3 Ways Into Sunday’s Stories for Children: Psalms, Poetry, and Prayer

Second Sunday of Lent

Psalms are songs; psalms are poetry; and psalms are prayers that we can take or make on any journey.

In Lent, we take journeys to come close to God. This Sunday, we will journey with Psalm 121:

I lift up my eyes to the hills — from where will my help come?
My help comes from the LORD, who made heaven and earth.
He will not let your foot be moved; he who keeps you will not slumber.
He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep.
The LORD is your keeper; the LORD is your shade at your right hand.
The sun shall not strike you by day, nor the moon by night.
The LORD will keep you from all evil; he will keep your life.
The LORD will keep your going out and your coming in from this time on and forevermore.

Print, fold, read, and color the story booklet.

1. Sing and Dance

Pray with this song:“I Look to You.” We can look to “the hills” and anywhere — and sometimes God appears as a friend.  

2. Play and Pray

Play That’s Tempting! Pair up. Each person has a piece of paper and writing utensil. Act out or pantomime offering a gift to the other. This should be something that might seem good or fun but isn’t really good for you or is something you shouldn’t accept. For example, a bottomless soda, someone else’s phone, some unkind gossip, etc. The one who offers the gift writes a list of pros and the recipient writes a list of cons. Use a timer if you wish. Take the lists to a judge (sibling, parent, friend) to decide who is most convincing. Switch roles and try again.

Pray: Loving God, thank you for always being there for us, for supporting and helping us, and for giving us people in our lives who love and support us as well. Amen.  

3. Create

• Make an ACTS prayer prompt fortune teller.
• Print this Lenten calendar. Each day, choose one lenten practice for your family to try. Put a sticker on or mark the spaces after you have completed that day’s practice. Feel free to continue that practice throughout Lent and ongoing. (There are 46 days in Lent, but we don’t include Sundays, as they are “little Easters.” It’s up to you if you want to take a break from your lenten practices on Sundays or not.)
• Make a Paschal candle. Cover or hide it until the Easter Vigil or Easter morning. Then, light it every day or all Sundays during the 50 days of Eastertide.
• Choose from these weekly practices for Lent or make up your own as a family.

We will have materials for all of these activities and copies of the book Sparrow’s Prayer at Children’s Time, Sundays at 10am on the Mezzanine, for children to take home throughout Lent or while supplies last.