3 Wise Men: Trusting God Through Every Emotion
Our first 3 Wise Men event brought families together to celebrate the birth of Jesus while creating a space for children to better understand their emotions through a faith-centered approach.
After a powerful worship session the environment was filled with excitement and the children were ready and open to learn and engage. We began with two key activities designed to help recognize and respond to emotions in a healthy and meaningful way. During the first activity, we were able to introduce a widely loved workshop called “Follow the S.T.A.R.” This workshop introduced a simple step-by-step process encouraging children to Stop, Think, Ask, and Respond when facing difficult situations. This gave them an easy-to-remember way to slow down and become more aware of thoughts and feelings before acting on them. Through this step-by-step process both children and parents are taught how to respond in a loving and caring way to their friends and family in difficult situations. This activity embodied Shine Bright’s goal to place an emphasis on the internal processes of dealing with everyday encounters and how to do so in a way that reflects the love of Christ. We connected the message to the theme of the event by explaining, the same way the three Wise Men followed the star to get to Jesus, we must “follow the S.T.A.R.” to represent Jesus in our actions. The acronym itself that conveyed the message allowed for an easy to encode message that many of the children in attendance still recall and utilize in their own interactions to this day.
Other activities included, “Casting Your Cares,” which focused on helping children release emotions they may be holding onto by writing down something that was causing them stress, sadness, or frustration. They then placed that writing on a cross as a symbol of letting go and trusting God with what they cannot control. Afterward, parents replaced those hearts with new ones containing words of encouragement, reminding their children that they are supported and not alone.
To close the event, ShineBright presented a live nativity play, where ShineBright members and volunteers took on the roles of the three Wise Men, Mary, and Jesus. This brought the story of Jesus’ birth to life and helped connect the day’s lessons to faith, trust, and guidance. Just as the three Wise Men followed the star with trust and direction, children were encouraged to apply that same trust in their own lives when facing challenges and emotions. Evert aspect of the event reflected ShineBright’s mission to bring together faith and emotional awareness in a way that is both meaningful and practical for children and their families and tied it back to a strong tradition of celebrating the three Wise Men and their story.
