Being Close to God

A Prayer Game

Children will toss popcorn from different distances to see that the closer they are to God, the stronger their relationship can be with Him.

Materials: Popcorn
Preparation: None

What you will do during class:
First, divide the children equally and have them stand in two lines, facing each other, about 10 feet apart. Each child will need to be facing another child. The children will be tossing a piece of popcorn back and forth to the person across from them. If you have an odd number of children, the extra child can count the number of successful catches.

Give all the children in the first row, called row “A”, a piece of popcorn, and tell them that on your signal, they will toss the piece of popcorn 10 feet across to the person directly facing them in row “B”. Instruct the older children to use only one hand to toss or catch the popcorn. Tell the kids that the popcorn in this activity represents our relationship with God. Give the signal and have the children toss the popcorn. Many of the tosses will fall short since the children are so far apart. Record the number of successful throws on a chalkboard or whiteboard.

Make sure each child in row “B” has a piece of popcorn. Each child in row “B” will take one-step towards row “A”. Then on your signal, have the children toss the popcorn again. Once again, record the number of successful throws on a chalkboard or whiteboard. Do this several more times, each time taking one-step closer until the two rows are together. Once together, the children can simply drop the popcorn into the hands of the other child, resulting in no misses.

Explain that our relationship with God is similar to what we just did. The further away from each other, the harder it was to catch the popcorn. Likewise, the further we are from God, the harder it is to have a relationship with God. On the other hand, the closer we are to God, the easier it will be to have a strong relationship with Him. How do we get close to God? We can get closer to God by reading the Bible, praying, and fasting.