When the spirit of God enters our lives, our hearts will blossom into a fruitful garden of joy, love, hope, faith, goodness, peace, and many other wonderful things! These are the fruits of the Spirit of God.
Just as the sunflower seed will blossom into a sunflower and the kernel of corn will produce more corn, so will the fruits of the spirit manifest themselves in our lives when the Spirit of God is planted within our hearts. The process is natural and the outcome is certain.
How vital it is that we invite the spirit of God into our hearts and into homes! How crucial it is for us to teach our children to do the same!
LESSON BUNDLE DOWNLOADS:
➤ P R E P A R A T I O N
You will need a kernel of corn for each child.
➤ L E S S O N
Open the lesson with a song and a prayer.
🎶 O P E N I N G S O N G : "The Holy Ghost"
➤ I N T R O D U C T I O N
Give a kernel of corn to each child. Invite them to look closely at the seed while you discuss the following questions:
1) Do you know what this is? (It’s a kernel of corn, or a seed!)
2) If you plant this seed, what will be the result? (A corn plant will grow!)
3) If you plant a watermelon seed, what will be the result? (Watermelon will grow!)
4) If you plant a sunflower seed, what will be the result? (A sunflower will grow!)
5) If you plant the Spirit of God in your heart what do you think will be the result? Do you have any ideas? (Allow the children to share their ideas.)
Explain:
The result of something is called the fruit! The fruit of planting a sunflower seed is sunflowers. The fruit of planting a corn kernel is corn. And the fruit of planting a watermelon seed is watermelon! When the spirit of God is in our hearts, a wonderful result also happens! Today, we’re going to talk about the fruit of the Spirit of God!
🎥 V I D E O : "The Fruit of the Spirit | A Story About Giving"
Say: “Now we are going to watch a video about the fruits of the Spirit. Let’s watch and find out some of the things that happen when the spirit of God is with us.”
Discuss the following questions after watching the video:
1) What fruits of the Spirit can you remember? (Discuss any fruits of the spirit that the children can remember.)
2) If we are feeling peace, where is that feeling coming from? (It is a fruit of the spirit, so it comes from God!)
3) If we feel love for others, and if we feel loved by Heavenly Father, where is that feeling coming from? (It is a fruit of the spirit, so it comes from God!)
4) If we feel like having faith in Jesus Christ, where is that feeling coming from? (It is a fruit of the spirit, so it comes from God!)
➤ S C R I P T U R E
Before reading the verse, invite children to use their fingers to count how many fruits of the spirit are named.
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
After reading the verse, discuss the following questions:
1) How many fruits of the spirit did you count? (There were nine fruits of the spirit in this verse.)
2) Do you think there are even more fruits of the spirit besides these? (Yes, there are many fruits of the Spirit!)
3) What are some things that we can do to invite the Spirit into our hearts? (Discuss ideas such as: keeping the commandments, singing hymns or songs about Jesus Christ, praying to Heavenly Father, reading God’s words in the scriptures, worshiping Heavenly Father in our church meetings, showing kindness to others, etc.)
4) How do we know when the Spirit is in our hearts? (We will start to see some of the fruits of the Spirit! Maybe we will feel joy, or love, or peace. Maybe we will be more longsuffering. Maybe we will be more gentle, etc.)
But he that believeth these things which I have spoken, him will I visit with the manifestations of my Spirit, and he shall know and bear record. For because of my Spirit he shall know that these things are true; for it persuadeth men to do good.
1) Who is talking in this verse? (Moroni is talking.)
2) What fruits of the spirit did Moroni teach us about in this verse? (We will know what is true, and we will feel like doing good things.)
3) What is something Moroni told us we can do to invite the spirit into our hearts? (Believe in Jesus Christ!)
4) . Can you think of a time when you felt a fruit of the spirit? (Discuss.)
➤ C O L O R I N G P A G E
Pass out a coloring page, to each child. Instruct the children to color and cut out the fruits of the spirit. Invite them to attach the “fruits” to the tree on the next page using glue or tape. Use this time to talk about the results (or fruits) of feeling the Holy Ghost.
➤ T E S T I M O N Y
Bear testimony of the truths found in the scriptures.
Higher Level Thinking + Gospel Learning?
‘Memorization’ and ‘recall’ are important first steps to gospel learning, but as parents we intuitively know that our children must go beyond that.
Ultimately, we want our kids to understand and internalize what they are learning. We want them to find meaning and to see why the gospel of Jesus Christ matters for them on a personal level. We want them to be able to integrate the teachings of the Savior into their lives in a personal way and apply the Savior’s teachings in a variety of circumstances.
This is one of the reasons why we were thrilled to recently discover the games and activities made by On The Morrow!
Two brief examples:
1) “Scripture Doodles” kits! These dry erase doodle boards allow kids to explore the stories from the scriptures and actually experience them in a unique and personal way.
2) “Tell Me” scripture game kits! This game gets kids racing together to synthesize familiar scripture stories into a new context. They will extract the core meanings and summarize the key points of each story and teach them to one another over and over again - and they’ll have a blast doing it!
Save 30% with the Code LDK30!
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