (kiss me also acceptable) or kiss me (hug me also acceptable), but I know He loves me and you too. He shows His love and care for us in other ways, by protecting us from harm, providing for our needs, answering our prayers, comforting us and giving us peace and joy in times of trouble.
Abraham thought Sarah was a cutie. The Bible says she was very beautiful. God thinks you’re a cutie too. You were made in God’s image (Gen. 1:27) and “fearfully and wonderfully made.” (Psalms 139:14)
Sometimes, people let us down and leave us in doubt about whether they care for us or not, and, sometimes, leave us in no doubt that they don’t care. There is no maybe about God’s love for us. God says, “I have loved you with an everlasting love.” (Jeremiah 31:3) He loves us in spite of our imperfections and sin and even before we believed in Him. Nothing can separate us from the love of God. (Romans 8:35-39)
God wants us to love others too that our joy might be full! (John 15:11) This includes our friends, our family and others. You may not often say “I love you” to everyone, but say a quick “Love you” to your mom, and she will love it. If you give her some XOXO, she’ll like it even better.
A person might sign a Valentine, “Love you” or “I love you” or even “XOXO.” Some of Jesus’ last words on earth were to encourage us to tell others about Him, and in that way, we share His love with others.
