Jim & Jom – Fruit of the Spirit

This short story can be used as an introduction to the Fruit of the Spirit series. You can check out our additional resource on helping kids memorize the nine fruit of the Spirit here.

Message: To bear the fruit of the Spirit, you need to have Jesus in your heart.

Target audience: Primary

Key Verse: He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing. John 15:5b

Things required:

• Two apples
• Googly eyes (optional)
• Sketch pens

Preparation:

• Draw a happy face on one apple and an angry face on the other.

Method:

• Use the happy faced apple for Jim and angry faced apple for Jom as props while you narrate the story.

Story: In the center of a beautiful garden called “The World of God” was a large apple tree. This was the most famous of trees in the garden. It was the home to many cheerful apples who dearly called it Appletown. The tree loved the happy apples who stayed in its branches. It created leafy shades for them to rest. But anytime the apples did any bad thing their stem would shrivel and become weak. Eventually they would fall from the tree and hurt themselves badly.

Summer vacations had just got over. Kids returned from their grand parents’ homes. So did a delightful young apple named, Jim. His parents had recently  shifted their house to this town and they had enrolled him in a new school. Jim was quite excited. He wondered how his new school would be. He could not wait to get new friends.

It was the opening day and all the little apples had come with their parents. Jim’s class teacher greeted his parents and invited him in to the class. She gave him a nice place to sit. Jim gladly waved good-bye to his parents and they left satisfied looking at Jim’s happy face. Jim turned around to see his new class-mates, his to-be-friends. Right next to him sat a grumpy little apple. Jim was surprised as to why his bench-mate looked so angry. He wanted to be nice and so he put out his hand and said ‘Hi! What’s your name?’. But the cross little boy, snapped back saying, ‘You first tell me what is yours!’. Jim was taken aback, yet he politely replied, ‘My name is Jim. I am called Jim because JESUS is IN ME‘. When his cranky neighbour heard his name, he laughed aloud and said, ‘My name is Jom – JESUS is OUT of ME.’ Jim was surprised. He wondered how would anybody want Jesus out of them. He is the best friend one could ever have.  Jom continued in a rough voice, ‘I hate Jesus and I hate you’. Jim was hurt but he decided to LOVE Jom and pray for Him because Jesus told us to love our enemies and pray for those who hurt us. Jim told him softly, ‘I still love you Jom’.  Jom got even more angry and turned aside. Right then he felt dizzy and thought it was because of the cold weather in the garden. However he missed to realise that his stem started to shrivel because it was a bad thing that he was doing. Many teachers came and taught their subjects. Then the day got over. All the kids rushed home. Jim was filled with JOY. He knew that Jesus would be proud of him because he had decided to love Jom who hurt him.

The next day, Jom was upset that Jim was always happy. He wanted to start a fight with Jim and make him sad. Jom and his friends were ready with a banana skin and were hiding behind the class door waiting for Jim to come. Jim happily entered the class greeting everyone along the way. Not knowing that a banana skin was on the way, he stepped on it and slid to the other end of the class scratching himself all over. Jom and his friends sneered at him and laughed loudly calling him by funny names. Jom thought to himself, that Jim will definitely come to fight with him and then he could hit him hard. But to is surprise Jim kept PEACE. He walked to his seat and sat silently without saying anything though he knew that Jom was the one who did it. Jom was irritated. He told himself, ‘Jim will surely fall for the next prank. When he would come and fight with me, I will hit him and make him sad.’

Just then the class teacher entered in the class and all the kids stood up to greet her. All of a sudden the entire class pointed at Jim and started giggling. He was confused at first and then embarrassed. He did not know what was happening. The teacher also did not know why everyone was laughing at Jim. Then she noticed that Jim’s pants were blotted completely with ink. Someone had spilled blue ink all over his chair. Jim knew right away who would have done it. The teacher was angry and wanted to know who did it. But no one admitted that it was Jom. Though Jim knew it was Jom, he was PATIENT and kept quiet. After trying hard, she gave up and continued with the class. Jom felt safe and happy now that he had escaped punishment. However, he was bitter that Jim was not angry yet and he still had love. Once that session got over, the teacher left the class. Jom jeered at Jim and said that he looked like a fool. Right then, their strict maths teacher entered. He straight away started with numbers and addition. He asked Jom a question, for which Jom did not know the answer because he had not done his homework. The Maths sir got irritated and told Jom that he should stay back after class that day for an hour as a punishment and solve some extra problems which he would give him. Jom was very angry.

The class got over and everyone left home. Jom stayed back reluctantly with a frown on his face. Now that he was doing mistake after mistake, his stem was getting weaker and weaker. To his surprise Jim did not leave the class too. Jom was bewildered and asked him, ‘Why are you staying? Do you not want to go and play with your friends?’. Jim said, ‘Jom, I did not want to leave you alone. I will stay with you till you finish and then we can go and play together’. Jom was amazed and said, ‘After all the bad things that I have done against you, why do you want to be kind to me?’. Jim smiled and said, ‘Jesus wants us to be KIND and do GOOD always and that is why I want to be with you and help you’. That evening, Jim stayed with Jom and GENTLY taught him how to solve the maths problems. They became best of best friends since that day.

One day, Jom asked Jim how he was able to be so loving, kind, patient, good and happy always. Jim had the answer in his name ‘Jesus is In Me’. Jom also wanted Jesus in him. Jim explained to him that Jesus is willing to be with everybody. All he had to do was to just believe in Jesus and ask Him to come into his heart. Jom did it right away. He closed his eyes and said, ‘Jesus come into my heart. Forgive me for all the mistakes I did’.  Jom was filled with happiness and joy like he never had before. Jim told him that from now onwards he need to talk with Jesus and listen to Him everyday and He will help him be good. That day, his stem became strong life before and Jom felt healthy again.

However as days passed, Jom started to forget Jesus. He stopped praying. He stopped reading the Bible. His life started to change to worse again. He was not FAITHFUL. Because he  went away from Jesus, he lost his SELF–CONTROL and did all the bad things like before. Jim tried to warn him and help him come back to Jesus. But Jom would not listen.

One day, his stem became very weak that it could no longer hold Jom to the tree. While everyone was watching Jom fell down from the tree and got himself wounded very badly. Jim felt so sorry for him and sobbed, ‘If only Jom had not left Jesus, he would be still be happily in the tree. The entire town was sad that Jom did not have Jesus in him. They watched Jom decay without any food supply from the tree. The gardener who cleans the garden in the evening, saw him lying on the floor and picked him up. Finding that he was wounded very badly and is of no use, he threw him into a dustbin and no one heard of Jom again.