‘Patience’ Fruit of the Spirit Childrens Lesson

BIG IDEA: I CAN BE PATIENT

AIM: The ‘Patience’ Fruit of the Spirit Childrens Lesson is part of the Tutti Frutti series on the fruit of the Spirit. This lesson aims to help children understand the importance of patience, how God is patient and how we can also be patient.

SONG AND BIBLE STORY IDEAS available via our dedicated Pinterest board.

GAME IDEAS:

1. Pass the Peas. (regular/widescreen) You will need: Frozen Peas, Plates, chopsticks. Each player is given their own chopsticks, plates and a bowl of frozen peas. The aim is to get as many peas from one plate to another.
2. Stop the Clock. (regular/widescreen) One child stands in the middle. They close their eyes and spin around with one arm straight and pointing, they count down from 12 until they stop. Several children stand in a circle around the middle player. They move around the circle in a clockwise direction until the countdown ends. The middle player opens their eyes and if they are pointing at someone, that player is eliminated from the game.
3. Wait a Minute. (regular/widescreen) Who can easily guess when a minute is up? Have players compete to see who can wait for a whole minute – no longer and no less. The winner is the player who guesses the closest time to one minute.

BIG VERSE: …the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control… Galatians 6:22-23.

(regular/widescreen)

Download Bible Cards.

 

SET the Scene:

Read Jeremiah 38.

Jeremiah was a prophet who had to be patient. Again and again he had to go and tell God’s people the same message because they would not listen to him. He was faithful to God and patient with the people in continually going back. Be patient like Jeremiah!

1) GOD IS PATIENT.

You could do a funny skit in a ‘car’ (make one or simply use four chairs) where two parents take their child on a journey and the child keeps asking “are we nearly there yet?” Alternatively hold up a toy car or have photos of a family in a car that you can use to show the children.

Say: Who has ever been on a really long car journey? Who asked the question ‘Are we nearly there yet?’ Who asked it lots of times??

Its difficult to be patient sometimes! Having patience means being able to wait for something, without moaning, without asking why. Maybe being patient waiting for presents at Christmas or your birthday. Or being patient with people means not getting annoyed if they do something you don’t like or wrong, maybe like your younger brother or sister. Parents need to be patient with you as you grow up and learn how to behave. Teachers need to be patient with you as you’re learning sometimes fast but sometimes slowly…they don’t expect you to learn everything in one day do they? Patience sometimes means spending time with someone or on something, keeping going and not giving up.

2) SOMETIMES WE HAVE TO WAIT

Planting seeds mime/skit.

Have two people plant a seed. One sits very patiently next to their pot, or gets on with their life but keeps coming back to water etc. The other is really frantic and impatient waiting for the plant to grow, miming shouting at it or whatever you want…after a ‘few weeks’ swap seed with plant. Have the more patient person look happier about the growth.

Say: You know sometimes we just have to wait!! We often can’t make things happen any quicker by being impatient. Just like with these two planting their seeds. Whether they were patiently waiting or getting annoyed and being impatient the seeds didn’t grow any quicker. And often when we have been impatient we are less impressed or happy with the final outcome anyway because we have got so worked up about something not happening when we want it to. It’s not worth being impatient because it just doesn’t help! Be willing to wait, accept it and get on with your life…it will be much better for everyone, including yourself.

3) PATIENCE BRINGS A REWARD

Reward Me: show images of rewards that we gain when we have patience.

Say: Having patience helps us to become stronger people on the inside. It takes a strong person to wait! Only weak people can’t wait… have you ever heard someone wining because they cannot wait?! God wants to help you be big and strong so that when you have to wait you will be able to have patience and not get tired of waiting so that you will have a big reward! What reward might you have if you have patience to wait for the things you want? So… we might sometimes HAVE to wait for things… but when we choose to wait patiently there is often a BIG reward!

SEARCH the Scriptures:

You will need the Bible verses on patience printable and to print it out for each child.

Invite each child to get a printable and ask them which one they like the most and why. Ask them which they struggle with the most and why.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS:

1. Why do we struggle to be patient sometimes?
2. What can we do when we feel impatient?
3. How was Jesus patient?

 

SENSE How You Feel:

Encourage the children to imagine how Jeremiah must have felt when he was thrown down a cistern and rejected by those around him. Ask the children to think about their answer to the question below as they do one of the activities:

How did you cope with the people constantly ignoring your warnings?

1. Create the scene of Jeremiah in the cistern using the Printable with instructions here.
2. Sensory: use some beads and threads on this table for children to try threading beads to create a necklace, or doing some kind of activity that they need patience to complete.
3. Build the cistern that Jeremiah was thrown down using Lego or other construction toys.
4. Mould the cistern Jeremiah was thrown down using Playdough or clay.
5. Fill in or color the 5-7s and 8-11s activity booklets.

 

SEEK God:

Spend a few minutes listening for what God might say. Remind the children that the Holy Spirit often speaks to us in different ways; through feelings, through thoughts, through pictures in our mind, through other people etc. Encourage the children to see if God might speak to them. Expect that He will. Remind them that we have to have patience as we listen for God’s voice. We can’t expect Him to speak straight away, just because we have decided to listen. Once your few minutes are over, if children have not heard anything, remind them that they can keep listening and will learn to recognise God’s voice if they do.