Teaching Kids KindnessSample

  Day 1: Kindness Conversations 

While kindness has become a cultural buzzword, Jesus called us to kindness long before it showed up on tee shirts, coffee mugs, and memes. Our intangible, internal faith is revealed by our external actions (James 2:18), and kindness is included among the fruit of the Spirit—the nine external characteristics revealing the Holy Spirit’s internal work in our lives (Galatians 5:22-23). In other words, biblical kindness is a mandate, not an option, for followers of Christ. 

Biblical kindness goes far beyond buying coffee for the person behind us in the drive-thru; it requires a heart change and a perspective shift. This can be as difficult for us to put into practice as adults as it is for the children in our lives. It requires hearts and eyes that look beyond the obvious and see situations and people as Jesus would see them. And it often requires a physical response that, in the moment, may feel uncomfortable or inconvenient, but afterward it leaves us overwhelmed with gratitude at the bigness and goodness of God. 

As our families have embarked on this journey of intentional, biblical kindness, we’ve discovered that it’s critical to frame our actions (or inaction), our successes, and our failures in an ongoing conversation about who Jesus calls us to be and how that looks lived out in our ordinary, daily lives. 

That is what this study is designed to do: to spark conversations around dinner tables and in the car, to help us become more intentional about noticing what’s happening in the lives around us, and to empower our families to be people who react with compassion and outreach when faced with the hard things going on in the world.  

Conversation Starter: How is being kind different from being nice? Read Matthew 25:31-46 and discuss what this parable means for us and how we should live our lives. How does this story encourage us to treat others? 

Getting Started: Make a list of ways your family members can show kindness in the places they already go (school, work, activities, etc.), and display the list prominently in your home. Commit to doing a certain number of things on that list each week.  

Verses: 

Matthew 25:31-46

Galatians 5:22-23 

James 2:18