Joy and Gentleness

OBJECTIVE

We hope to teach children that by planting their lives in Jesus 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 gentleness and joy.

INTRODUCTION - 10 Minutes

Recap the Fruits of the Spirit

  • Who remembers what are the fruits of the spirit? Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
  • Where in the Bible do we find the fruits of the spirit? Galatians 5:22-23
  • Remember these are characteristics of God and, if we plant our life in God and keep Him as the center and source of our life, He will give us these same characteristics in us.

Last week, we talked about peace and patience. Today we are going to talk about two more fruits of the spirit: gentleness and joy.

  • What is gentleness? Gentless is the power to treat everyone with tenderness and to speak kindly to all people.
  • What is joy? Joy is the feeling of happiness all the time, even when things are bad or sad, because we know that God loves us and is taking care of everything in our life. The more thankful we are in life, the more joy we will feel because we will trust that God will do what is best for us.

To further reinforce the concept of gentleness for the children, do one of the following:

Option 1: Fragile Figurine/Plate. Bring something fragile like a china plate or figurine that is easily breakable. Gather children and tell them you want to show them beautiful treasure. Then let them come one at a time to look and hold, and remind them how careful they must be to handle it. Explain what is "fragile" and "gentle." What would happen if I threw it?

Option 2: Make Bubbles...and try to get them to hold a bubble in their hand. They have to be very careful to do so. One who is able to hold on for the longest wins.

Key points:

  1. Verse on how to be gentle with others.
  2. Gentle voice, don't yell at other people.
  3. Gentle touch (bubbles or holding fragile items)
  4. TREASURE valuable people in our lives to treat them gently so they don't break or get damaged. How we listen to people and want to be treated gently so we treat others like this.

HOLY SCRIPTURE - 5 Minutes

Read John 4.

Memory Verse

"Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love." Ephesians 4:2

"Let your gentleness be known to all men." Philippians 4:5

CONTENT (KEY POINTS) - 15 Minutes

Example 1: Abigail and David (1 Samuel 25)

  • Nabal was a very rich man, who owned lots of sheep. But he was rude and mean to his servants and his wife, Abigail.
  • When David was running away from King Saul, he stayed near Nabal's land. David and his men helped Nabal's shepherds. They kept thieves and wild animals away from the shepherds and their sheep.
  • One day, David sent some men to ask Nabal for help. They told Nabal how they had helped his shepherds. Then they asked for food and water. Nabal said, "Who is this David, and who is the son of Jesse? Why should I give him food?" Nabal did not help David and his men.
  • This made David very angry. He planned to kill Nabal. But Nabal's wife, Abigail, was kind, gentle and wise. She heard how her husband shouted at David's men. Secretly, Abigail loaded up many donkeys with food and drinks for David and his men.
  • Abigail bowed before David. "Please," she said, "take this food. Forget about Nabal; he is foolish. God will make you a great king one day." David saw that Abigail was wise. He sent her home in peace. He praised God for her advice. Abigail's gentle words turned away David's anger.

Example 2: Christ and Peter after His Denial

  • God loves when we are gentle with others. The best person to teach us about being gentle is our Lord Jesus Christ.
  • After he was arrested, St. Peter ran away in fear and told people that he did not know Christ. Peter denied Him 3 times. .
  • After our Lord's resurrection He came back to St. Peter and asked him 3 times if Peter loved him. Christ was very gentle with Peter. He asked him 3 times to follow Him and care about his people.
  • Christ was gentle, the way we should be gentle with others. From then on, St. Peter served Christ every day of his life.

Additional example of the Samaritan Woman can be used - see appendix

DISCUSSION (Challenge) - 5 Minutes

Review

  • What did David want? (He wanted Nabal to give his men food and water because David had helped Nabal's shepherds)
  • What did Nabal say? (He said he would not help David because he did not know who he was)
  • How did this make David feel? (Angry, and he wanted to attack Nabal and his men)
  • Who showed gentleness to David? (Nabal's wife, Abigail, was kind and gentle to David; she brought David's men food and water)
  • Who were the joyful ones in this story (Abigail, David, etc.)

Discuss

  • Think of a situation last week in school or at home when you were not gentle. How could you have handled it differently?
  • What areas can you focus on next week where you can show gentleness?

APPLICATION (Action) - 10 Minutes

  • Who comes to mind when you think of someone who is gentle? How would you describe them?
  • Having seen what gentleness in Jesus looks like, how does that alter your view of gentleness?
  • How does gentleness create space for compassion and empathy?
  • How can we grow in gentleness?
  • What takes more strength: gentleness, or being angry, harsh, and critical?

ACTIVITY - 5 Minutes

RESOURCES

  • Video: Jesus and the Samaritan Woman

PARENTS CORNER/HOMEWORK

APPENDIX

Example: Samaritan Woman

Jesus was traveling with the disciples from Judea to Galilee and he stopped in Samaria. He was tired from traveling and sat by a well. It was around lunch time and a woman came to draw water from the well. Women would normally come to get water in the early morning or late evening because of the heat, but this woman comes at noon, probably because she knows other people don't like her and she would rather deal with the heat than other people being mean to her.

Even though most people are probably mean to this woman, Jesus is so gentle with her. Jesus asks her to give Him a drink. Isn't this strange? Our Lord Jesus Christ can make all things - he created water - but, here, he is so humble and even asking this woman as if he is a beggar, asking her to give him something, even though he is the maker of all things. God uses humility to lead us to know Him.

The woman asks Jesus how he is talking to her when He is a Jew and she is a Samaritan. In the Old Testament, the Jews didn't like the Samaritans because the Samaritans were Jewish people who had broken God's commandment by marrying non-Jewish people. But while Jews looked down on the Samaritans, Jesus never makes her feel bad for being a Samaritan. He talks to her with kindness and respect - this is Jesus' gentleness.

Jesus tells her that if she knew who He was, she would have asked Him for living water and He would have given her "living water". The Samaritan woman does not understand what living water is so she asks Jesus how He can get water when he doesn't have anything to draw from the well. Jesus tells her that whoever drinks from the water in the well will get thirsty again, but "whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." (John 4:14)

Remember how we said that if we want to have the fruits of the spirit, or the characteristics of God, we have to plant ourselves by the stream of God's love. That is what Jesus is talking about with the living water. He is talking about the stream of God's love. If we plant ourselves in God's love and follow God's commandments, we will be full of the Holy Spirit and then we will have all the fruit of the Holy Spirit, including gentleness and joy.

Can we do these things by ourselves? These are gifts from God and the more God sees that we are trying to be close to Him - if we go to church and take communion and go to confession and fast and pray - then He will give us more and more spiritual gifts and we will have more and more spiritual fruit.

When Jesus begins talking to the Samaritan woman, she is not very gentle in her words. But what happens when Jesus deals with her with great gentleness? She starts becoming gentle too.

Jesus asks her to bring her husband and she tells Him she doesn't have one. Jesus Christ is so gentle and loving in His approach with this woman. He knows everything and He knows that she has had five husbands and is living in sin with a man who is not her husband, but He is so full of love and gentleness that He doesn't look at her as a sinful person. Instead, He praises her for telling the truth. He wins her heart by not focusing on what she did wrong, but by focusing on the goodness that He sees inside her.

The woman at the well felt like Jesus saw the goodness in her that no one else saw and she was not upset by what He said to her because his approach was gentle. His gentleness and kindness made her believe that He was the Christ, the one who was coming to save the world.

When she believes in Jesus as the Christ, this is the beginning of her friendship with him. She is now full of living water. How do you think she feels? Her heart is full of joy.

Jesus shows us that people need to be met with gentleness. If we meet people with meanness or judgement, they will feel bad and they will avoid us (like when the woman went to the well at noon to avoid other people), but if we meet people with gentleness, they will see Christ in us and they will feel joy.

Can you imagine that you can help other people feel joy? When you are full of Jesus Christ, you will feel joy and you will be able to give that joy to others.