1 Corinthians 13 Love Craft for Valentine’s Day

Teach your children how God wants us to love each other with this Valentine’s Day craft based on 1 Corinthians 13!

While not its original intent, Valentine’s Day is the perfect time to reflect on God’s love for us. Along with that is also reflecting on how God wants US to love OTHERS. It’s hard to love in a truly selfless way as God does, but thankfully we have the Bible to give us direction.

There are SO many examples in the Bible of how we should treat each other, one of the most notable being John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” For today’s craft, we focused on what’s commonly known as the “love” scriptures.

1 Corinthians 13 is where Paul explains the importance of love and how we can practice it in our own lives. As we strive to be more Christ-like, learning the correct way to love one another is a big step in that direction. It’s also a foundational principle to teach our children!

As we work through Scripture memorization, I’ve found that crafts, songs, and other activities are super helpful for kids. And really, they’re helpful for adults too 🙂 So in honor of Valentine’s Day, the kiddos and I made this cute pop-out heart craft centered around 1 Corinthians 4-8!

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This craft needs very little, and is best suited for preschool and up. My 2-year-old wanted to help, but he’s not very skilled at cutting yet, so I just gave him his own separate hearts to cut out however he wanted. It was perfect for my almost 5-year-old, though!

1 Corinthians 13 Valentine’s Day Heart Craft

What you’ll need:

• 4 pink/red construction papers
• 1 blue construction paper
• Glue
• Marker
• Bible for reference

…that’s it! So simple. Here’s the step-by-step to make your own 1 Corinthians 13 craft.

1. Cut the pink/red papers to size

We used both pink and red construction paper to alternate. Fold and cut the papers hamburger style (I’m around kids all day, so yes I still use this reference LOL). Then take each half and fold and cut those hamburger style as well.

You should have 4 pieces from each paper. You’ll need 11 hearts in all, so 3 pages would be sufficient. But if you alternate colors as we did, then you’ll want 6 pieces of each color and have to use 4 papers, with 4 extra pieces. I gave those to my 2-year-old to play with, otherwise just save the extra pieces for another craft!

2. Cut out the hearts

Next you’ll want to get the hearts cut out. To do that, simple fold each of the quarter papers. (Again hamburger style… anyone else hungry?) Draw a half heart on the side with the fold so that it will open into a full heart once cut.

Use the first heart that you cut as a template for the rest of them. If your kiddo is preschool age like mine, chances are the hearts won’t perfectly line up anyway, but this gives you the best shot at it! As you outline a half heart on 11 of the pieces, your child can begin to cut them out.

3. Write out the bible verses

Take each of the hearts and write part of the bible verses inside. We wrote each characteristic of love on separate hearts, totaling 11 hearts. For this craft we based it off of the NIV Bible since it was more kid-friendly language, but of course choose whichever Bible your family is familiar with!

Some of the words were a bit beyond my kiddos’ vocabulary, so I just added a small synonym in parenthesis to help them grasp it better. I wrote them out since Lu is still working on writing, but older kids can do this part too! In fact, writing it themselves will likely help them remember it better.

Here’s another thing I did that you may want to do as well. I only wrote on the inside for the first and last hearts. That way when they are all glued together, there is just a solid heart put together on the paper!

Here’s how we spaced it on to each heart, as a continuation from the word “Love…” which will be placed above the heart: 

• is patient
• is kind
• does not envy (not jealous)
• does not boast (brag)
• is not proud
• does not dishonor others (not rude)
• is not self-seeking (selfish)
• is not easily angered
• keeps no record of wrongs
• does not delight in evil, but rejoices in the truth
• always protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres

Also, I JUST realized I spelled “perseveres” wrong on the craft LOL! Can’t fix ours now, so take note that there are only two “R’s” haha. Anyway!

4. Glue the hearts

After your verses are all written out, it’s time to glue them together. Fold them closed and put them in a pile in the correct order. Starting with “is patient”, put glue on the outer right side to stick to the outer left side of “is kind”. And so on until you get to the end.

Next you’ll want a piece of construction paper that isn’t pink (we used blue) and cut it in half. Then take the outside ends of the first and last hearts, you should notice the together they create a heart when laid flat. Figure out where you want to lay them on the paper so when they have glue on them you know right where to go. 

First glue the outside of the “patient” heart and lay it down on the paper. Glue the outside of the “always protects” heart next. As you lay this piece down, be sure to pinch the inner hearts and stand them straight up for a close fit. I also pushed the inner edge of the last heart in a bit just to make sure it was snug.

5. Write out the rest of verses

Now all that’s left to do is finish the verse! Above the heart I wrote “Love…” to start each sentence. Underneath I concluded with “Love never fails! 1 Cor 13:4-8”. And that’s that!

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We absolutely loved this craft. It was great cutting practice, it can be a wonderful activity to work on writing, and of course it encourages Scripture memorization. The lessons in 1 Corinthians 13 are relevant all the time, but this Valentine’s Day craft s a sweet reminder to focus on LOVE as it’s intended from the Word.

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