Fruit of the Spirit: Goodness

Memory Verse: Psalm 23:6
Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Bible Lesson:
Fruit of Goodness - Strawberry

What does it mean?
Moral and spiritual excellence shown in kindness. Goodness enables you to do good things to those who hate you and to other believers. Being good and kind to people is letting Jesus Christ shine through you. We are to do those things for God's glory, not to life up ourselves or make us look God, but to be pleasing and honoring to God.

How does Jesus show us an example?
Romans 5:7-8, "For scarcely will one die for a righteous man, yet perhaps for a good man some would even dare to die. But God commendeth (shows) His love toward us in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us."

We are not good or kind without Christ. We are awful sinners and yet Jesus Christ died for us, even though we are far from good. Jesus did many good deeds in the parables He performed, such as healing the paralysed man, restoring the blind man's vision and raising Lazarus from the dead.

How can we show goodness?
What are some ways you can show goodness this week? How about opening the door for other people, letting other go ahead of you in line, getting the mail for your parents, picking up something that someone has dropped, doing your chores or helping one of your friends with homework?

I had each of the kids write down one thing they could do this week to show goodness on two dye cut strawberries. Then they hung them one up in the tree on my sketch pad and the other one they took home to remind them to do it. Next week we will pick the strawberries from the tree and see if they produced the fruit of goodness the previous week. (see first photo for strawberry tree or rather bush, vine, plant - whatever a strawberry grows on! :)) And yes, I know my stawberries are a little out of proportion with the tree - several of the kids thought so as well! :)