Glory to Glory

If there’s one thing you were confident your child grew up to learn in Sunday School, it was that love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are the fruits of the Holy Spirit. Probably not memorized, but I’m pretty sure they would get the general idea. So why would we revisit these fruits with our junior youth once again?

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
Galatians 5:22-23

Since October last year, our ten Junior Youth teachers have been teaching about the 9 fruits in both our worship centers. It’s been so exciting because one of our biggest prayers have been answered: five of our teachers are new to the team! God is so good because I know that His heart for the Junior Youth has been so evident because He’s placed it in the hearts of His people.

It’s truly amazing that we got to revisit these fruits that the Holy Spirit produces and dig deeper into every single one of them. As a team, our goals wasn’t to have them just memorize every fruit, but be able to understand what every single one of them are and how important it is that we produce these fruits in our lives. We were able to take all of what we learned and how it can apply to their lives at this crucial point in their youth.

At this age, a lot of the things that we absorb and learn are what shape our perspective, world view, and actions. Our junior youth are constantly bombarded with what society forces on to them and the pressure to live up to the status quo. So at this point in their lives, it is definitely vital that we as a church continue to disciple and biblically teach them. By the end of this series, I was blessed that in every session, all our young people never failed to take in what they learned and assess their lives in regards to what they discovered about that fruit. During discussions, they were able to express and be honest on what fruits they lacked in, and were willing to take the practical steps we gave them to really apply it in their lives.

So why would we revisit something taught in Sunday School with our Junior Youth? We go back to these fruits because we are confident they go from glory to glory. No one is ever too young to be changed into His glorious image—to become more like Jesus—and I am extremely confident that that is what our Junior Youth are going through. They are producing the fruit that only the Holy Spirit can produce, and more than ever, they are becoming more like Jesus.

“And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and
more like him as we are changed into his glorious image.”
2 Corinthians 3:18

– Micah Ocampo