A lot of love: A Valentine's Day assembly

To think about Valentine’s Day and how we show our love for others.

by Susan MacLean

Suitable for Whole School (Pri)

Aims

To think about Valentine’s Day and how we show our love for others.

Preparation and materials

• A large valentine card with an image of a heart on it.

Assembly

1. (Show your valentine card) Look what I got for Valentine’s Day! Why do people send cards for Valentine’s Day? (To show that they love that person.)
   
   Who are the people we love? (Aim for parents, brothers, sisters, friends, grandparents, etc.) We love different people in different ways.
   
   My husband showed his love for me by giving me this card. In what ways can we show our love for other people? (We give them presents, we are helpful to them and we say nice things to them.)
2. The Bible says that God, too, loves us. In fact, it says that God loves us so much that he sent Jesus to show us what God is like and to show us God’s love (John 3.16). 
   
   How do you think we can show our love for God? 
   
   Jesus taught us to call God ‘our Father’. We know that our parents don’t like it when we say or do bad things, so we can show our love for our parents, and for God, by being careful about what we say, by saying encouraging things to other people, and by being helpful and doing kind things.
3. On valentine cards there is often a picture of a heart, just like this one.
   
   Our hearts are amazing organs because they pump the blood around our bodies. A working heart is vital for us to survive. When our heart pumps blood, that blood goes to all the other parts of the body so that they work well too. When we say we love someone with ‘all our heart’ and ‘from the heart’ we mean, ‘with our whole self’, ‘from the centre of who we are’.
4. When we show our love for each other and for God by saying and doing things that are good and right, that makes the other person feel good, and God is pleased. 
   
   –  When we say something encouraging to someone else, that person feels good. 
   –  When we give a present to someone else, that person feels good. 
   –  When we do something that is helpful to other people, they feel good. 
   
   Our hearts pump the blood around our bodies and all the parts of our bodies benefit from it. When we send out good thoughts and words and actions all parts of our community benefit, and our teachers, our parents and God himself are pleased.

Time for reflection

When we think of Valentine’s Day, or we see pictures of a heart, let’s always make sure that we are saying and doing encouraging and kind things for other people.

Prayer
Thank you, Father God, for your love for each one of us.
Help us to show our love for you and to everyone around us,
in school, at home and everywhere else we go.
Amen.

Song/music

‘God is love’ (Come and Praise, 36)