Christ Integration Camp

Activity:

• Write K-I-N-D-N-E-S-S and a few extra letters on post-it note. Hide around the church. Ask the youth to find the 8 letters and see if they can figure out the fruit of the Spirit we are learning about.

Say:

• Can anyone tell me what kindness is? (Allow them to respond.)
• Kindness can be shown with our thoughts, our actions, and our words. How many of you are kind all of the time? (Allow time for response.) None of us are kind all of the time! It is very easy to be unkind to our family and our friends because we are sinners.
• The Bible tells us in this passage that kindness is a fruit of the Spirit. If we are saved, the Holy Spirit is living inside of us, and we can be people who overflow with kindness! This does not mean that we will be kind all the time. But as we come to know God more and more, we change. Kindness becomes part of who we are. With the Spirit living inside of us, He gives the power to be kind! This is only possible if you have believed and trusted in Christ for you salvation.

Read

• Titus 3:3-5a.For we too once were foolish, disobedient, deceived, enslaved to various sinful desires and pleasures, spending and wasting our life in malice and envy, hateful, hating one another. But when the goodness and kindness of God our Savior and His love for mankind appeared [in human form as the Man, Jesus Christ], He saved us, not because of any works of righteousness that we have done, but because of His own compassion and mercy, by the cleansing of the new birth (spiritual transformation, regeneration) and renewing by the Holy Spirit,

SAY

• This verse helps us to discover one of the most important things about kindness-God is our example! He is a God of great kindness, and one of the main ways we see His kindness is through His forgiveness. What picture can we imagine to help us remember where kindness comes from? (Draw a cross on whiteboard)

Read Ephesians 4:32.

• Be kind and helpful to one another, tender-hearted [compassionate, understanding], forgiving one another [readily and freely], just as God in Christ also forgave you.

SAY

• This verse commands us to be kind! It tells us to be kind as God is kind to us through His forgiveness! What could we imagine as a picture of to help remind us to be kind to one another? (Draw on whiteboard hands for doing)

Read Proverbs 3:3.

• Do not let mercy and kindness and truth leave you [instead let these qualities define you]; Bind them [securely] around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart.

SAY:

• We are supposed to bind kindness around our necks and write it on our hearts! This means kindness is supposed to be part of who we are! It is with us wherever we go. What can we imagine to help us remember this verse? (Draw a heart for being)

Read Micah 6:8.

• He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you except to be just, and to love [and to diligently practice] kindness (compassion), And to walk humbly with your God [setting aside any overblown sense of importance or self-righteousness]?

SAY:

• We are not supposed to be kind just because we are commanded to, but we are to love kindness, to think of it with joy! We are to want to be kind! What could we imagine to help us remember this verse? (Draw a brain for knowing-having a cognitive desire for kindness)

ASK:

• What do we learn about kindness based on these verses? 
  • Kindness is what we do, what we say, and what we think.
  • We are to be kind, to love kindness, and to learn kindness from our only perfect example, our God!