We live in a world of instant gratification. If a video takes more than three seconds to load on a tablet, children (and adults!) get restless. We have instant streaming, same-day delivery, and microwave snacks. Waiting has become a lost art.
Yet, when the Holy Spirit begins to transform a child’s heart, one of the most visible markers of growth is patience. Biblical patience isn’t just gritting our teeth and counting to ten while we feel angry; it is a peaceful, trusting attitude that believes God’s timing is always perfect, even when things take longer than we want.
Main Objective: Patience does not come easy to any of us, especially young children. Yet it’s an important quality to coach and instill. Although we wish for instant gratification and don’t like being told to wait, it’s a part of life, and part of the fruit of the spirit! God calls us to be patient with one another and to wait on Him. This message defines and describes patience, why it’s important, and how we can have it. The Biblical example of Abraham and Sarah reminds us that we sometimes have to wait on God’s promises, but they never fail!
Law/Gospel Theme: The greatest example of Biblical patience we see is from God Himself. We sin and make mistakes over and over again, but He is faithful and looks beyond our faults. Throughout Scripture, we see the people of God reject and abandon Him, but He never gives up on them. Because of His constant patience and love, we should extend that loving patience to people around us.
Use this Children’s Sermon message and Sunday School lesson to teach kids how “peace” is a Fruit of the Spirit. We have just shared some new Bible crafts on Patience to accompany this lesson pan. You may also enjoy our comprehensive 9-Week Curriculum on the Fruit of the Spirit for Kids.
Children’s Sermon Lesson: The Fruit of the Spirit is Patience (Galatians 5:13-25)
Craft Ideas: the Fruit of the Spirit is Patience (Galatians 5:13-25)
New Sunday School Curriculum: Our Bible lessons are designed to keep the kids’ attention and show how God’s Word makes a difference. Every series is flexible enough for a wide-age group and affordable enough for small churches. Download a free Bible lesson in pdf or view our latest Sunday School curriculum for small churches.
The Fruit of the Spirit is Patience
- Scripture Focus: Galatians 5:22-23, Genesis 12-21 (Abraham and Sarah Wait for Isaac), James 5:7-8
- The Big Idea: Patience means trusting God’s timing without complaining.
- Memory Verse: “Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains.” — James 5:7 (ESV)
The Hook (The Great Marshmallow Test)
To introduce this concept in a way that kids instantly relate to, kick off your large-group session with a live, lighthearted experiment. You will need a bag of marshmallows (or a similar popular treat) and a timer.
Call up two brave volunteers to the front of the room. Place a single marshmallow on a paper plate in front of each child.
“Here is the deal. You can eat this marshmallow right now if you want to. It’s yours! But… if you can sit here for exactly two minutes without touching it, smelling it, or licking it, I will give you a secondmarshmallow, and you get to eat both!”
Start the timer on your screen so the whole room can watch the seconds tick down. The audience will love watching the volunteers squirm, look away, sit on their hands, and fight the urge to take a bite.
Once the two minutes are up, reward the successful volunteers with their second marshmallow and have the audience give them a round of applause. Turn back to the group:
“Was that easy or hard? Two minutes feels like an eternity when you are staring at something delicious, doesn’t it?
In life, we spend a lot of time waiting. We wait in line at the grocery store, we wait for our birthday to arrive, and we wait for God to answer our prayers. When waiting gets hard, we usually start complaining, whining, or stomping our feet. But the Holy Spirit wants to give us a special power called patience. Today, we are going to look at a famous Bible couple who had to wait way longer than two minutes for God’s promise to come true.”
The Story (Abraham and Sarah’s Big Wait)
Bring the kids into the story of Abraham and Sarah. To keep an elementary crowd engaged, have them act out the passing of time. Every time you say the word “years,” instruct the kids to dramatically wipe sweat from their foreheads and say, “Are we there yet?”
The Text Reimagined for Kids
Long ago, God spoke to a man named Abraham (who was called Abram at the time) and made him an incredible promise. God said, “Leave your country and go to the land I will show you. I am going to make you into a great nation, and you are going to have a son!”
Abraham was thrilled! He packed up his tents, his animals, and his wife, Sarah, and went exactly where God told him to go. He expected the baby to arrive any day.
But 1 year went by… (Kids: “Are we there yet?”) Then 5 years went by… (Kids: “Are we there yet?”) Then 10 yearswent by! (Kids: “Are we there yet?”)
Still, there was no baby. Abraham and Sarah were getting very old. In fact, by the time 25 years had passed, Abraham was 99 years old and Sarah was 90!
Can you imagine waiting 25 years for a promise? That is longer than any of you kids have even been alive! Sarah looked in the mirror at her wrinkles and her gray hair, and she actually laughed out loud. She thought, “There is no way we can have a baby now. We are way too old! Did God forget about us?”
But God doesn’t forget. One day, three special messengers came to Abraham’s tent and said, “This time next year, Sarah will have a son.”
And guess what? God kept His word! Exactly one year later, a tiny, crying baby boy was born to a 100-year-old dad and a 91-year-old mom. They named him Isaac, which means “laughter,” because God filled their hearts with joy.
Abraham and Sarah learned the hard way that God is never late, and He is never early. His timing is always perfectly on time—we just have to learn to wait with patience.
1. The Initial Promise (The Start of the Wait)
- Genesis 12:2–4 & Genesis 15:4–6: God first calls Abraham (then called Abram) and promises to make him a great nation. Later, in chapter 15, God specifically promises that Abraham will have a son of his own flesh and blood, and tells him to count the stars to see how large his family will become. Abraham was 75 years old when the promise began.
2. Sarah’s Doubt and Laughter
- Genesis 18:10–14: After many years of waiting, three heavenly messengers visit Abraham and declare that Sarah will have a son by the same time next year. Sarah, who is listening from the tent door, laughs to herself because she is 90 years old. God famously responds, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?”
3. The Promise Fulfilled (The End of the 25-Year Wait)
- Genesis 21:1–3 & Genesis 21:5: This is the beautiful conclusion to their long wait. The Bible says:“The Lord visited Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did to Sarah as he had promised. And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him.”(Genesis 21:1-2)
- Genesis 21:5 explicitly notes Abraham’s age at the finish line: “Abraham was a hundred years old when his son Isaac was born to him.”
New Testament Reflection on their Patience
If you want to show the older kids where the New Testament praises them for this exact wait, you can also look at:
- Hebrews 6:15: “And so, after waiting patiently, Abraham received what was promised.”
The Core Truths (How Patience Grows)
Break down the theology of patience into three digestible takeaways for your students.
1. Waiting is a Training Ground
We often think waiting is a waste of time, but God uses waiting to build our spiritual muscles. While Abraham and Sarah were waiting, they were learning to trust God’s character rather than their own abilities. When you have to wait for something, don’t think of it as “wasted time”—think of it as “growing time.”
2. Patience Controls Our Mouths and Attitudes
True patience isn’t just about what we do while we wait; it’s about how we behave. Proverbs 15:18 tells us:
“A hot-tempered man stirs up strife, but he who is slow to anger quiets contention.”
If you are waiting for your turn on the playground and you start pushing or yelling, you aren’t practicing patience. The Holy Spirit gives us the power to keep our hearts calm, our voices kind, and our attitudes positive, even when things are moving slowly.
3. God is the Master Gardener
In James 5, the Bible compares patience to a farmer waiting for crops to grow. A farmer can’t plant a seed and then scream at the dirt to make the corn pop up the next morning. They have to water it, weed it, and wait for the rain. God is doing a hidden work in your life right now, underneath the surface. Trust Him to bring the harvest when the time is right.
Small Group Application & Discussion
Gather the children into smaller groups to make the lesson personal. Use these open-ended prompts to guide the conversation:
- What is the hardest thing for you to wait for? (A holiday, your turn in a video game, dinner?)
- How do you usually act when you get impatient? How does that affect the people around you?
- Why do you think God made Abraham and Sarah wait 25 years instead of giving them a baby right away?
- The next time you feel yourself losing your patience this week, what is one prayer you can whisper to the Holy Spirit for help?
The “Patience Plant” Activity
Give the kids a living, breathing object lesson to take home to reinforce the concept of waiting.
Materials Needed:
- Small plastic cups.
- Potting soil.
- Fast-growing seeds (like green beans or marigolds).
- Sharpie markers.
Instructions:
- Have each child use a marker to write “Patience Takes Time” or James 5:7 around the outside of their plastic cup.
- Let them scoop potting soil into their cup until it is nearly full.
- Help them poke a small hole in the dirt, drop 2-3 seeds inside, and gently cover them up with soil.
- Give the soil a light misting of water.
- Challenge the kids to take the cup home, place it in a sunny window, and care for it daily. Remind them that they cannot force the plant to grow overnight; they must practice patience every day as they watch and wait for the tiny green sprout to break through the dirt.
Closing Prayer
Dear Heavenly Father, we confess that waiting is really hard for us. We want what we want, and we want it right away! Please forgive us for the times we complain, whine, or get angry when things take too long. Holy Spirit, we ask that You would grow the beautiful fruit of patience inside our hearts. Help us to trust that Your timing is always perfect, just like it was for Abraham and Sarah. Give us kind words and calm hearts while we wait this week. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen!