Lesson 11: Love in the Family
Aims
* to understand that we learn to love in relationships in the family
* to learn that there are four different realms of love – children’s, brother and sister, husband/wife and parents
Materials
* Story – The Prince’s Happy Heart
* Coloured beads, heart-shaped frames for beads, greaseproof paper, an iron, an ironing board
* a picture to colour
Lesson Outline
1. Introduction
2. Story & Discussion
3. The Four Realms of Heart
4. Activities – picture to colour, make a heart
5. Conclusion
6. Prayer
1) Introduction
Ask the children what makes them happy? Last week the children learned that we are happy when relationships are centred on God’s love. When we do or say nice things for others we make them
happy and we feel happy back. We fill their “buckets” and our “buckets” are filled in return. God’s love is giving to others without expecting anything back.
Today’s lesson is about the family. The family is the place where we learn to love through different relationships of children and parents, brothers and sisters and husband and wife. Because we learn how to love we can say the family is the “school of love.”
2) Story & Discussion
The Prince’s Happy Heart
This the story of a prince who is always happy because a golden heart hangs around is neck. One day he loses it and he becomes very sad. Without his golden heart he can no longer be happy. He
searches all day for it throughout the city and country roads. Finally, near the end of the day he comes to a tiny house on the edge of the forest. Inside he finds a poor, but very happy family.
Nobody wears a heart and the prince cannot understand how they can be happy. He discovers their love for each other is their secret. The prince’s own happiness returns and he discovers that he has found his happy heart, but now he is wearing it inside.
a) Why did the prince become so unhappy when he lost his happy heart?
– He believed the heart was magic and made him feel happy. Without it, it was impossible to be really happy
b) In what ways did the family love each other?
– The mother rocked her baby to sleep
– The father read a story aloud
– The little daughter set the table for supper
– A boy tended to the fire
c) What else did they do to to be happy, even though they were very poor?
– They pretended their tiny house was a castle
– That porridge and potato were turkey and ice cream
– That the small fire was a great one
d) What made the prince happy?
– he was in a very loving home
– he helped wash dishes
– he listened to fairy stories
e) What can we learn from this story
– Happiness comes from loving relationships in the family, and it is a feeling inside our heart.
3) The Four Realms of heart
We can experience four kinds of love in the family called the four realms of heart.
1. Children’s Realm
2. Brother and Sister Realm
3. Husband and Wife Realm
4. Parental Realm
Children’s love
This is the love a child shows towards parents. In the story the children showed this when the daughter set the table for supper and the boy tended to the fire . A child should respect, trust
and follow parents’ words and find ways to make them happy.
Brother and Sister Love
This is the love siblings show to each other. Brother’s and sisters learn to help each other, share together and cooperate. The older learns to take care of the younger. The younger learns
to trust the older. Children learn how to be good friends.
Husband and Wife Love
This is a friendship for your whole life. It is a promise to share your lives together and stay together always.
Parent’s Love
This is the love parents show to children. In the story the parents showed this when the mother rocked her baby to sleep and the father read a story aloud. Children don’t have to earn
parents love. It is given for free. No matter how old the child is, no matter what the child has done wrong, the love stays the same. Parents are willing to make big sacrifices for the sake of
their children..e.g get up in the middle of the night to nurse a sick child. It is the closest to
God’s love.
Our hearts can only fully grow when we experience each stage. The more we grow our hearts the closer we come to God.
4) Activities
* Make a coloured heart from beads – Use a heart-shaped template for fitting on plastic beads.
When finished, cover the beads with non-stick kitchen paper. Press down with a hot iron, until the beads melt together. Let it cool. Detach the heart from the template. It can be
threaded with string or ribbon and hung around the neck.
* Worksheet – fill in the missing words and colour the pictures
5) Conclusion
Ask each child what they could learn from today’s lesson. Refer to the lesson aims:
* to understand that we learn to love in relationships in the family
* to learn that there are four different realms of love – children’s, brother and sister, husband/wife and parents
6) End with a prayer
