Teaching Young Children About the Love of God

This post is part of the Truth for Tots series.

As parents striving to raise godly children that love the Lord, it is crucial that we begin instilling the fact that God loves them at an early age. What better way is there to raise children that are passionate about living out a life of love than to consistently train them in the knowledge of the perfect love of Christ?

“We love because He first loved us.” -1 John 4:19

In light of this, I wanted to share resources and ideas that will aid us as parents and teachers to encourage our young children in the wonderful truth that God loves them–deeply and perfectly–and nothing will every change that fact. (It’s an amazing promise that we need to hold on to as well, isn’t it?)

Memory Verses:

• For toddlers – “God is love.” 1 John 4:8

• For preschoolers or older children – “For God so loved the world that He gave His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him shall have eternal life.” -John 3:16

Books to Read:

• 100 Ways to Know God Loves Me, 100 Songs to Love Him Back
• God Gave Us Love
• God’s Great Big Love For Me
• How Big is God’s Love?
• Jesus Loves Me
• Jesus Loves the Little Children
• My ABC of God Loves Me
• Most of All, Jesus Loves You!
• Thank You, God, For Loving Me
• The Berenstain Bears Show God’s Love
• The Berenstain Bears: God Loves You!

Songs to Sing:

(You can find all of these on the Wee Sing Bible Songs CD)

• God is so Good
• His Banner over Me is Love
• Jesus Loves Me
• Jesus Love Even Me
• Jesus Loves the Little Children

DVDs to Watch:

• God Loves You Very Much (VeggieTales)
• Silly Little Thing Called Love (VeggiesTales)

Activities to Do:

• God is Love Coloring Sheet

• Shoe Illustration

Daddy Shoes and Baby Shoes: You’ll need two pairs of shoes for this object lesson. Show God’s bigness by showing first the baby shoes, keep the big ones hidden. Talk about small the shoes are and compare them to our hearts. Say, “When we love someone, we think that love is really big. But compared to God’s love, our love is very small.” Show the second pair of shoes, and say, “These shoes are like God’s big love.” Place them next to the small shoes, then say, “See how small our love is compared to God’s? God’s love is so big He can love everyone at one time.”
-Ministry-To-Children.com

• Lovely Snacks – Heart Warming Oatmeal or Valentine’s Day Apples

• Valentine’s Day Sensory Box – Get a shallow box and pour some white rice in the bottom then fill with red, pink and purple objects and a few scooping tools. Try to find items with several different textures for your child to explore. We used pom-poms, small boxes, cookie cutters, teethers, foam die-cuts, ribbons and other little things we could find around the house.

There are so many great resources and activities that you can use to help your children understand the concept of God’s love. I would enjoy reading your ideas and suggestions, so leave a comment below!

How do you teach your children about God’s love?

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