Fruit of the Spirit: Peace
We didn’t do a lot of activities last week related to our Fruit of the Spirit unit, but Ian and I had some great conversations on the subject as we talked about “peace.” Last week I wish we’d talked more about “joy” as it relates to stories in the Bible, so this time I was very intentional about reading in the Bible, putting passages on our playlist, etc.
Our Bible story for the week was Jesus calming the storm from Mark 4:35-41. It was a review for us, since we just covered this passage a few months ago, but it was neat to see how many of the details Ian remembered when I asked him about it on Monday. When we got to the part where Jesus said, “Peace, be still,” I asked Ian what the word “peace” means. He wasn’t sure. I defined it as “not feeling worried but trusting God even when things around us seem bad.” I asked him about times in his own life when it might seem like these were bad or crazy and could make him worry. He immediately said, “When it’s dark.” Like most kids his age, that’s a big one for him. We talked about two of the Bible verses he knows songs for that can help him to find peace when he starts to get scared.
“I will lie down and sleep in peace, for you alone, O Lord, make me dwell in safety.” Psalm 4:8
“When I am afraid, I will trust in you, in God whose word I praise. In God I trust; I will not be afraid. ” Psalm 56:3-4
I loved watching peace come over him even as we talked about this. Scripture is so powerful, and I will use any means possible to get it into my kids’ hearts and minds!
The other Bible passage I focused on was Matthew 6:25-33 where Jesus exhorts his listeners, “Do not be anxious…” about finding the clothes and food they need, because they can trust God to provide, just as he does for the lilies of the field and the birds of the air. What a gift, that we can set aside our worries and rest in the peace of God.
Our iPod playlist was rather long this week, but the boys were still very enthusiastic about it. They really like the songs that list all the “fruit,” and they noticed that I’ve started taking a break from a couple each week. (I figure we’ve got all summer, so let’s rotate a bit!) Here’s what we had going this week:
- “The Fruit of the Spirit” from The Singing Bible
- “Storm on the Lake” from the ESV Audio Drama Children’s Bible from Faith Comes By Hearing
- “SONG: BE STILL” from the ESV Audio Drama Children’s Bible from Faith Comes By Hearing
- “Peace” from Music Machine: Fruit of the Spirit
- “I’ve Got Peace Like a River” from 100 Ways to Know God Loves me & 100 Songs to Love Him Back
- “Fruit Of The Spirit (Gal 5:22-23)” from Scripture Rock Vol. 3
- “Fruit of the Spirit” from Fruit of the Spirit: Banana na na (Vineyard Music Kids)
- “Forgive and Worries” from the ESV Audio Drama Children’s Bible from Faith Comes By Hearing
- “God Provides” from our SonHarvest County Fair VBS CD from a couple years ago (links to music played online)
- “Peace Deep Down Inside of Me” from our SonHarvest County Fair VBS CD
- “The Fruit” from Seeds of Character by Seeds Family Worship
- “Good Fruit” from our SonHarvest County Fair VBS CD
- “The Peace of God” from Hidden In My Heart: a Lullaby Journey Through Scripture CD
That was about it for our week. We read The Quiet Way Home by Bonny Becker (one of the books from Before Five in a Row), but we didn’t do anything besides some discussions from the B4FIAR manual. We skipped our tattoos this time, though we did watch the “peacefulness” episode on our Auto-B-Good DVD Fruits of the Spirit and play the Fruit of the Spirit board game.
