[guestpost]Meet Pastor Monica Bullock. She’s a children’s pastor who loves kids crusades and themed lessons. Each week, she and a team of fearless volunteers jump and down with kids just to tell them, “Jesus loves you!”[/guestpost]
Object Lesson: The Fruit of Love
Kids understand love but it doesn’t hurt to show them what God says about this important virtue. With this object lesson, your children will see the difference between regular love and love as a fruit of the spirit.
For this object lesson, you’ll need two potted silk plants. I put foam blocks inside clay pots and pushed silk flower bushes (inexpensive ones) into the foam. Pull the flowers off one bush but don’t toss them out. You’ll need them at the end of the lesson. You also need some fake fruits like apples, oranges or bananas. Put these fruits in the bush that has flowers.
The Bible tells us A LOT about love. Some neat things I’ve found is that God is love (1 John 4:8), that His perfect love chases away fear (1 John 4:18) and that love is the greatest virtue we can have (1 Corinthians 13:13). Here’s something you may not know—that love is a spirit-fruit. When you have this fruit, it is proof that God is living in you and working through you. That’s pretty amazing! I found one more verse that really explains what I am talking about. Let’s read, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness…” (Galatians 5:22)
Since love is a fruit, it can grow. Even with just a little love and the help of the Holy Spirit you can grow even bigger fruit. Do you know what that means? It means you’ll love more people, just the way God does with great, big love!
When someone does you wrong you’ll forgive them easier. When someone else is hurt or hurting you’ll feel compassion for them, which means you’ll understand how they feel. Everyone has a little love but for big, God-sized love, you need the help of the Holy Spirit. Let me show you what I mean. Here I have two plants. Let’s look at this first one. It’s got nice leaves but no flowers—or fruit. That’s a little disappointing if you are hungry and there’s nothing pleasant to smell.
Now here’s a better plant! It’s got green leaves, fragrant flowers and delicious fruits. This plant has been watered and fed by the Holy Spirit! You can enjoy some fruit, smell the flowers and it just looks wonderful.
So which plant would you want to be? (Wait for kids to respond.) Me too! The more frequently we pray (add a flower to plain tree), obey God’s word (add more flowers) and hear His voice in our hearts, (add even more flowers) the bigger our fruit. Let’s grow great big love, just like our heavenly Father!
You can do it!
Monica Bullock