On the trail of angels 

“It’s time to do good!” This year’s motto is especially relevant for our children. This time we look at the question of how children can be introduced to the subject of angels? 

When I ask children what angels look like, they usually have pictures in their heads of angels with a kind smile, wings, and curly hair. In the Bible, angels are described as purely spiritual beings whose task is to serve God and minister to human beings. 

For children, angels are omnipresent. They take them as a given. When they get up in the morning, they pray for angel protection, both for themselves and all those close to them. Children easily believe in angels, while adults often find this difficult. It can therefore be important for them to realise that people can also become angels for others. 

Here is a possible approach to the topic: 

• Do one act of kindness every day. Both adults and children can adopt this motto and become “angels” for others. 

• Offering someone else a seat on a crowded bus, cooking a meal for someone who just cannot manage themselves, making a colleague a cup of coffee or tea, smiling at a stranger, praying for someone, praising others, offering help, paying someone a compliment, sending a card with kind thoughts, being there for others … These are good deeds that anyone can do. 

• Every evening, parents can sit down with their children and write down in a notebook all the moments during the day in which they felt that they had encountered an angel. This helps children realise that they are accompanied by angels and encourages them to pray daily for angel protection. At the end of the day, this also draws their attention to the beautiful things during the day, pushing negative experiences into the background. Children learn that being kind and doing good makes them happy, and that they are always protected. 

Photo: 4Max – stock.adobe.com

About the author

Natascha Wolf is a teacher and principal at a primary school. She has three children. She is also a Sunday School teacher and conductor of the district children’s choir in Rottweil, Germany.