During the lesson, the information for you to know is written in regular type, and what we suggest speaking or reading aloud to children is in bold. All resources for this lesson, including the Teacher Guide, Student Page, Family Connection Card, and other resources can be downloaded in a ZIP file by clicking on the following link:
In some lessons you will find "resource articles." These are articles written by experts from around the world to help equip you for your work with children and adolescents. Share them with parents or guardians if you consider it appropriate.
Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.
Psalm 62:8
Emotions can be overwhelming at times, whether joy, anger, or grief. Throughout the Bible we see God expressing emotions including sadness, joy, grief, compassion, and anger. God understands every emotion you feel, and He cares about your feelings. He wants you to freely pour out your heart to Him.
Sometimes it can feel like an emotion is too strong or too wrong to express to God. We can feel like it will separate us from His love. Yet nothing can separate us from God’s love. Not our anger. Not our sadness. Not our fear. Even negative emotions we may feel toward God cannot separate us from His love. So tell Him how you feel. Pour out your heart to the One who cares for you. He is your refuge.
Let the families know that their children are learning about emotions. Recognizing our emotions is important, so encourage families to begin talking with their children about their feelings. They can start by using this simple sentence: I feel ___________ because ____________.
Teacher Tip: If possible, email or text the Family Connection Card to the families of your students.
As the children come to class, ask them if any were able to help stop bullying in the past week. Encourage them to continue to treat others as they want to be treated.
For the next 3 weeks, we will talk about emotions.
Fill in anything the children may have missed in their answers. Emotions are reactions to your circumstances, your mood, and your relationships with others.
You may want to share your response first and then ask each child to answer. Praise the children for sharing their responses. If a child comments that she does not know what she is feeling, encourage her by saying that it is common for people to not know or to be confused about what they are feeling.
Feelings are a gift from God to help us understand ourselves, others, and what is happening in life. You use feeling words to describe them. Feelings can change very quickly. You can be happy one minute and feel like crying the next.
Sometimes you can get stuck in sad feelings for a long time. If you feel very sad for 2 weeks or more and just cannot feel better, be sure to talk to a trusted adult.
Being able to name your feelings is important. It helps you understand what you are feeling and experiencing. It can help you become healthier and more mature. Let’s practice acting out feelings together. I will call out a feeling and we will act it out. We will move around the room and show the feeling with our bodies, faces, voices, and movements. Then I will call out a different emotion.
Call out different emotions and let the children act them out. You should participate and model silly, exaggerated expressions of feelings to encourage the children to become fully engaged. This practice of releasing or expressing feelings physically with the body may have long-term health benefits.
If the children have trouble doing this, share 1 or 2 ideas with them. Come up with your own, or use these ideas:
Praise the children for expressing the emotions. Ask them to sit down quietly.
Your emotions are like a measuring device for how you feel. They can range in intensity from mild to moderate to strong. For example, I might describe different levels of happy as glad, happy, and overjoyed. I might describe different levels of anger as annoyed, angry, furious.
Sometimes your feelings actually affect your body. For example, when you are scared, you might shake and your heart may beat faster.
It is important to know that all feelings are normal. They are not right or wrong or good or bad. Everyone has all kinds of feelings. You usually cannot control what feelings you have. But you can, and need to, control how you respond to them. We will talk about how to do that more in our next lesson.
Now let’s take a True or False quiz on statements about emotions. This is just for fun. When I read a statement, stand up if you think that it is false. Squat if you think the statement is true. I will share the correct answer after you have responded to each question.
This activity is intended to help the children recognize wrong beliefs about feelings and develop healthy ones. All cultures usually have some wrong beliefs about feelings. Feel free to add statements of other wrong beliefs about feelings from your culture. Read each statement and then pause for the children to respond before reading the answer.
1. It is wrong to feel sad.
2. Talking about your feelings may help you to feel better.
3. Boys should never cry because crying is a sign of weakness.
4. Everybody feels insecure sometimes.
5. Girls should never get angry.
6. Holding all of your feelings inside can make you sick.
7. Girls have more feelings than boys do.
8. Strong people never show their feelings.
9. People cannot control their actions when they are angry.
10. My feelings matter. They are important!
Congratulate the children for learning more about emotions. Then ask them to sit down for the rest of the lesson.
Do you think God has feelings?
Allow children to share their ideas openly.
Let’s read a verse that describes what Jesus did at the grave of His good friend Lazarus.
Read John 11:35 directly from Bible.
Jesus wept.
John 11:35
Allow children to share their ideas. Some of their ideas may have changed after you read John 11:35.
Optional: If you are using The Action Bible and have time, let the children quickly read the story on pages 604–608.
When Jesus lived on earth as a human being, He experienced all the emotions that we feel. He felt sad, angry, happy, and excited. In the verse we just read, Jesus felt sad that Lazarus had died and that his sisters were grieving.
Let’s listen to 3 more verses about God the Father and the emotions He feels. I will read each verse. Then we will talk about which emotions it shows. The first verse describes what God feels when nations make wicked plans.
Then he rebukes them in his anger and terrifies them in his wrath.
Psalm 2:5
What emotions did God feel in this verse?
The next verse describes how God felt before He sent a flood to destroy the earth because people had become very violent and wicked.
The Lord was very sad that he had made man on the earth.
His heart was filled with pain.
Genesis 6:6, NIrV
What feelings did God experience in this verse?
Listen to this verse that describes God’s feelings about you.
The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing.
Zephaniah 3:17
According to this verse, how does God feel about you?
God feels many emotions like you do. He has emotions, but His response to those emotions is always good and always right because He is perfect and He is God.
God loves you so much that He cares about every emotion you feel! God loves you when you are happy and when you are sad. He loves you when you are angry, scared, or excited. You can tell God whatever you are feeling, even if you feel scared or confused or even have questions about Him. Listen to this verse:
Trust in him at all times, you people; pour out your hearts to him, for God is our refuge.
Psalm 62:8
God wants us to pour out our hearts to Him. That means to tell Him everything we think or feel. He promises in this verse to be our refuge, or safe place. That means that no matter what you are feeling or going through, He will be there for you.
Part of being healthy is expressing your emotions, so let’s do that right now. First, think of how you are feeling right now. Maybe you are happy or sad or something else. Use your finger to draw a face on your palm. For example, if you are happy, you could draw a smiling face.
Pause for the children to draw their emotions on their hands.
Now think of a really strong emotion you have felt at some time. Maybe you were scared or angry. Draw that face on your palm now.
Pause for the children to draw their emotions on their hands.
God loves you, and He wants you to tell Him about what you feel. If you want to, talk with Him now about what you are feeling now or when you had that strong emotion. Ask Him to show you how He is with you no matter what you experience or feel in life.
Optional Supplies:
Give the children paper and pencils. They can draw their emotions from the activity above on paper instead of their hands. If you are using Student Pages, the children can draw their emotions on them.
End of Option
When you are sad and hurting, Jesus hurts with you. When you are happy, Jesus rejoices with you. He wants you to tell Him how you are feeling anytime. Naming your emotions and telling Jesus about them will help you understand yourself better. It will help you become a healthier person.
Close the lesson by praying this blessing based on 1 Peter 5:7 over the children:
Blessing: Cast all your sadness, worry, joy, anger, and fear on God because He cares for you. Tell Him how you are feeling. He understands!
Lead the children in singing this quarter’s song, if possible.
Life on Life ©2020 David C Cook. Reproducible for home or classroom use only. All other uses require written permission from David C Cook [email protected]. All rights reserved.
