Faith Nurturing “Rainy Day” Activities

May 6, 2024 / by Whitney Sherrill

Instead of feeling stir-crazy next time rain clouds keep your family indoors, embrace such days as an opportunity to dive into faith-nurturing activities with your children.

Here are a few ideas to try:

• Spread seeds of encouragement. Help your children make cards to send to people who are sick. Pray over them as a family before dropping them in the mail.
• Bring a biblical illustration to life and unleash your child’s creativity at the same time. Using aluminum foil, cardboard and other craft supplies, make the armor of God for your child to wear.
• Play charades based on Bible characters.
• Write out a Bible verse on slips of paper. Put one word on each piece and then hide them around the house. Send your children on a scavenger hunt to find them. Once they have all the pieces, have the kids unscramble the verse.
• Act out Bible stories. For instance, you can build a city of blocks and march around it as if it were Jericho. Another idea is to make a blanket fort, fill it with stuffed animals and pretend it is Noah’s ark.
• Bring the miracle of Easter to life with a simple and tasty object lesson. To make resurrection rolls, dip a large marshmallow in melted butter and then roll in a mixture of cinnamon and sugar. Wrap it in crescent roll dough so it is completely covered. Bake as directed on the dough packaging. When you open the cooked treats, the marshmallow will have disappeared creating an “empty tomb” and an opportunity to share the joy of Easter with your kids.
• Write a Bible verse on a sheet of paper and have your child decorate it with glitter, markers and colorful paper. Consider choosing a rain-themed verse, such as Acts 14:17, Isaiah 45:8 or Job 5:10.
• Invite your child to interview family members about their favorite Bible verses, faith journey and how they have seen God work. Record the answers and put them together in a memento book.
• Remember that there are a variety of kid-friendly resources available for checkout in the church library. If you see rain in the forecast, consider picking up a few faith-based stories or videos to enjoy with your kids.

Whitney Sherrill began attending East White Oak in 2019. She and her husband, Eli, have one son. Prior to moving to Illinois, Whitney served as a newspaper reporter and now continues to do freelance writing. She enjoys visiting national parks, reading, and marveling at God’s creation.