We've got some special stuff planned this summer. For the next two months, we're going to be cooking together as a family, we are going to make delicious recipes and look at the fruit of the Spirit.
We're going to be looking at what it means to be a Christian, what it looks like when we're living life in God's way.
We never want to make kids think that they have to produce these fruits on their own. We want to make it really clear to kids that it's because of God's love, Jesus's death and resurrection, and the power that the Holy Spirit gives us (because he's with us all the time), that produce these wonderful fruits. And make it evident that God is alive in our life.
So we're going through each fruit each week: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
We will be talking about it through the analogy of cooking:
We have to prep all the food, gather the ingredients, cut, chop, turn the oven, etc. That's what God does for us: He created us, He loves us, He created the perfect atmosphere for us to grow and mature. He's done literally everything we possibly could need to prepare to live life with Him.
Then we follow the recipe. Which is like the way Jesus lived. God sent Jesus not only to rescue us, but to live the perfect life to show us what life in Him. Jesus is like our recipe for living life and God's way.
Finally, we get to enjoy these delicious dishes together. And the way we enjoy life is the fact that God is always with us through His Holy Spirit. God sent us His Holy Spirit.
On June 5, we talked about Pentecost. It's the day that God gave us this wonderful gift of His Holy Spirit. And when we live — rooted in God's love following Jesus way, acknowledging and asking the Holy Spirit for help who is with us — we produce the fruit of the Spirit.
We're going to talk about what that looks like in our lives, ways we can practice it, and ask for the Holy Spirit's help. Because when we produce the fruits of the Spirit, we really are enjoying the good life. And we can enjoy it together as a community. It is world changing!
Just like food is the stuff of life, the fruit of the Spirit is the stuff of living life with God or being a Christian.
I hope you can share meals together with your family and have rich conversations with your kids about what it looks like to show love, to have peace, to choose joy, to exhibit self control, and and all the others.
We can do that around these delicious recipes. You can make them together as a family and and just spend some quality time this summer being together and talking about Jesus and life with God!
Elisa Booker is Pastor of Children and Families at Trinity Grace Church and co-founder of Parent Well. Her littles, Elizabeth and Benjamin, keep her humble and exploring. She and her husband, Armistead, love names with more than seven letters and adventuring together around Brooklyn. She is passionate about seeing humans experiencing life free from shame and cooking really yummy food.
