Fruit of the Spirit Peace Activities for Kids

In the Christian faith believers are taught that the fruit of the Holy Spirit is manifested in several ways. According to the Bible -- in the book of Galatians, Chapter 5, verses 22 and 23 -- the qualities that should be expressed, as a result of a relationship with Jesus Christ, include peace, love, joy and kindness, gentleness, self-control, patience, goodness and faithfulness. Teach kids the importance and benefits of modelling peace.

Teach your children about the importance of peace by involving them in a ministry activity in which they visit and talk with former soldiers of war who are hospitalised or living in their community. Take them to see soldiers who have suffered loss of limb due to war conflicts. Seek soldiers who espouse peace as the solution to resolving problems if at all possible. When youth get older, they can request to be a VA volunteer and even obtain a scholarship for the willingness to help survivors of war.

Bring together a group of children to discuss peace and anger. Ask the children to describe recent events in which they were involved that were not peaceful. You may need to list possibilities, such as bickering with a brother, to jog their memory. Have them explain to the group how they handled the anger that erupted, whether their own or another's. Engage the group in discussing better alternatives to broking peace next time such an occurrence happens. Use role playing to make a greater impact but use adults instead of youth so feelings don't get out of hand and to control the scenarios.

Educate kids about the need to "get away" -- to remain calm and in control when they're angry. Explain how separating briefly from a hostile situation can help maintain peace. Show a short clip of a hostile situation in an age-appropriate movie. Ask kids afterward if they feel peaceful now. Suggest they walk away alone for a short distance and see if that helps calm them and restore their sense of peace.

Kids encounter conflict at school and home at some point in their life if not every week. Help these children promote peace, when they do, by providing them with the tools to express themselves appropriately. Have one child serve as an angry teacher, another as an angry adult and another as an angry child. Model for the group the appropriate response to each planned angry outburst script, showing that respectful silence, requests to have a moment alone to reflect or calm agreement of a wrong -- with an explanation of why -- can help diffuse hostile situations. Provide age-appropriate reading materials and other tools to aid youth in conflict resolution.