Compassion for Kids

The Great Compassion Mantra
By: Catherine Woo

Every Sunday morning I teach Children's Church for grades 1-3. This is a great group of kiddos but also a very rambunctious group. I have learned quickly, that one has to me on their toes at all times. Each Sunday is different as they could be hyper or half asleep.

This week, my task was to teach them about Matthew 9:36-38; basically the concept of compassion as taught by Jesus. I did a lot of research trying to find different ideas as to what I could do, how I could make compassion come to life for kids. I think it is so important to instill compassion in our children when they're young. Teaching our young ones to love others and feel and care for others is a special gift we can give them and if they learn it young, they will carry it with them for the rest of their lives. It's not enough to teach them to be polite or nice, we have to show them through our actions that importance of going the extra degree and CARING about someone, not just being nice because we feel we have to.

Finding that this lesson is so dear to my heart, it was vital that I find a great way to show the kids how wonderful compassion is and to highlight how our lives are different because of the compassion Jesus showed for us in His ultimate sacrifice. I decided to reign them in and have a fun story time. I shared the story of Moses as a baby and also the story of the Good Samaritan. These stories were both biblical and a great resource for showing the kids compassion as it comes to life. We then talked about different ways we could be compassionate to people in our lives. Lastly, we made cards of construction paper, stickers and crayons, for those in our lives who needed compassion; whether they were sick or sad or just in need of love. I'm not sure yet how this will stick with these kids, but praise God that a seed was sewn today.