The Fruit of the Spirit

The Bible encourages us to examine our souls to see if we are in the faith. Just like a tree, we are told the various fruits we should look for on our “soul trees.” The passage describing these fruits is found in Galatians 5.

Key Points:

• We should grow Fruits of the Spirit.
• We should learn to identify Fruits of the Spirit.
• We should live by the Spirit.

Lesson Guide – The Fruit of the Spirit

Talk about fruit. What kinds are your favourites and what types aren’t? Look at photos of fruits and the different places they grow. Some have pits, and others are covered with many tiny seeds. Some are big, and some are little. There is a broad spectrum of colours and flavours.

Lay out a collection of fruit on the table. You should include fruits familiar and popular in your family, but also some that are different, and your child has never eaten. Examine the outsides of the fruits and talk about the differences. Ask the child to pick a characteristic and sort the fruits into piles using that characteristic. E.g. If the child chooses skin, he should sort the fruit into piles of thin skins (apples, cherries, and peaches) vs. thick skins (watermelon, banana, and pineapple). Cut open the fruits and look at the insides. Sort the fruit again. Pits vs. no pits, etc. Also, provide a familiar fruit that is bad. Talk about how you can tell it is bad from the outside and the inside. Discuss what made it bad. Was it worms, rottenness, or a bruise?

Just as we can identify fruits we eat; we can learn to identify spiritual fruit in our lives. Read through verses 22 and 23 of Galatians 5. If possible, memorize them together. You may even set them to a simple tune and sing them or create pantomime gestures to help solidify them in your child’s mind. For example, create a heart with your hands (love) , then move them up to push the corners of your mouth up (Joy), thumb up (goodness), tap your wrist where a watch would be (patience), and then so on.

Set out a piece of tape or string on the table to create two sides. Give the child a stack of cards, pictures, or drawings of various situations (a child hitting someone, someone yelling, a child sharing, etc.) Explain that each of the pictures represents a fruit in a person’s life. Our actions are our fruit. Ask the child to place the picture on the side of good fruit or bad fruit. You may also have them identify which good fruit is shown in each picture. 

Talk about ways that we grow good fruit in our lives. One important way is to ask God to help us grow good fruit. Talk about ways that farmers make certain that their crops grow strong such as removing weeds or watching for pests. Explain that we need to tend our souls, just as a farmer cares for his crops.

Games and Activities

Prepare a fruit salad

This is a food preparation activity. For ingredients, use nine different fruits to represent the Fruit of the Spirit namely:

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

The idea is to have a fruit represent each Fruit of the Spirit. (Apples, Oranges, Pears, Bananas, Kiwis etc. ) Practice counting to nine with your child.

Fruit Sorting

This activity is perfect for little kids to learn about the Fruit of the Spirit and exercising their fine motor skills and eye coordination at the same time.

We can do this activity by using 6 (or more)  pairs of fruits

e.g.

1 good apple, 1 not so good apple (unfresh)

1 pear, 1 not so good pear

and so on…

Use real fruits, or plastic ones (you can use a little black paint for the bad fruit)

Collect seeds from fruit

Let your child look at a selection of fruit and speak about how they grow.

Carefully open a fruit and remove the seeds.

Examine:

Which fruit has the most seeds.

Which fruit has the biggest seeds.

Try some simple maths and counting activities using the seeds.

Music and Movement – Fruit-bearing Trees

This is a music and movement activity. Here we explore and pretend to be trees that bears the Fruit of the Spirit.

1. To do this activity, first pretend to be seeds, curl up as small as possible on the floor.
2. Slowly, the warmth of the sun, just like the warmth of God’s love, shines upon us. Slowly grow and pretend to be growing plants (everyone may sit or kneel and pretend to have grown a little).
3. Next, God’s grace showers us just like the rain that trickles upon us. Pretend to grow full and stand up.
4. Finally, stretch out arms just like the branches of the tree.

Sway arms like branches pretending to have grown fruits, too (ask children what fruits they grew, some may have grown bananas, or grapes etc.). Also think of the Fruit of the Spirit; Love, Joy, goodness etc.

Repeat as desired.

Worksheets

Free Bible Coloring Pages – The Fruit of the Spirit

Bible Craft – 3D The Fruit of the Spirit

What you need:

• Template page
• Colouring pencils,
• Scissors,
• Hole punch
• Split pins.

What to do:

• Colour the template page  or print onto coloured paper.
• Cut out strips and punch holes onto both ends.
• Fix together with split-pin. Attach leaves to top. Open to make fruit shape.

Fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5:22-23

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Translations