Fruits of the Spirit Tree

I have been looking for a way to proactively bring the scriptures into the kids’ daily lives. After researching several ideas and having a little arts and crafts time with Heath after the kids go to bed, we now have an answer for our family. The fruits of the spirit tree is a huge hit with Stone. He loves getting recognized for doing something good and runs to the tree as soon as I tell him he can have a fruit.

It gives us such an amazing opportunity to talk about Christ’s love for us and our call to be his disciples. I did wind up leaving one of the “fruits” out – I really couldn’t come up with a good listing of activities and qualities that would be suitable for a two-year-old to exhibit faithfulness. But, we have all of the others covered. We have lots of apples for showing acts of love, but I will admit that the self-control lemons have been a little harder to come by. One of our self-control triggers is throwing, and that’s a hard one for a kid with a pitching arm! For joyfulness, Stone gets a wedge of watermelon for the tree if he has a particularly “non-whiny” day. I’m not big on whining, so this has been a great one for me!

Kindness for others (oranges) are free flowing in our house, as those are given out each time Stone helps us with something around the house. You’ve never seen a kid pitch in to throw dishes in the sink or clothes in the hamper faster! Although, I will admit there has been a little confusion here. In the beginning, was taking clean clothes out of the drawer and throwing them in the hamper in an effort to help and earn more oranges – cute, but a tad counterproductive. So I started emphasizing the word “dirty” for the clothes that needed to be thrown into the bin. I guess I’m also emphasizing the word “dirty” for dishes as well, because we’ve had a few clothing items wind up in the kitchen sink. I’m sure he was just trying to tell me that they needed to get their soak on!

At the end of the day, when we are quiet and take some time with Stone to go over the fruits on the tree and talk about the qualities that Christ calls us to have, I stand amazed as his wonderment, his ability to learn and his overwhelming desire to do good. What an amazing gift from God we have in our sweet son!
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I've had a couple of people ask about the tree, here's some more info on how we did it:

First, we cut out the fruits and made the tree out of construction paper. I tried to be really cute about it in the beginning: loving lemon, peaceful peach, etc., but let's just say I ran out of fruits starting with certain letters - or at least fruits my kids could recognize! After I realized this, I just tried to vary the colors so that it would look good.

Heath and I then sat down and decided what qualities we thought exhibited some of the fruits - this is still a work in progress, but I'll list what we have thus far. Four of the fruits can be given out at will, when a good deed is done. The other four are given out at the end of the day when we have a mini family meeting and discuss.

Love: I gave hugs and kisses and was loving toward my brothers
Joy: (daily fruit) I did not whine today
Peace: (daily fruit) I went down for bed/nap peacefully, I used my inside voice
Patience: I am patient when I am asked to wait, I laid still for my diaper changes
Kindness: (we viewed this as "acts" of kindness towards others) I put my dishes in the sink, I picked up the dirty clothes - anything that helps out
Goodness: (daily fruit) I was good and followed directions
I skipped faithfulness because I couldn't come up with anything that worked in the eyes of a two-year-old. If you have any suggestions, I would LOVE them!
Gentleness: (daily fruit) I didn't hit and I shared with my brothers
Self control: I minded my manners, I didn't throw my toys, I tried new things (this is a biggie that we're working on and the only place I could find to put it!)

I put all of the above info on an index card and then placed them with the corresponding fruit in a quart sized baggie. I then tacked the baggie to the wall next to the tree for easy access. For now, we're doing scotch tape, but since it's taken off so well I might laminate the pieces and use Velcro.

Our reward is a pizza night once the tree is filled (another good reason to use the Velcro, there is a set number of spots to fill). I see the tree getting filled about every week and a half or so.

If you make a tree, I'd love to see what your "fruit rewards" are, so leave a comment below!