Our Fruit Tree

As we rolled out the art paper, drew our tree and proceeded to begin painting I could see this was already going to be a challenge. Jenna was carefully painting and I was trying to include Isaac in the activity and help him paint (in the lines and not all over the table of course) all the while he was trying to climb up, fling paint and scream because it wasn’t being done his way.  I don’t mean that the painting necessarily was the biggest challenge but the lesson to be learned from it all really. You see the art project we’re making is a tree that will go along with a summer long object lesson really. We’re going to learn about the fruit of the spirit and what that really means and what that looks like in our lives on a daily basis, or doesn’t look like for that matter.

I saw this idea on another moms blog and thought it would be a great thing for us to do this summer. I’m not very good at memorizing Bible verses and this will give some structure for me and for the kids.

We wrote out Galatians 5:22,23 on the bottom,

But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

About 10 minutes after we hung our art work on the door in the kitchen Isaac was proceeding to tear it off, ripping part of the verse off and Jenna was in a squealing panic and I’m already frustrated. We were off to a good start. Yes, indeed this is a challenge; every moment of every day it’s a challenge. It just points out how much we all need the Spirit of God to give us the ability to do these things, to live and love like Jesus does.

Each week we’ll memorize a verse on a part of the fruit of the spirit that we’re focusing on. This week it’s love and our verse is 1 John 4:7a “Let us love one another, for love comes from God”. When you see someone else doing something loving then you point it out and they get to put a fruit on the tree. I know that it can make things seem contrived at times but overall it just helps us learn more about what being loving, patient, kind, etc. looks like and is helping teach us to be more focused on the things that honor God.

What fun ideas do you have to help your kids learn God’s word and values? I’m always up for new ideas.