Feelings are universal. Love, joy, frustration, and surprise are just a few of the many feelings God allows us to experience. The people in the Bible felt all of these feelings too and it is important that our children connect with the people in the Bible on an emotional level.
Here’s a fun Bible game that will help your kids reflect on the feelings of many people in God’s wonderful word. I call it “Who Felt What?” Just follow the directions below and you’ll be on your way to sharing some “sentimental” fun with your kids.
This is what you do:
Below these directions you will find two menus. One list gives 12 different feelings. The second list presents “excerpt” phrases from 12 different letters in the Bible. Take the list of feelings and write each feeling on a 3 x 5 card. Lay these cards face down on a chart or pocket chart. Now write the list of phrases on the board or a chart of some sort so the whole class can see it easily. Make sure to omit the actual feelings when you write them down for class. By the way, I gave 3 more phrases than sentiment to help the scoring be fair at the end of the game. You are now ready to play “Who Felt What?”
Divide your class into two teams. Choose a child from the first team to point to one of the sentiment cards. You, the teacher, must carefully unfold the word written on the card so that only the child can see it. He must now act on feeling. Both teams can try and guess. The first team to guess the sentiment correctly now gets the chance to match the sentiment to the correct statement. If the team does it right, they get 100 points for their team. The second team must go next, even if they were the ones who won the last round. Play as before. The team with the most points at the end of the game wins!
Sentiment List:
1. Sadness
2. Fear
3. Anger
4. Surprise
5. Love
6. Joy
7. Frustrating
8. Confusion
9. Embarrassed
10. Hope
11. Disappointed
12. Pain
Data list:
1. Adam and Eve must have felt sad when they left paradise.
2. Noah and his family must have been relieved to know that they were saved from the flood.
3. Zacharias and Elizabeth must have felt joy when they learned that they would have a child in their old age.
4. Mary must have been frightened when the angel appeared to her announcing that she would give birth to the Son of God.
5. Ruth must have felt love when she realized that Boaz was in love with her.
6. Jesus must have felt pain while dying on the cross for our sins.
7. Peter must have been embarrassed after realizing that he had denied the Lord 3 times.
8. Gideon must have been confused when God reduced the number of his army to fight the Midianites.
9. Hannah must have been frustrated when her attempts to conceive a child failed here.
10. The prodigal son must have been amazed when he saw his father running to meet him after all the mistakes he had made.
11. Jesus must have felt angry while turning over the money tables in the Temple.
12. David must have felt brave when he faced the giant Goliath and killed him.
13. Zechius must have felt hopeful when he asked Jesus to come to dinner.
14. Moses must have been disappointed when Pharaoh did not allow the Israelites to leave Egypt.
15. Joseph must have been nervous when he was brought to a new land that was so foreign and new to him.
Here’s a quick suggestion for success: If you think your kids might get frustrated with a statement that contains more than one emotion, you can give the team 3 choices of phrases at once, rather than a full list of phrases, until they have more success making a correct match. I listen!
