This children’s sermon was given October 18, during our global pandemic, so it was experienced virtually rather than by children in the sanctuary. I’m posting it here in hopes that it can be helpful to someone.

Good morning, girls and boys! I’m so glad you’re with us today!

Who loves you the most in the whole wide world? Maybe they’re here with you today! When you love someone, you love them through all their feelings, when they’re happy, sad, sorry, angry, … When you feel loved, you can share all those feelings with those who love you. You don’t have to hide your feelings. You can share them, even when those feelings are hard to hear- and that’s healthy!

But some emotions are harder to deal with than others, don’t you think? I saw that this morning when I looked through children’s books and tried to find pictures of characters with those emotions. It was easy to find happy characters, like the girl at the end of A Bad Case of Stripes. It was harder to find someone feeling sorry (David in David Gets In Trouble) and scared (The Bad Seed) and sad (Bad Apple.) But the hardest one to find of all? A character who’s angry. (The Bad Seed)

It’s hard to understand it, but God loves you even more than your family and best friends, even more than your parents. Is that possible? It is.But can you share all your feelings with God? What if you’re angry at God? Can you share that? Or sad, or worried?

Over thousands of years, people God loves have been sharing their feelings with God- even angry and sad and worried ones- and God has stuck with them and loved them through all of it. Want proof?

Joyful-Psalm 47 Clap your hands, all you people! Shout joyfully to God with a joyous shout! Because the Lord Most High is awesome, God is the great king of the whole world.

Angry- Psalm 44: God, I’ve always heard about how you took care of people and set them free. So why are we having such a hard time, God? Why do you hide from us? It’s not fair! Help us, God!

Sorry- Psalm 51 Have mercy on me, God, according to your faithful love! Wipe away my mistakes! Wash me completely clean of my guilt;

Scared- Psalm 31 Listen to me, come quickly to my rescue; be my rock of refuge, a strong fortress to save me.

Sad- Psalm88. God, day and night I cry out to you. Hear my words! Listen to my crying because my whole body is filled with sadness and stress.

God wants to be close to you in all your feelings- not just the happy ones. I’m glad we love a God like that.

Let’s pray: Dear God, thank you for being ready to hear all our feelings, when things are happy and when things are just hard. We love you, God. Amen.