My Sunday School kids often come in with friendship bracelets or beaded jewellery they’ve made, so I’m thinking I can turn that interest into a prayer activity.
I’m planning to separate the beads by colour and assign each colour to a simple one-line prayer. For example:
RED: Please protect everyone I love.
ORANGE: I have so many questions – help me hear your answers.
YELLOW: Shine your light into the dark places.
GREEN: Protect this beautiful earth you’ve made.
BLUE: Be with me when I’m feeling sad and blue.
PURPLE: Forgive me when I realise I’m sorry.
WHITE: Thank you for all the good things.
BLACK: Help everyone in the world who needs you.
You can either print out the sentences, laminate them, and tie them onto the bracelets when they’re done (print on both sides so the card isn’t huge), or you can provide them as separate cards.
Allow children to make their own patterns with the different colours, then allow them to spend some time using the bracelets to pray. There are two ways to use the bracelets (maybe you or your kids can think of more) – and they’re both appropriate at different times:
- Hold each bead in turn and say the sentence that goes with it. Pray your way around the whole bracelet.
- When you need a particular prayer, use the beads of just that colour to help you connect with that prayer.