This Week’s Topic: Introduction to the Fruit of the Spirit (Lesson 1 )
This Week’s Goal: Understanding the overall message behind the Fruit of the Spirit
This Week’s Bible Reference: Galatians 5:22-23
Activity: (For All Ages; feel free to do one or both activities)
Option 1: Guessing Fruit Trees: If you are in a location where you can take a quick drive and guess what kind of trees you are looking at based upon their fruit, then try to guess the trees that way. (This also may depend on the season) If you do not have that option, go online and look for pictures of different trees and try to have the family members guess what kind of tree each picture is based on their fruit.
- Goal: Realize that fruit trees can be identified by the fruit that they bear. The same is true for our lives, a life lived by the Spirit will be seen because the ‘fruit’ (character qualities present in that person) will be consistent with the fruit of the Spirit. The opposite is true as well. For older kids: After going over the lesson have the kids try to figure out what kind of fruit they are ‘bearing’ in their lives.
Option 2: Make a Fruit Salad Dessert (to eat after your devotional time)
- Goal: Realizing that while one fruit might be good; many fruit make it even “sweeter.”
- Recipe: Fruit Salad Recipe (Click on print button in the top right corner of the recipe, for a hard copy.)
Please feel free to do what best fits your family! (See the Intro. to Family Devotions)
Song Suggestions (based on the topic):
- Fruit of the Spirit: You Tube Video/Song or You Tube Video/Song 2
- Sanctuary- praise song
- Holy Fire- Jeremy Camp
*Note: This passage is not found in all Children’s Bibles; telling the story with the activity above may help younger children to understand it best.
Luke 6:46-49 (New Living Translation) Feel free to use a different translation.
22) But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23) gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
The context of this passage has the Apostle Paul talking about living life by the Spirit of God (allowing the Holy Spirit to guide your life). In the passage Paul talks about what characterizes life apart from God. He makes a list of the things that make are present in lives that do not have God; he then contrasts that list with the fruit of the Spirit. This list is made up of qualities that God possesses. It is a list that God desires to be present in our lives. (If you are doing this devotional with 5th graders and older kids, I would encourage you to expand to use the whole passage starting with verse 16. This would allow you to make a contrast of the two lives: without God and with God.)
Family Discussion Questions: (*questions geared towards younger children)
- *How can you be (loving) this week? (change Fruit of the Spirit characteristic)
- *Who do you know that is (kind)? (change Fruit of the Spirit characteristic)
- *How do we show other’s God’s love in our hearts?
- Which of these qualities do you feel you are strongest in? Why?
- Which of These qualities do you feel you are weakest in? Why? How can you improve in those qualities?
- Go through each character quality and try to think of an example of how you can see that in everyday life. Now try to think of examples of how God shows those qualities in everyday.
- Why are these important qualities to have present in your life?
This is a great and easy format to follow as a family:
A-Adoration: What things did you learn about God today? Thank God for the “gifts” of the Fruit of the Spirit that he gives to us if we ask! Praise him that we don’t have rely on our own strength to have the Fruit of the Spirit in our own lives.
C-Confession: Confess which “fruits” you struggle with the most; ask God to forgive you. Parents, this might be an opportunity for you to ask your children to forgive you for not bearing a specific “fruit” in your own life.
T-Thanksgiving: Thank God for helping us grow in the Fruits of the Spirit and that we don’t have to rely on our own strength. Thank God for giving us great examples of what these characteristics look like through Jesus’ own life here on Earth.
S-Supplication: God loves us and loves to bless us. Tell God the desires of your heart. Ask Him to help you become stronger in the Fruits of the Spirit which are the most difficult for you.
Extension Activity/Discussion Starters for the Week:
- Pick a quality for each day of the week. Make that day a day to focus on making sure you have done a good job of having that quality present in your life. Debrief, either at the end of each day or at the end of the week. (Make sure you pray and ask God to help you in that area.) Example: Monday: focus on loving everyone – Tuesday: focus on being joyful – Wednesday: focus being peaceful/making peace with people, etc.
- Watch for Fruits of the Spirit in your child’s life and encourage your child by praising them at dinner for what you observed that day.
- Use the Marble Jar-Character Building to reward your young child for the Fruits of the Spirit you observe in their live.