Gentleness, power under perfect control

On Sunday, we finished our final lesson on the fruit of the Spirit. Our focus was gentleness. Here's a quick recap:

Faith Fact - I will care for others when they mess up.
Truth Verse - "Let your gentleness be evident to all." Philippians 4:5
Bible Case File - Jesus Shows Gentleness, John 8:1-11

Our Faith Focus says, "Gentleness is an attitude. It is strength under control. It is showing kindness and love to all, including those who don't earn it." After playing a riveting couple of rounds of the "move the cotton ball using only the spoon in your mouth" game, we started talking about what it means to be gentle. The feedback I got from the kids sounded something like this: "being kind", "It's kinda like when you're holding a baby", "You have to be gentle to animals", and "being nice to others". The kids had a pretty good grasp on what it means to be gentle, however, there was one point I really wanted to make, and it's this: Being gentle doesn't mean we're weak. We talked about Jesus and how he was the most powerful human being to ever walk the planet, however, he was also the most gentle. Gentleness is power under perfect control. Choosing to have an attitude of gentleness is something only the Holy Spirit can help us with. We looked at the Bible Story of Jesus saving the woman who had been caught in sin and was about to be stoned by the Pharisees. Jesus demonstrated perfect gentleness to her and because of that, she left having committed herself and her life to following Jesus.

This week, let's focus on showing gentleness to those around us. Catch your kids doing something that displays God's gentleness and tell them how great it is that they're allowing the Holy Spirit to grow this fruit in their life.

We've had an absolute blast learning about the fruit of the Spirit with Adam Apple, the Commissioner, and each other. But just because we're finished with this series, doesn't mean learning about the fruits of the Spirit has to stop. Continue to ask the Lord to help your family grow in each of these fruits.

Also, your kids may want to watch the videos for each lesson again, so here's a list of all of the passwords to enter on the Faith Case website. Have a great time continuing to learn about the fruit of the Spirit, and as the Commissioner says, "God bless and good hunting, everyone!"

Lesson 1, How Do I Grow the Fruit of the Spirit? - 6958
Lesson 2, Patience - 7430
Lesson 3, Love - 3960
Lesson 4, Joy - 7901
Lesson 5, Self-Control - 3579
Lesson 6, Peace - 8133
Lesson 7, Faithfulness - 5902
Lesson 8, Goodness - 7639
Lesson 9, Kindness - 6826
Lesson 10, Gentleness - 8990

Kindness

This past Sunday our fruit of the Spirit focus was kindness! Here's a quick peek at what we learned. To watch the Faith Case videos from our lesson on Kindness, visit www.faithcase.com and type in this code - 6826.

Faith Fact: I will be nice to everyone!
Truth Verse: "Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you." Ephesians 4:32
Bible Story: The Good Samaritan, Luke 10:25-37

With your kids, stress the importance of kindness being produced only by the work of the Holy Spirit. This one is easy to try on our own, but to have true and consistent kindness that is of God, we have to rely on the Holy Spirit to grow this fruit in us. It can be hard, but since He is the source of kindness, the Holy Spirit will help us as we learn how to walk in kindness every day!

Goodness

This past Sunday's fruit of the Spirit was Goodness!

Faith Fact: I will do what is right.

Truth Verse: "Anyone who does what is good is from God. Anyone who does what is evil has not seen God." 3 John 11

Bible Case File: Zacchaeus Meets Jesus - Luke 19:11-10

Goodness is acting like Jesus. It is both refusing to do evil and choosing to do things that help others - whether or not others deserve the good things we do. True goodness comes from having Jesus in our life and choosing to live for Him.

To watch Adam Apple and the Commissioner's investigation about Goodness, just visit www.faithcase.com and type in this password - 7639.

Can't wait to see everyone on Sunday as we learn about our next fruit of the Spirit!

Grace is here!

At 11:40pm on August 29th, a blessed event occurred. Our COTN Kids baby, Grace Laura Costa, has finally arrived! Mrs. Rebecca and Phillip are a happy new mom and dad! I'm sure she'll be coming for a visit to Kids Church as soon as she can!

Faithfulness

It's so good to be home and back with the COTN Kids! The trip to Korea and China was great! It was long and busy, but the Lord did some really amazing things that I'm sure you have heard about or will hear about soon. I'll post a link to some pictures in a few days.

But while I've been gone, the kids have still been learning about the Fruit of the Spirit. We did some review (aka, Candy Questions) in Kids Church on Sunday, and the kids really knew the answers. I can tell you've been doing this at home with them, and that's so fantastic! While I was away, the kids learned about Joy, Self-Control, and Peace. I was asking the kids what peace meant, and here's an answer I got from one of the girls. "Peace is like if you're in a really dark room and you see a scary shadow, you know that God is with you and He'll never leave you. You have peace in your heart." Isn't that perfect? I'm so happy the kids have really been listening and letting the Lord speak to their hearts about the fruit of the Spirit.

This past Sunday we talked about Faithfulness. Our faith fact was, "I will not quit" and the verse, "A faithful man will be richly blessed." Proverbs 28:20

We talked about God's faithfulness - how He will never give up on us or break His promises to us, and how we need to live lives that are faithful before the Lord. What does that look like? Never giving up. Not giving up on worshiping and obeying our Heavenly Father, and not giving up on the things that we've been given to do. Also, when we're faithful, we know that others can count on us to keep our promises. So this week, as a family, ask the Holy Spirit to help you grow faithfulness in your life and watch to see what He does.

If you'd like to watch the videos from this week's Faith Case, the code is 5902. Enter it at www.faithcase.com.

The Investigation Begins!

This past Sunday began our exciting investigation of the Fruit of the Spirit during Kids Church! Your kids will be following the Commissioner and the wacky fruit inspector, Adam Apple, as we all learn together what the fruit of the Spirit is and how it can grow in our lives.

Each week, look for the take-home page with the main points of our lessons as well as the weekly Faith Fact, the Theme Verse, the Bible story, and a special code for the Faith Case website. Visit www.faithcase.com, click on the "For Kids" tab, enter the code for the week, and your kids will be able to watch the Commissioner and Adam Apple again as they discuss the different fruits of the spirit we'll be learning about. I'll also be posting a quick review here each week, just in case you missed a Sunday, so make sure your kids are able to keep up with us as we investigate the fruit of the Spirit!

Here's a review of this week's lesson, "How do I grow the fruit of the Spirit?" -

Faith Focus - Growing the fruit of the Spirit is a partnership. The Holy Spirit helps me make the right choices to grow.

Faith Fact - The fruit of the Spirit shows Jesus in me.

Theme Verse - Galatians 5:22-23 - "The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control."

Bible Case File - The Vine and the Branches, John 15

Here's the secret password for the Faith Case website! Remember to look at it this week! - 6958

Can't wait to see you all next week!

Kids Sunday!

Kids Sunday was amazing! The Holy Spirit used our COTN Kids in such an incredible way. Here's some pics! (Special thanks to Leisa Ulrich for all of these!)

Ryan, aka Spiderman, receives his Gold Medal of Achievement.
What an accomplishment! Congratulations!

Sweet Mpact Girls