Fruit of the Spirit minibook

The Bible lessons I remember best were interactive.  In particular, I remember a skit we acted out about Jacob.  Jacob felt intense regret for betraying his brother.  I don’t think I would have remembered the lesson anywhere near as well if it hadn’t been interactive.  That is why I made our Fruit of the Spirit mini-book lesson interactive, it’s one of the few New Testament letters lessons I have planned in the 2 year cycle.  As they learned the lesson, they colored the pictures and learned about the Fruit of the Spirit and a bit of church history.

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Why a Fruit of the Spirit mini-book?

Most kids can spout off the fruit of the spirit fairly early on in their church-going life.  It’s a popular memory verse, and they’re brought up all the time.

But, when you actually get down to the why’s and how you get blank stares.  Or some random weird example of their friend’s cousin, who did this thing, or their cat.

There is always something about a cat.

So I wanted them to have concrete examples for each fruit of the spirit.

Like Jim Elliott for love, who went to a completely unreached people group and gave up his life to tell them.  Then a few years later his widow came to those same people and taught.

Or Corie ten Boom who hid Jews during World War 2 and was imprisoned for it.  Then forgave those who held her captive and killed her family.  I could write a whole book on her, and many people have.  I’m sure she’ll get her own post someday, as I’ve noticed many people I featured already had from this lesson.

You can talk about Hortiao G. Spafford, who after his entire family drowned wrote, “When peace like a river attendeth my way, when sorrows like sea billows roll, whatever my lot, God has taught me to say, ‘It is well with my soul.’”  I don’t know about you, but that gives me a good idea of what peace looks like.

How does this help the kids apply the Fruit of the Spirit?

As I read the story for each person to the kids, sometimes they would shout out, “Wait, that’s like this thing I heard before,” or they would connect it to an Adventures in Odyssey episode they had.

It really amused me when Batman connected Saint Francis of Assisi to a homeschool history lesson from Mystery of History 2.  Francis is such an amazing example of self-control, he walked away from a life filled with all he could ever want and embraced complete poverty.

But my absolute favorite was the story of Eric Liddell**.  He is the man who inspired the movie Chariots Of Fire*, but I love the story that happened afterward.  He went to China and was put in a prison camp by the Japanese when they invaded during World War 2.  While there he said this, “We are all missionaries.  Wherever we go, we either bring people nearer to Christ or we repel them from Christ.”

** My absolute favorite will change tomorrow, but today I like him the best.

And I’ll leave you with that thought because I think that perfectly sums up the Fruit of the Spirit, either we pull people into Christ as we show the fruit of the Spirit, or we drive them away.

Fruit of the Spirit resources

• Fruit of the Spirit mini-book printable <<<<<< this is the minibook from this game
• Fruit of the Spirit verses books
• Fruit of the Spirit printables and games
• Fruit of the Spirit object lesson

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