10 Days in the Fruits of the Spirit {Day 4 ~ Peace}

Good morning!  It's an absolutely beautiful day outside!  On days like today, it's easy to have peace.  Other times, not quite so much.  Peace is an ongoing conversation at our house.  As adults, it's hard to truly rest in the peace of Christ.  As kids, it's even harder to understand.  While we talk about turning to God anytime we feel troubled, here's what we did specifically during our lesson on peace.  If you missed the other posts, you can catch up here (Overview, Love, Joy, Resources)!

This lesson is another super simple, no objects necessary, no prep required lesson! As a quick recap, we started every lesson with the Hi Hi the Bible Guy video and a Fruits of the Spirit song.  We read the page from Pups of the Spirit for the specific fruit of the day.  

PEACE ~ I won't be afraid because I trust in God. 

Our verse for peace was John 16:33.

I have told you these things, so that in me, you may have peace.  In this world, you will have trouble.  But take heart!  For I have overcome the world.

To start digging into peace, we had a quick chat about times that we felt afraid, worried, confused, or "troubled."  That was a new word and we spent a moment defining what it meant to be troubled.  Then, we talked about how we handled each of those situations.  Most of Little Man's responses were things like talking to Mommy, telling a teacher, crying, snuggles, or reading a story.  While all of these things are great, they don't offer the ultimate peace.

I apologize, but I don't have a picture of this object lesson.  I had Little Man put his hands together, prayer-style.  He rubbed them together as we listed all the things that trouble us.  Then I told him to "just stop."  "Look at your hands.  What does it look like you are doing right now?"  Praying.  

"Yes!  When we are feeling troubled, we can just stop.  We can talk to God.  We can give our worries and troubles to Him and He will ALWAYS help us."  

God doesn't completely take away our troubles, but He definitely gives us the strength to handle them and the peace to know that He's in control.  I'm taking it as a personal challenge to reinforce this in myself by trying to model it for my boys.  God has a neat way of teaching us those lessons!

Because of the nature of this lesson, it was crucial to carry it out into our day-to-day routines.  One of the things I've done is to make sure that I model what it looks like to give a worry to God.  If Little Man is feeling frustrated, I ask him if he's said his "10 Fingers" (Philippians 4:13 ~ I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.). When we pray at night, instead of keeping my worries to myself, I let him hear me pray about them (age-appropriate worries, of course).  

Just as we did with our other lessons, we ended by reciting our memory verse praying over our daily verse using the ACTS model.

"Father, I praise You for being in control of everything.  It's so good to know that I can always talk to You about things.  I'm sorry that I forget You are in control when I try to handle things myself.  I'm sorry that I didn't show that I trusted You when I worried about _____.  Please forgive me.  Thank you for taking care of me.  Thank you for helping me grow and learn.  Please help me to know that You are always with me every single minute of every single day.  Amen."

I hope you are enjoying these Fruits of the Spirit lessons!  They were fun to create and fun to do!  I've loved watching the growth in my Little Man as he has started thinking about them on a daily basis.  

Don't miss Day 5!  Follow us on Bloglovin'!