5 Biblical & Hands-On Ways To Teach Kids To Be Kind
As Christian parents, we know the importance of showing kindness and gentleness to others, right? It’s how Jesus lived His life here on earth and what we want to imitate as well.
But how do we help our kids show kindness to others as well?
Here are 5 biblical and HANDS-ON ways to teach your kids to be kind!
5 Biblical Ways To Teach Kids To Be Kind
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Kindness is such a wonderful quality to have, and so important to teach our kids. In fact, it’s one of the fruits of the spirit and therefore a quality Christians show exude to others!!
Being kind also helps build confidence, self-esteem, spiritual growth, and helps us learn how to bless others and humble ourselves.
But when it comes to teaching our kids about kindness, I want to set up some REALISTIC expectations for us right now… we can’t expect our kids to be kind ALL of the time.
That sounds absurd, right? Of course I don’t expect my child to be kind all of the time. I wouldn’t say that or think that.
But we act like that sometimes don’t we?
I heard a quote once that read, “why are adults allowed to have bad days and a hard time, but kids are not?”
YIKES! That definitely hit like a ton of bricks.
Sometimes we expect TOO much from our kids, and we need to remember to extend God’s grace to them just as He does for us. We want to make sure we are positively affirming them and lifting them up!
And if I am being 100% honest, there are times when they are simply reacting and responding to things because they’ve seen US do that before.
We have an important job as Christian parenting in teaching and training our kids up in God’s Word. It’s our calling to show them how to be kind, and that’s where these super interactive and impactful ideas come in!
Let’s get right into it…
1. Model Kindness To Your Kids
One sure-fire way to make sure your kids understand what kindness is and how to show it to others starts with you!
As parents, we have to make sure we are modeling what kindness looks like to our kids.
This happens with the way we respond to them, the way we respond to others, and the way we respond to different situations.
Something that God has really been working in my heart is making sure the way I’m treating my daughter, my husband, others, is the same as what I’m expecting of my daughter.
For example, if I haven’t been very kind, I can’t expect her to show that kindness when I’m not modeling it for her, right?
But instead of feeling that mom guilt, it also creates a great opportunity for me to admit that I was wrong, say sorry, and ask for forgiveness in front of my daughter. We can pray together and have an amazing spiritual bonding and learning moment!
It’s important for our kids to know that Mommy and Daddy aren’t perfect and that we need to ask God to forgive us too.
It’s definitely true what they say, kids see and hear everything and they will repeat what they are being told, as well as treat others the way they are being treated.
That’s why it’s so important to start teaching them about God at a young age and making sure that you are spending time in the word daily to model it yourself.
2. Read what the Bible Says About Kindness
This kind of piggybacks off the first point, but you can’t really act out of kindness without knowing what the Bible says about kindness!
The Bible is our number one source for how we should live our life because God tells us pretty clearly what we should do. Especially when it comes to being kind to others!
In fact, there are lots of scriptures and Bible verses about kindness that we can refer back to when we need it!
One verse that may be more well-known and is one of my favorites is…
“Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as in Christ God forgave you.”
Ephesians 4:32 NIV
God had such compassion for us that He sent his son to die on the cross for us. That is the definition of true love and an ultimate act of kindness.
Reading through the gospels in the New Testament and seeing how Jesus responded reacted and treated others is a good place to start when teaching your kids about kindness.
Always point everything back to Jesus and what the Bible says what we should do! Encourage your kids to memorize short, simple Bible verses too – it’s never too early to start!
3. Pray and Ask God To Help
This one perfectly follows the step above, because it’s always important to pray about the scriptures that we read!
So after reading some Bible verses about kindness, this is the perfect time to pray with your kids and encourage them to ask God for help in showing kindness.
This is a great opportunity to teach your children to pray by showing them and that it’s important to ask God to help us do these things!
4. Be Proactive With Doing Acts of Kindness
Now that you are modeling kindness yourself, you sought out and prayed about what God has to say about being kind, it’s time to get proactive!
Start doing things that are kind!
You can find tons of random acts of kindness to do whether it’s for friends family neighbors, anybody!
Kids are so visual and because of the way their brains are developing, it’s so important for them to see this in action and be able to repeat it.
In fact, you can check out these 25 acts of kindness plus a fun (free) printable BINGO game to really hit home the point with your kids!
A couple of examples of showing kindness could be to write a thank you note for a teacher, bake a treat for your neighbors, or FaceTime with a grandparent and sing them a song. Things that go out of your way to show being kind to others.
It could also be a simple as holding a door for someone or smiling at someone.
You never know what kind of day people are having, and these ideas help your kids go out of their way to show kindness to others!
5. Use Biblical Resources For Teaching Kindness
Lastly, and a GREAT one to finish with (especially for kids) is to make sure you are using biblical resources for teaching kindness.
Lucky for you I have tons of awesome resources including books, shows, movies, songs, and free printable activities to help you teach your kids all about kindness in a very impactful way.
Take a look!!
Best Biblical Resources For Teaching Kids About Kindness
Here are some amazing biblical resources for you as parents to use when teaching your kids about kindness!
*Remember we aren’t teaching them what the world’s version of kindness is, but what God says about kindness and how important it is to show kindness to others. Because when we do that, we are really showing God’s love and sharing our faith with them.
Let’s get right into it!!
Books About Kindness
Reading is so beneficial for kids and books are great tools for teaching all sorts of things, including biblical things as well!
Here is our personal collection of books (plus some great others!!) aside from scripture, for teaching kids about being kind…
The Fruit of The Spirit Board Book: The Daily Grace Co. (ages 2+)
This is our FAVORITE book for teaching about all the fruit of the spirit, including kindness. It breaks it down in an easy way for kids to understand!
God Made Me In His Image (ages 4+)
This book doesn’t address “kindness” specifically but talks about how we are made in the image of God. You can explain that if God is kind and we are made in HIS image, then we can be kind too! IT’s a beautifully illustrated and written book for kids!
I’m Almost Always Kind (ages 3-5)
we love this book from Usborne! It’s a very cute story about a girl who doesn’t understand why people are frustrated with things she is doing, but then learns how to be kind to them! It really grabbed my daughter’s attention from the beginning!
Other biblically-based books about kindness for kids:
- Kindness (The fruit of the Spirit) by Lauria Lane and L.J. Heckle
- My First Read and Learn Love & Kindness Bible Stories by American Bible Society
- I Can Be Kind: My First Manners Book by Amie Carlson and Heather Heyworth
Kids TV Shows About Kindness
Screen time doesn’t always have to be a bad thing! As much as we love watching Daniel Tiger, Bubble Guppies, and Super Why, there are so many godly options our kids can watch!
We personally love Go Minno – it’s a Christian kids TV subscription, with TONS of movies, shows, and even 5-minute family devotionals and shorts for kids to watch.
Here is our personal watchlist from Go Minno:
You can sign up here and get your first month FREE – if you don’t like it, simply cancel and you aren’t out anything. But, we have been using it for 3+ years and don’t plan to quit any time soon. 😉
Here are some great shows + episodes about kindness for your kids to watch on Go Minno and/or Amazon…
- Church at Home (Minno exclusive) – Kindness
- Veggie Tales – The Penniless Princess
- Bibleman– Melting the Master of Mean
- Owlegories – The Fruit
- Yancy’s Rock n Worship Live – Wanna Be Like Jesus
- Hermie & Friends – Stanley the Stinkbug Goes to Camp
- Superbook – The 10 Commandments
Songs About Kindness
Why not swap out those Disney songs and Cocomelon jingles for some awesome kids’ worship songs!
We personally love listening to Christian artists such as Kim Walker-Smith, and our favorite scripture songs from Seeds Family Worship.
Here are a few FUN songs from Youtube you can dance and listen to with your kids all about kindness!!
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My favorite thing about scripture music is that it’s so easy to actually memorize Bible verses in song form.
Think about it, if I played a song that you absolutely loved when you were 16 years old (like full-on JAMMIN in your car) you could probably recite every single word, or most, right??
So why not train our kids’ minds with songs about the Lord so they can recall those lyrics instead?! Yes!
Here are some other GREAT songs about kindness to listen to, that parents will love as well…
- Living Hope – Phil Wickham
- Such An Awesome God – Maverick City Music
- God You’re So Good – Passion Music
- Loving Kindness – Matt Redman
- Home – Kim Walker Smith
- Any song on the Seeds Of Character album from Seeds Family Worship – seriously, we keep it on repeat in our car!!!!
Games & Activities About Kindness
I absolutely love doing Bible games and activities with my daughter!! H
Hands-on and interactive things are so important when teaching your kids about the things of God!
Here are some awesome games and activities that can teach your kids all about kindness. Ieven have a few FREE printables you can download and start using today. 🙂
1. Acts Of Kindness (Finger Paint) Tree Craft For Kids
This is one of my personal freebies to you! You can download the template from my free printables library and use it for your family.
It’s a super fun craft to make with your kids that can be kept for a long time! You can add it to your Thanksgiving traditions, or pair the activity alongside your family devotional
It’s super fun and easy to make, check out all the details about the acts of kindness tree craft here!
What kid doesn’t love BINGO, right? Swap out the farm animal bingo for some acts of kindness bingo!
Encourage your kids to do these 25 different acts of kindness and be the first to fill their BINGO boards.
It isn’t about winning – rather encouraging and training them in that way, so that the next time they see an opportunity to be kind they are way more likely to do so!
You can download your free acts of kindness BINGO sheet here.
**Both of these are available in my free printables resource library! Plus, TONS of other encouraging scriptures, Bible activities, and other printables to help you be intentional in faith, family, and home!!
Biblical Ways To Teach Kids About Kindness
I hope these 5 hands-on ways for teaching kids about kindness, as well as the included biblical resources, bless you and your family!
You are called to this, and God is with you, encouraging and strengthening you! You’ve got this Momma. 🙂
In what ways do you teach your kids to be kind? Let me know in the comments below!
This is great content to read, and I will try everything you said to raise kind, loving, and god-fearing children. I enjoy reading content that promotes me to be a better person. Thank you for this!
I am glad to see and read this again. I will save it and share it with my friends to help them with their parenting.