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Make Blessing Balm: A Hands-On Family Practice
- Pastor Chris
- 1 day ago
- 4 min read
Make a simple blessing balm—or decorate an individual store-bought balm—to help children receive and remember words of love, courage, and prayer.
Why This Practice Matters
Children experience love through their bodies as well as through words. A gentle touch, a familiar scent, or a small symbol traced on the hand can help a spoken blessing become something they remember.
Blessing balm is simply a prayer tool. It is not magical, and the balm does not make the blessing work. It gives the family a tangible way to pause, pay attention, and receive words of God’s love.
A blessing tells a child more than, “You did a good job.” It reminds them that they are beloved, held, called, and accompanied by God—even before they accomplish anything.
Make Your Own Blessing Balm
This basic recipe uses approximately the same proportions as a firm lip balm.
Ingredients
2 tablespoons coconut oil
1 tablespoon beeswax pellets
Optional: 1 drop frankincense essential oil for the entire batch
Small individual tins or empty balm tubes
Labels or stickers
Directions
Place the coconut oil and beeswax in a heat-safe glass container.
Have an adult warm the container in a small saucepan of gently simmering water.
Stir until the beeswax has completely melted.
Remove it from the heat. If appropriate for your family, add one drop of frankincense oil to the entire batch and stir.
Carefully pour the mixture into clean containers.
Allow it to cool completely before adding the lids.
Label each container with the ingredients and its owner’s name.
If the balm is too firm, remelt it and add a little more coconut oil. If it is too soft, add a small amount of beeswax.
Frankincense has a long association with prayer and worship, but it is completely optional. An unscented balm works just as well.
The Simple Store-Bought Version
You do not have to make anything.
Purchase an individual lip balm for each family member and decorate the outside with stickers, washi tape, fruit pictures, crosses, hearts, or encouraging words. Check the ingredients for allergies and fragrance sensitivities, and make sure each person has their own tube rather than sharing one.
The decorating itself can become part of the practice. Ask:
What reminds you that God loves you?
What colors or pictures feel peaceful to you?
What would you like to remember when we use this balm?
Try This Together
Choose a regular moment such as bedtime, leaving for school, returning home, or beginning a new week.
Ask, “May I give you a blessing?”
Let the child choose whether and where to use the balm. The back of the hand or wrist works well.
The child may apply it themselves, or invite you to trace a small cross, heart, circle, or other meaningful symbol.
Speak a short blessing:
God, hold [Name] in your love. Give them courage for what is ahead. Help them know that they are precious to you and deeply loved. Amen.
Older children may want to write their own blessing or choose a Scripture such as Numbers 6:24–26, Mark 10:13–16, or 1 Thessalonians 5:11.
A child may always decline the balm, the touch, or the entire activity. A spoken blessing without touch is complete.
A Fruit of the Spirit Variation
Fruity store-bought balms offer a playful connection to Galatians 5:22–23.
Read the passage together and notice the qualities Paul associates with the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
Let each child choose a fruity balm and one quality your family wants to notice during the coming week. The flavor does not need a fixed meaning. Strawberry might remind one child of love and another of joy.
Paul speaks of the Spirit’s fruit as a life being grown in us, not merely a collection of virtues we produce by ourselves. The fruity balm is simply a sensory reminder to watch for what the Holy Spirit is growing. Joy Wendling describes her practice this way:
My children attend public school, and the last thing we do before they leave the van is to give them a blessing. Using fruit-scented lip balm, I mark their foreheads or the backs of their hands with a cross and the Holy Spirit to help them be “fruity” (my term for showing the fruit of the Spirit).
For Younger Children
Keep the blessing short and concrete:
God loves you. God is with you. May God give you peace tonight.
Allow the child to bless a stuffed animal or a parent before receiving a blessing themselves.
For Older Children and Teenagers
Invite them to choose:
Whether balm is used at all
What symbol is made
Where it is applied
Which Scripture or words are spoken
Whether the blessing remains private
The practice should never feel childish, forced, or like a reward for good behavior.
Wonder Together
What words help you feel seen and loved?
What was it like to receive a blessing?
Is there someone in our family who needs encouragement?
Where did we notice love, joy, peace, or kindness today?
Make It a Rhythm
Keep the balm somewhere connected to an existing family rhythm: beside the bed, near the backpacks, or with your family prayer materials.
The goal is not to use it constantly. The goal is to create a recognizable moment in which your family stops, directs love toward one another, and holds each person in God’s light.
A Note About Safety
Adults should handle the melting wax. Essential oils should never be applied undiluted, swallowed, or used near the eyes, nose, or mouth. Child-appropriate dilution varies with age, weight, health, and the particular oil, so fragrance-free balm is the safest general option. Johns Hopkins Medicine recommends checking age-appropriate guidance, performing a small patch test, and consulting the child’s healthcare provider when needed.
Do not use the balm on damaged skin. Avoid any known allergens or fragrances that trigger eczema, respiratory symptoms, or skin irritation. Keep essential oils out of children’s reach; “natural” does not automatically mean harmless, as both the FDA and Poison Control caution.
Going Further
This practice complements “How to Bless Your Child: A Simple Family Practice.” It also draws on Adele Ahlberg Calhoun’s treatment of “Blessing Others/Encouragement” in Spiritual Disciplines Handbook: Practices That Transform Us, revised and expanded edition, pages 198–201.
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