A Fun Game for Kids of All Ages

Fruit of the Spirit joy activities are a great way to teach children about Christian living. In this game, kids discover how our hearts overflow with joy from God as they experience overflowing sand.

Fruit of the Spirit Joy Activities

Although children don’t regularly use the word joy, most kids understand it to mean happiness. However, to a child, happiness often relates to something tangible, such as ice cream for dessert, a new toy from the store, or a visit from Grandma.

This activity helps teach that joy is an attitude and a condition of the heart that comes from having a personal relationship with Jesus. Through the workings of the Holy Spirit, we can have joy in our lives and be happy in both good times and difficult times.

Overflowing Joy

You’ll need:

• Bible
• wading pool (or large, shallow container)
• sand
• plastic measuring cups (half-cup size)
• spoons

Tips:

• You can use water for this activity if you don’t have access to sand.
• For extra impact, bring in a microscope and let children look at a small amount of sand. Point out how small the grains are and that a spoonful of sand holds many, many grains of sand. Explain how Jesus blesses our lives with so many wonderful things, both big and little.

Full of Hope

Beforehand, put sand in a wading pool or large container. Place measuring cups and spoons in the sand.

Open your Bible to Romans 15:13.

Say: Listen to this verse from Romans. “I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit.”

Ask:

• What would happen if you left the water running in the bathtub and the plug was in?
• What does “overflow” mean?
• How you would feel if your heart was “overflowing with joy”?

Say: The Bible tells us that God will fill us with so much joy when we trust in him that we will overflow with hope. God fills our hearts with such great joy when we believe in Jesus. Jesus just keeps filling our hearts until we are “overflowing” with joy, no matter what!

Overflowing Sand

Say: Let’s play a fun game to remind us of the joy we have in our hearts.

Form groups of three. Have one child in each group hold a measuring cup over a wading pool or a large container of sand. On “Go,” the other children in each team will quickly pour spoonfuls of sand into the cup. See how quickly each group can cause the cup to overflow.