How to Teach Your Children the Fruit of the Spirit

Teach your child the fruit of the Holy Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) from Galatians 5:22-23 with these tips and suggestions.

But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things! Galatians 5:22-23 (NLT)

The Holy Spirit and the Fruit of the Spirit

Whether you’re bearing the load as a single parent or not, we give thanks to God for giving us the Holy Spirit, so we are never alone in our parenting journey. We can count on the Holy Spirit to provide us with wise counsel when we feel lost and peace when we feel overwhelmed.

But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you. “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid. John 14:26-27

Take comfort that we aren’t perfect parents, and we struggle with instilling the best values and behaviors in our kids.  

The same Holy Spirit, who lives inside us, also lives inside our children who believe in Jesus! 

As our children and we walk with the Holy Spirit and follow His leading, he will produce these nine attributes in our lives according to Galatians 5:22-23: 

  • love
  • joy
  • peace
  • patience
  • kindness
  • goodness
  • faithfulness
  • gentleness
  • self-control 
teach kids the fruit of the spirit

3 Ways to Teach Your Child the Fruit of the Spirit

Model the Fruit of the Spirit

It’s important to teach our children to:

  1. yield to the Holy Spirit 
  2. to recognize the fruit of the Spirit

The best way to do this is to model it with our lives

While this may not always be easy, and we will inevitably fail every now and then, we can pray for the Holy Spirit to help us. 

Our occasional failures can also be teachable moments for us to talk to our kids about the consequences of yielding to our sinful nature, which results in acts that displease God.

Play Games about the Fruit of the Spirit

You can also teach your children about the fruit of the Spirit through games. 

Depending on the ages of your children, you may like to play a simple Fruit of the Spirit Memory Game to introduce the topic and to help your child remember all nine attributes of the fruit of the Spirit. 

Related: How to Apologize to Your Child

Another game to play is Left or Right. This game teaches about the importance of yielding to the Holy Spirit instead of our sinful nature.  

It would also be beneficial to introduce other enjoyable Bible-based activities. For instance, Bible board games can be great, non-threatening conversation-starters about spiritual matters.

Pray with Your Child

Pray together with your child. Thank God for his gift of the Holy Spirit.

As you pray, keep these points in mind:

  • Confess to God those instances where you and your child have failed to yield to the Holy Spirit and ask for God’s forgiveness. 
  • Ask God to help you live by the Spirit. 
  • Ask the Holy Spirit to produce the fruit of the Spirit in your lives. 
  • Constantly remind yourself and your child that learning to yield to the Holy Spirit is not a one-time lesson, but a lifelong journey.
teach kids the fruit of the spirit

This is a guest post by Alvin Gan. Alvin is the father of three noisy (but lovely) teenagers and founder of 2 websites that provide creative evangelism and discipleship resources. www.LetTheLittleChildrenCome.com specializes in unique child evangelism tools and resources to help convey the plan of salvation for kids effectively. www.BibleGamesCentral.com develops a wide collection of Bible games, ranging from high-energy ones to puzzles and Bible Word Searches.

How to Teach Your Children the Fruit of the Spirit