By Rev. Doug Forbes

The Kindness Kraft is an excellent way to teach your young people the importance of being kind to others.

To begin the Kindness Kraft activity break your students up into teams of two. Take a three foot wide roll of paper, roll it out and cut off a piece long enough for each child to lie on. Have one child on each team lie on the paper and have the other one draw their partner’s outline on the paper with a marker. Have the children switch places so that each child has their outline drawn.

Allow the children time to color in their outlines with face, clothes, etc. Most children really enjoy doing this. Next, have your students turn in their Bibles to Luke 10:27-37, the story of the Good Samaritan. Let each child read a verse until the entire passage has been read. Encourage the children to share the ways they can be good neighbors and friends. The teacher should respond in a positive manner to each suggestion, adjusting the wording, if necessary. The students are then to write a word or phrase that describes a good neighbor around their outline. Some of the answers will be: kind, listens, laughs with you, smiles, helpful, shares, understands, etc. The answers depend on the age of the children.

At the end of your lesson, have each of the children hang their outlines on the wall and ask them to write, “A friend loves at all times.” Proverbs 17:17A, on their paper. Ask the class members to write one nice thing about each person on their outlines. Conclude with prayer allowing each child the opportunity to pray before you close in prayer. You could ask God to make each person a better neighbor by being kind and understanding. After prayer, help your students roll up their pictures to take home, or you may wish to display the pictures for a while as a reminder to be good neighbors and friends.