Do you remember my Fruit of the Spirit series? Well, it was such a big (and loooong) ordeal that I still think about it all the time. Maybe it’s just been popping into my head this summer as fruit has been more readily available. Anyway, the other day we had a mini playdate (oh, it was to try out our s’mores!) and I had this great idea to make some roll up sandwiches for the kids. But my time got short and sweeping the floor got attention over cute food.

Then I had a stroke of brilliance! FRUIT KABOBS. How cute are these?

But it gets even better! All I did was throw all the ingredients in a bowl and gave all the kids a skewer (yes, even my 1 year old) and let them pick out what food they wanted all by themselves! It was so fun to load up our skewers, then tear them right apart by popping the fruit into our mouths. I also added some deli meat and blocks of cheese to up the protein factor.

But back to the Fruit of the Spirit. I was thinking how fun this would be to do a Fruit of the Spirit activity with these kabobs. You could label the bowls joy, peace and patience instead of bananas, peach and kiwi. Then you could give examples of each Fruit of the Spirit as you slide them on the skewer. Or put them in order and have the kids use their skewer as a memory tool to say the fruit by heart. I’m totally doing this after my next trip to the Farmer’s Market.

See more fun ways to use FOOD to impress your kids!

Linked to We are THAT Family’s Works For Me Wednesday

We made it! We got to the final Fruit of the Spirit! I can’t believe it. Next time I do a “unit”, I’m going to try to keep it under half a year! Sheesh.

As we’ve gone through this unit, I usually picked the fruit we’d focus on based on what was going on in our lives. That’s why self-control was first, we needed that most. Goodness seemed a little similar to the other fruits (kindness, love, etc.) so it became the last fruit I looked at. Therefore, it had no choice but to be lined up with a LIME, our very last scratch-and-sniff fruit! I could find no correlation for a lime=goodness. So, we’ll leave it at that.

SCRIPTURE

I picked a verse we already partially memorized around Halloween:

“In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:16

I never want to focus on good deeds because I know it’s easy to get in the mindset that good deeds is what brings you to Jesus, or makes you worthy of His love. Jesus’ love is unconditional, He saved us because He loves us. Period.

Anyway, we’ve done lots of light crafts (including a Christian t-shirt!) so after we had read the verse I was kinda bummed that I chose it because I couldn’t think of anything cool to do with the verse. You can only draw so many sunshines and use glitter so many times.

We finally settled on a sun catcher. And suddenly this seemed brilliant to me. Here we are in the middle of winter, a normally drab and dark time. Hanging a sun catcher up in the window wouldn’t BRING us any light–only make us appreciate it and add some color to our day. What a great picture of what our GOODNESS can do for others—we are NOT The Light nor do our good deeds actually make anything happen BUT they do make others aware of  The Light. Our good deeds bring attention and color to a normally dark and drab world of sin!

I’m pretty sure Lydia didn’t get the nuances of our sun catcher craft, but it has been especially significant to me. I want Lydia and Asa to see my good deeds (cooking, cleaning, loving my husband, being patient with them) and when they do that it would make them aware of Jesus and His Light—that it would lead them to praise and follow their Father in Heaven.

CRAFT

It honestly is not as pretty as the original version that I found online (as usual), so I’ll just leave you with a few pictures and links to sun catchers.

This is actually the one we made. All you need is tissue paper and a clear plastic top (which we didn’t have, so I used a disposable plastic container). We made ours in the shape of heart and a candle. You know, obvious reference to Matthew 5:16. Oh, and we used lime green tissue paper, of course. (see complete instructions at Making Friends.)

I love this one with the pressed flowers. I guess it would be kind of hard to do in the middle of winter, but even some pinestraw and a few dried leaves might be pretty! Plus, you could do any shape as the frame! (Complete instructions at Great Ideas For Mom.)

This suncatcher from Family Fun is really the one I wanted to make. Isn’t it lovely? We just didn’t have any translucent beads in the house. Copper wire we had, but beads? Nope.

And how could we forget about my icy sun catcher? Always a crowd pleaser!

Wouldn’t it be fun to make all of these and line your winter-y windows with them?!

lime photo by darwin bell

Remember the Fruit of the Spirit series Lydia and I did? Well, you may have forgotten it because Christmas kinda took over and now I’m just turning back to it. Don’t hold it against me, ok?!

With all the discipline and behavior issues we’ve had lately, this Fruit of the Spirit really stuck out to me this week: GENTLENESS. I need it. She needs it. Our household needs it.

SCRIPTURE

The first verse that comes to mind (and was our “A” verse) is Proverbs 15: 1, “A gentle answer turns anger away.” Today would have been a perfect time for Lydia to test this verse out as I was pretty angry with her behavior most of the day. Alas, it’s me who had to practice this verse so I could set the gentle example. (Not sure if I did it…)

As I looked through the verses about gentleness, it was encouraging because most of them were referring to Jesus. Or encouraging us to be gentle like Him. Isn’t it lovely to think about Jesus as gentle? Sometimes its easy to fall into that Zeus-like god image where Jesus/God is sitting there impatient, disappointed and ready to knock our heads together. I love thinking about Jesus as the gentle Good Shepherd instead. What a model to emulate!

The verse I ended up choosing is found in 1 Peter 3:3-4. It is the perfect verse for my girly girl:

Braiding your hair doesn’t make you beautiful. Wearing gold jewelry or fine clothes doesn’t make you beautiful. Instead, your beauty comes from inside you. It is the beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit. Beauty like that doesn’t fade away. God places great value on it.

Lydia was amazed that braids are in the Bible. And gold jewelry! She had it 90% memorized after reading it three times. I kid you not. Every time she learns a new verse I feel bad for not teaching her more—she’s a sponge!

ACTIVITY

I chose grapes to represent gentleness. Basically because a lime and grapes is all that’s left from our scratch-n-sniff fruit basket. So, we made the coolest grape craft after dinner tonight. I found it at Danielle’s Place (a great site–especially if you teach kids at church!)

All you need is a funnel, flour, one balloon and a little scrap of green craft foam. Use the funnel to fill the balloon. Then tie. Add a little leaf to the top (cut or punch a hole and pull the knot through). Now you’ve got your own fruity stressball! Isn’t it cute?

We talked about how soft and nice it was to squeeze her new “Gentle Grape”. She loves it and decided she is going to carry it “EVERYWHERE WE GO TOMORROW!” I hope she carries some gentleness, too. My heart AND hers are in need of some gentleness.

photo by lanier67