Rising Above it: Ocean in a Bottle Activity

Rising Above it: Ocean in a Bottle Activity

Materials

Clean clear bottle with lid

Blue food coloring

Funnel

Vegetable oil or baby oil

Beads and stones of various sizes 
(make sure they will fit in the opening)

Procedure

Carefully fill half the bottle with water.

Add a few drops of blue food coloring.

After filling the bottle about 1/3 with water and adding blue food coloring,
pass around some large beads, or stones
(as big as will fit in the bottle opening. Make sure they sink!).

Tell the group, “They represent the broken places in our hearts.
Notice they sink to the bottom, much like our burdens drag us down.”

Slowly add the oil using the funnel, until the bottle is 2/3 full.
The oil won’t mix with the water but will rest on top!

Give the girls some tiny beads or pebbles to represent those smaller daily irritations
(nasty comments made by others, someone cutting you off in traffic… getting your period ).
They also sink and drag us down.

 And lastly give each girl a cork to put in the bottle and have them place the cork in the bottle.
You can even have the girls write a positive message on the cork.

It would be great if you could find some self sealing bottles, and once the caps were on, they lock in place.
But you could also use tape or glue to seal the bottles)

 The cork represents giving our burdens to God.

The girls could shake their bottles like waves on the oceans. But no matter how hard they shook them,
the cork always stayed on top of the waves.

Giving our burdens to God, large and small, helps us to rise above life’s storms.

Click here for the printable instructions for this activity.