Here’s a great way your youth group, senior adults club, or other organization can show love to the parents of young children in your congregation: provide free babysitting one weekend evening during the month of February so moms and dads can enjoy a much-needed date night. Encourage them to refresh their relationship as they relax and enjoy time together. While the parents are gone, help the children make Valentine cards; paint or color pink and red hearts; and bake heart-shaped cookies to give to parents when they return later in the evening. (Note: be sure to collect emergency contact numbers for every child left in your care.)
Here’s an easy way to share Jesus’ love with those on your ministry staff, homebound members of your church, or even the members of your own family. Bake heart-shaped cupcakes. Use your favorite cake recipe or a box mix. Pour batter into cupcake liners as directed. Before you pop the pan into the oven, place a 1/2-inch ball of aluminum foil between each liner and one side of the cupcake tin. (The foil ball will push the paper liner into the batter to form the top of the heart shape.) Frost baked, cooled cupcakes and add red or pink sugar sprinkles!
Plan a Valentine’s Day party for the children of your Sunday school. Invite neighborhood kids, too. CTA has a number of itemsyou may find helpful as you look for creative ways to share the Gospel of Jesus with children on this special day.
God’s love is for the whole world! For Valentine’s Day, organize a “Share the Love” activity. Send messages of faith and Christian love to people away from home—missionaries, military service personnel, Peace Corp volunteers, college students, and those dislocated by work requirements. Ask members to suggest names and to provide e-mail or postal addresses. Children in your church could make cards or write notes about Jesus’ love and peace. Adults can pack shoeboxes with appropriate goodies or e-mail messages to encourage the recipients and encourage them in their faith. Share the love of Jesus with one another!
Encourage members of your choir, the friends from your home Bible study group, or your congregation’s women’s/men’s groups to join a one-night “Valentine Carolers” choir. Take your show on the road to local nursing homes and congregational shut-ins. Sing your hearts out!
Invite the children in your Sunday school classes to use window markers to decorate patio doors or large windows in your church building. Let children create heart shapes, add crosses inside the hearts or other embellishments that will let Jesus’ love shine both outside and inside your window as you (and passersby) enjoy the designs.
Make a point to share your love and appreciation with spouses of the professional or lay workers in your local ministry. Send a card or small gift to these important, but often-overlooked people. Thank them for their patience and support. Pray that the Lord Jesus will strengthen them as they partner in the Savior’s work within your faith community.
Here’s an easy idea for a banner. (Since you can involve every age group, consider using it as an activity for an intergenerational Sunday school event!) Give each person red construction paper, a marker, and scissors. Ask participants to make a heart shape and write their name on the heart. (Plan to cut out a heart for very small children. Let them use a pencil or marker to pretend to write their name.) Tape the hearts on a large piece of butcher paper so that, together, they form a cross. Add the words God Is Love to the banner, and include the Bible reference John 15:9.
Here’s an easy way to make a heart-shaped cake for Valentine’s Day—even if you don’t have a heart-shaped pan! Simply use one round and one square baking pan instead. When both cakes have cooled, remove them from their pans. Cut the round cake in half. Place the cut edge of each half at an adjoining corner of the square cake to form a heart. Frost with your favorite icing. Decorate with piped frosting that reads: Jesus’ love is sweet!
Instead of purchasing Valentine cards for staff members this year, buy blank journals. Label each book with one staff member’s name. Before February 14, give each person a chance to write in everyone else’s journal (e.g., “I love working with you because you’re so encouraging!”; “Jesus’ love shines through you!”) Date each journal entry, and save the journals from year to year. Use them again and again as you look back to see how faithfully God has blessed your staff with the giftedness and love of one another.
Do you thrive on intrigue and suspense? Then you might enjoy becoming a “Secret Sweetie” for the month of February. Secret Sweeties covertly deliver cookies, breads, or other treats to neighbors and friends, or if you prefer, you might secretly shovel snow off your neighbor’s sidewalk or hang anonymous valentines on a friend’s mailbox. Be sure to include a message from God’s heart with each of your Secret Sweetie acts of kindness (e.g., Psalm 117:2; John 3:16; Romans 8:38–39).
Use a few minutes of your children’s Sunday school class time to make February place mats for family members. Have the children cut large paper hearts from pink or white construction paper—one for each member of the family. Label each heart with one person’s name. Help the children decorate the placemats by writing positive comments about each person and drawing designs on the mats. Somewhere on each mat be sure to include the words: “God loves you with all his heart!” For durability, laminate the mats or apply clear paper to one or both sides.
Organize a church “Heart Walkers” group. Pair up and walk together at least three times a week. Use your church gymnasium, a local indoor mall, or the great outdoors—if weather permits. Chart your progress in accumulated miles and encourage neighbors and friends to join your Heart Walkers club!
Suggest these ideas to your adult home Bible study groups:
Write a love letter to God and read it to him as a prayer.
Memorize Romans 8:38–39 and thank God that absolutely nothing can separate you from his love.
Surprise someone with a warm hug or a listening ear.
Make a list of people who love you, and thank God for each one.
Say John 3:16 aloud in a personal way, like this: God loved [me] so much that he gave his only Son for [me]. Insert your child’s or study partner’s name in the verse, too!
Enlist your youth group or adult Bible study groups in searching through the newspaper to identify people who need a special measure of God’s love. Pray for them. Also ask God to help you think of ways you and your family might demonstrate Christ’s love to those in need.
Take your Sunday school children on a “Love Treasure Hunt.” Print clues on paper hearts that will lead your class all around the building and grounds. Set it up so that everyone will end at the biggest cross in your facility or at John 3:16 marked in a Bible, in your worship area. When you have all gathered there, point out that the greatest love of all is the love God has for his people. This love sent Jesus to die on the cross so our sins could be washed away. With Jesus’ love in our hearts, we can now love and serve others. Give every student candy conversation hearts and suggest a prayer time. The children will use the words on some of their candies to tell God how much they love him.
Do you lead a small group Bible study? chair a parish committee or board? direct your church or school staff? Use this simple idea to choose February prayer partners within your group. Cut out several red construction-paper hearts. (You’ll need one heart for every two people.) Cut each heart into two pieces. Be sure to use a distinct cut for each (e.g., curved cuts, zigzaggy cuts). Scramble the pieces and let everyone choose a piece. Then invite each person in the group to find the person who holds the other half. Those two people then become prayer partners for the month.
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