Praying Your Emotions

To show that the Psalms are prayers that express to God many of the emotions that we experience in everyday situations

By creating their own psalm-like prayers, the children will see that our prayers can express any emotion to God who created all of our feelings.

• Bibles
• Construction paper
• Markers
• Chalkboard or flip chart (or sheet of paper with list of emotions)

• Discuss with the children that when we pray, we can express any feeling we have to God. God created our emotions and wants us to be honest when we pray. The Psalms are good examples of this type of "honest prayer."
• Individually or in small groups, ask the children to read the following psalm verses and decide what emotions they express to God: Psalm 8:4-5 (humility), Psalm 27:1-2 (confidence), Psalm 51:3-4 (guilt, repentance), Psalm 138:1-3 (gratitude), Psalm 139:21-22 (anger), and Psalm 149:1-2 (joy).
• Invite the children to create a list of common emotions. Brainstorm ideas and list them on the board. Be sure that your list includes a few more names of feelings than the number of children in your group.
• Assign (or allow each child to choose) a different emotion from the class list and then ask the children to draw a stick figure (or only a face) that expresses that emotion. The figure should be large enough to cover about one-third of the sheet of construction paper.
• To complete the project, ask them to compose a short (two to three sentences) prayer expressing their particular emotion and to write it on their prayer posters.
• If any time remains, suggest that they decorate the posters in any appropriate way.

Art/Space Smart, Body Smart

Some children find it difficult to say how they feel. An easy way to identify an emotion is to find words that complete the sentence "I feel?(sad, grumpy, excited, happy, lazy, sleepy, shy, jumpy, joyful, angry, helpful, anxious, tired, guilty, and so on)."

To take less time for the project, prepare a list of common feelings and give each child a copy of the list.

The prayer posters could be displayed around your prayer center or used as a closing prayer for the session.