I Can Learn The Bible: The Joshua Code For KidsSample

The Spirit gives love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Galatians 5:22–23

The Fruit of the Spirit

Imagine yourself sitting high up in an apple tree. You look around, and there are apples everywhere. Do you know where those apples came from? Although the branches are what hold the fruit on the tree, the fruit actually grows because it’s attached to the trunk that runs down into the ground, giving it the water and nourishment it needs. It’s the same way with Jesus. He says we are just like those branches— we can’t grow any fruit unless we are connected to Him. If you stay connected to Jesus through prayer and through His Word, you can grow fruit! Here is the kind of fruit we are talking about:

• Love—When you show this fruit, you are putting other people’s needs in front of your own, and you are caring about others.

• Joy—This fruit is shown when you are happy and content way down inside of you . . . no matter what!

• Peace—This is that feeling you get when you know in your heart everything is going to be okay. It makes you feel safe and calm. Peace also can mean not fighting or arguing and getting along with everyone.

• Patience—This kind of fruit helps you wait and not get so angry.

• Kindness—This fruit is shown when you think about others before yourself and when you do something thoughtful for someone.

• Goodness—Goodness means living in a way that pleases God, or makes Him happy.

• Faithfulness—This fruit helps you never give up! It means always being there, no matter what, and doing what you say you are going to do, even when it gets hard.

• Gentleness—The fruit of gentleness is soft and kind, it does not lash out, and it is loving toward others.

• Self-control—This fruit is sometimes the hardest to show. Self-control is keeping your actions under control, even when you are very angry or tempted to sin.

Now look back over this list of fruits and see if you can think of an example of how you can show at least one of them this week.

Dear Jesus, please help me show the fruit of . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . this week to others. Thank You for helping me show this fruit. Amen.

Remember . . .

God’s Word is for me and to me, it is in me and working through me, and just like His love, it goes on and on forever!