Fruit

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Galatians 5:22

You might be wondering, what is a fruit of the Spirit? Does it mean if I have a relationship with God that I’ll start sprouting fruit out of my body? Well, while that might be nice whenever you needed a snack, no, it does NOT mean you’ll turn in to a fruit tree.

Fruits of the Spirit are the outward signs of what God is doing in your heart. In other words, when we see people who are loving and kind, that lets us know what is in their heart. And when we see someone at peace and they have self-control, we stop and say…hum, that’s not a natural way to be. That must be the Lord or the Spirit working in their life.

As we grow in our relationship with the Lord – as we read and know His word in the Bible, as we talk with Him, as we sing praises to Him – we are growing and as we grow we will eventually produce the fruits of the Spirit – just like a plant!

Let’s read through that verse one more time. We will go slowly, so make sure you listen to each fruit that is mentioned: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.” Galatians 5:22 

Ready for some questions to talk about? You can hit the pause button after each question to discuss. And the point is to get conversation flowing so don’t overthink it.

1.     Look at someone you’re listening with today and tell them what fruit of the Spirit you see in their life. Remember you can choose from love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness and faithfulness. Tell the people you’re listening with which fruits you see in them!

2.     From the list of the fruits of the Spirit, which one do you want to improve or work on in your life? For example, I sometimes have a hard time being patient, so I want to see that fruit of the Spirit grow more in my life. That’s the one I want to see improve. What fruit do you want to see grow in your own life?

3.     How do we grow all of these fruits in our life? 

Today, to help us remember our verse, we are going to teach you a song. This is a song that has helped us remember all the fruits of the spirit. If you’ve heard it, sing along!

“The fruit of the Spirit’s not a banana. The fruit of the Spirit’s not a banana. If you wanna be a banana, you might as well hear it, you can’t be a fruit of the Spirit. Cause the fruit is….love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.

And that’s it! You sing it over and over – fast, slow, loudly, softly, you can take turns which fruit you want to name the next time and my favorite part…you can act out whatever fruit you name. Like If you say “The fruit of the Spirit’s not a banana.” You make your body look like a banana when you say that word.