Love, Kindness & Goodness

OBJECTIVE

We hope to teach children that by planting their lives in Christ and trying to be like Him, they will develop the same characteristics as Him. These characteristics are called the fruit of the Spirit. In this lesson, we will try to teach the fruits of the spirit, specifically love, kindness and goodness, through the story of the Good Samaritan.

INTRODUCTION - 10 Minutes

What are the Fruits of the Spirit?

When we talk about the fruit of the spirit, are we talking about apples, watermelons and coconuts? No Imagine that you are a tree. If you are a tree, would you want to be planted in a dry desert or by a stream of water? If I were a tree, I would want to be planted by a stream of water so that my roots could grow down deep to the water and then I could grow big leaves and fruit that would make me a strong, beautiful tree.

The stream of water is like God's love and if we are planted in God's love instead of in the dryness of the world, then God's spirit - the Holy Spirit - can help us grow strong roots in God's love and the Holy Spirit will work to make us more like Jesus. There are a lot of beautiful characteristics in Jesus and the Holy Spirit can help us have these same characteristics. We call these characteristics the Fruits of the Spirit. They are in Galatians 5: 22-23, which says: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

The fruits of the Spirit are the beautiful characteristics God creates in us when His Holy Spirit lives inside of us so that we can be more like Him. Can we see any of these Fruits of the Spirit? Yes and No, we can't see them, but can feel them in our hearts. We can see them in how we treat others and others can see them in us, like when we are patient with others, when we are joyful and others can see it. When we show kindness, that is something that both I see and the person that I'm being kind too sees.

Today we are going to talk about three of the fruits of the Holy Spirit:

Love - What is love? In the Bible, it says: "By this we know love, because He laid down His life for us. And we also ought to lay down our lives for the brethren." (1John 3:16-18) That means that if we really love someone, we sacrifice for them. What does love feel like? It feels like the biggest, warmest hug from your mom.

Kindness -- Kindness is being sweet to others, even if they are mean to you. It also means being nice to people who are difficult to get along with or people no one else is kind to. What does kindness feel like? It feels like a big smile from a best friend.

Goodness -- Goodness is the power to say no to bad choices and to speak the truth, even when you might get in trouble or be made fun of. What does goodness feel like? It feels like when you make a difficult choice that makes your parents happy.

HOLY SCRIPTURE - 10 Minutes

Read the story of the Good Samaritan in Luke 10. Use the key points below to tell the story to the children.

Memory Verse - "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself." Luke 10:27

CONTENT (KEY POINTS)- 10 Minutes

Let's take a look at a story in the Bible and see if we can see the fruits of love, kindness and goodness.

Once a man was asking Jesus what he should do to go to heaven and, when Jesus asked him what did the commandments say, the man answered "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul and with all your strength, and with all your mind and your neighbor as yourself."

But then the man was confused about who to consider his neighbor so Jesus told a really neat story to explain it to him. This type of story is called a parable because it's not a real story that happened, but a made up story to help people understand his point.

Jesus told a story about a man who was traveling when he got beat up by some robbers and the robbers took all his stuff and left him almost dead on the side of the road. A little bit later on, a priest was walking down that road and, when he saw the injured man, he crossed over to the other side of the road. A little bit after that, a Levite (that's a person who was in charge of taking care of God's temple in the Old Testament), also walked down the same road and, when he saw the injured man, he also crossed over to the other side of the road.

But then there was a Samaritan man who was passing down the same road. Who were the Samaritans? They were Jewish people who had mixed with non-Jewish (Gentile) people and so the Jews really didn't like them. But this Samaritan man felt compassion for the injured man and stopped to put oil, wine and bandages on the injured man's wounds. So even though the Jews don't like him, the Samaritan man goes out of his way to help a Jew and be really nice to him. Which fruit of the Spirit makes us help others even when they are not nice to us? Kindness

The Samaritan man then puts the injured man on his own animal (which means the man has to walk even though he brought this animal to ride and make his life easier), takes the injured man to an inn and takes care of the man. Don't you think this Samaritan man had a plan when he was traveling that morning? Did he have to give up what he had originally planned to do? Do you think he had to spend money on the oil, wine, bandages and the inn? What do you think would make this man sacrifice his time, his money and his comfort? Which fruit of the Spirit makes us sacrifice for others? Love

So after taking care of the injured man, the Samaritan man gives the innkeeper money and tells him to take care of the injured man until he recovers. And he tells him that if it costs him more than what he already paid him, he will give him the extra money. This man made a really hard choice to do what was right -- he didn't only give the innkeeper money to take care of him, but promised to come back and pay whatever extra cost was needed to make the injured man better. What fruit of the Spirit helps us make the right choice even when it is hard? Goodness

This Samaritan man made an amazingly hard choice, to take care of a complete stranger, even though it was going to be really hard on him and cost him time, energy and money and stop him from doing whatever else he had planned on doing that day. Jesus uses this parable to teach us how someone would behave with love, kindness and goodness if they were really filled with the Holy Spirit.

DISCUSSION (Challenge) - 5 Minutes

We know from the Bible that love means to sacrifice. What are some ways you can show love to your family and friends this week?
Can you pray every night to ask God to fill your heart with love, kindness and goodness?

APPLICATION (Action) - 10 Minutes

Teach the song "Fruit of the Spirit"

Goal is to have the children memorize the nine fruits of the Spirit

ACTIVITY - 10 minutes

SERVANT RESOURCES

PARENTS CORNER/HOMEWORK

Consider buying Philo and the Superholies by Mireille Mishriky, illustrated by S. Violette Palumbo and reading it with your child.
During the week, pay attention to different things that show the spirit of love, joy and gentleness and point them out to your child, identifying for them real life examples of these Fruits of the Holy Spirit. After a few days of doing this, ask your child to identify for you real life examples of love, joy and gentleness.