Character Chart Lesson Plans

Before using each chart, read through the lesson plans and work through them with your family. This
will help you make the most of your Character Charts as you help your children learn to live through
Scripture!

Each lesson has one printable chart and one set of printable stickers to download and print. These
are located at the end of the PDF.

Live by the Spirit!

So I say, live by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the sinful nature. For the sinful nature
desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the sinful nature. They are in
conflict with each other, so that you do not do what you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are
not under law. The acts of the sinful nature are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery;
idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions
and envy; drunkenness, orgies and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this
will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who
belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live by
the Spirit, let us keep in step with the spirit. Galatians 5:16-25

Godly Character Training:

Sit down with your child(ren). Show him/her two different magnets, with a north pole and a south pole.
Hold one magnet in each hand, with the north pole facing a north pole. Tell your child that the magnet
in your right hand represents living by the spirit and the magnet in your left hand represents the sinful
nature.
Try to put the magnets together. They will not go together no matter what, because north will not
attract to north.

Read Galatians 5:16-25. Show the magnets again and how they will not attract. (The sinful nature
desires what is CONTRARY to the Spirit and the Spirit what is CONTRARY to the sinful nature. They
are in conflict with each other.)

Turn one magnet around so that a north pole and a south pole are facing each other. Now, they will
not be in conflict with one another because when we live by the Spirit we keep in step with the Spirit.

Discuss with your child that when we are living by the Spirit, it shows in our lives! Just like an apple
tree bears apples, we will show the Spirit in our lives when we live by the Spirit.

Talk about each of the fruits of the Spirit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Give examples of how to show these in their lives.

Place the Fruit of the Spirit Tree on the wall or refrigerator. Cut out the fruit and put them into an
envelope, along with a glue stick. (We realize that watermelon and strawberries dont grow on trees.
But they were too cute not to include!)

Each time you see your child showing that the Spirit is working in their lives, allow them to put a piece
of fruit on a tree!).

Be sure to reinforce the scripture as you catch your child living by the Spirit (e.g. You showed a lot of
kindness to your brother. Thats the Spirit working in your life. You can go put some fruit on your
tree!).

God bless you as you train your childs character to be like Him!

Be IMITATORS!

Be IMITATORS of God, therefore as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as
Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God.
Ephesians 5:1-2

Before you introduce the Be Imitators chart to your child, place five real potatoes of different shapes
and sizes into a bag. Sit down together and discuss the following lesson.

1.Tell your child(ren) that you have some very interesting taters in your bag. Begin to introduce your
child to the taters one by one.

2. Pull out the first potato. This particular tater is named Agi-tator (agitator). Explain that Agitator is
quite an annoying pest. He likes to pick on people, get in their wayand just really agitate people.
Agi-tator is not a very fun tater to be around and everyone tries to avoid him.

3. Next introduce another taterDic-tator (dictator). Dic-tator is selfish and bossy. He always must
have his way, or he throws a big fit. He tells everyone what to do and never asks others what theyd
like to do. Its no fun to be bossed aroundso Dic-tator doesnt have many other taters to play with.
4. Our third tater is Spec-tator (spectator). (Try to choose the potato with the most eyes!) Spec-
tator sits around and just watches whats going on around him but doesnt like to get involved. He
often sees others who need help, but he just watches and waits for someone else to come and help
instead. Because Spec-tator doesnt hop up and get right to work helping others, he misses all kinds
of great opportunities to serve.

5. The next tater is called Commen-tator (commentator). Commen-tator is no common tater. No,
Commen-tator butts into everyone elses business, always interrupting conversations and trying to
get attention for himself. Not only that, Commen-tator talks about others behind their backs and is
always judging and criticizing people, instead of building them up and encouraging them. No one can
trust Commen-tator.

6. Our final tater is a lovely tater indeed. (Use a potato that is as clean and flawless as you can find.)
This tater can be found working hard to help those around him, smiling and speaking words of
encouragement to others, being a good listener, and just in general, working hard to be like Jesus.
This tater is called, Imi-tator (imitator) because he believes what the Bible says in Ephesians 5
about being imitators of God. He wants very much to give himself up as a fragrant offering and
sacrifice to God. Imi-tator finds that working to be like Jesus brings a lot of peace to his life, and his
friends and family love being around him.

7. Review each tator with your child(ren) and talk about the importance of being an Imi-tator of
Christ.

8. Show the character chart to your child. Hang the chart in a good place to remind your child to be an
imitator of Christ. Cut out the taters and put them into an envelope next to the chart. Each time your
child shows that he/she is imitating Christ, tell him/her to put a tater on the chart. God bless you as
you train your childs character to be like Him!

Treasures in Heaven!

Store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moth and rust do not destroy, and where thieves
do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.
Matthew 6:20-21

Godly Character Training:

Use a drinking glass to trace 8-10 circles on yellow paper. Cut them out to represent a coin/treasure.

Hide the coins around your house and allow your child to have a treasure hunt to find them. Sit
down with your child and talk about some of the material things they enjoy. Write each of them down
on a coin with a pen or water based marker. (e.g. TV, video games, cool clothes, jewelry, computers,
games)

Place the coins into a rubber tub. Pour dirt over the coins. Pour water over the dirt. Shake the
container to make sure that the coins get dirty, torn and smeared.
Dig out the coins and examine together what they look like. Talk about why the coins were destroyed.
Over time, all of our possessions get torn up, dirty, lost, destroyed.

Read Matthew 6:20-21 with your child and discuss that while it isnt wrong to have nice things and to
have fun playing with favorite toys, those things are earthly treasures and will not last forever.

Talk about what does last forever and what is truly important. Help your child understand what it
means to store up treasure in heaven and to have a heart focused on heaven and not on earthly
things.

Hang the Treasure Chest on the wall or refrigerator. Cut out the hearts and place them (and a glue
stick) in an envelope close to the treasure chest.

Each time you see or hear your child doing something selfless: sharing, putting down a toy to help
someone, giving some belongings to someone who has a greater need, etc. they should be told to
put a heart in their treasure chest. Be sure to reinforce the scripture by saying, Wow, when you
shared your _______ with_________, you were really storing up treasure in heaven. I can tell your
heart is focused on what is really important. (or something like thateven if it sounds a little corny on
paper!)

Every once in a while, you may need to review the concept of not placing importance on material
possessions with your childafter all, dont we all need to be constantly reminded of that?!

God bless you as you train your childs character to be like Him!

Shine Like Stars!

Do everything without complaining or arguing so that you may become blameless and pure, children
of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the
universe as you hold out the word of life in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not
run or labor for nothing.
Philippians 2:14-16

Godly Character Training:

Discuss with your child what it means to argue or complain. Give examples and let them come up
with some of their own (e.g. I dont want peas for dinner She always gets to go first But, I dont
WANT to _________ ) Be specific to your childs needs at this time. If they are struggling with
complaining about food, give examples of this. If they question every chore you tell them to do, talk
about these arguments.

While you are discussing these things with your child, hold a sparkly pipe cleaner in your hands.
Each time you talk about something that is a complaint or argument, bend the pipe cleaner in an
unattractive way.

Now talk about better ways to respond to a parent, teacher, sibling, etc. Give your child word tools for
the situations they are struggling with. Help him know how to kindly respond to things they arent
happy with (and to learn how to choose to be happy anyway!). At our house, we are training our kids
to simply say, Okay, Mama or Okay, Daddy when we tell them something. Everything else is an
argument or a complaint.
While you talk about the correct way to respond to people, shape the sparkly pipe cleaner into a star.
(You may need to practice ahead of time on this one!)

Refer back to Philippians 2:14-16, and work to help your kids understand how doing everything
without arguing and complaining makes them blameless and pure children of God and they
SHINE LIKE STARS! But, when they argue and complain, they join a crooked crowd of people, not
shining at all.

Show your kids the character charts and stars. Explain to them that when you hear them responding
kindly to a request or squelching an argument before it starts, they are shining like stars, and that
deserves a star on the chart!

Hang your charts in a place where your child will see it and be reminded to shine like a star. Cut out
the stars and place them with a glue stick into an envelope so that they will be all ready to go as soon
as you catch your childs star shining.

Be sure to refer often to the scripture as you either correct your child (Oh, it doesnt sound like your
star is shining right now because you are arguing with me.) or as you catch your child obeying
sweetly (Wow, you obeyed right away without arguing or complaining. You are really shining like a
star right now! You can go put a star on your chart!)

God bless you as you train your childs character to be like Him!

Walking in the Light

If we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another,
and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
1 John 1:7

Godly Character Training:

Sit down with your child and let him/her give you examples of nice things to do (helping set the table,
obeying Mom and Dad the first time, praying for someone, etc.) and not nice things to do (ignoring
someone, arguing, being selfish, etc.) Write these things down as your child suggests them.

Go into a dark room (the darkness level in the room depends on your childs fear of the dark!).
Hold a flashlight for your child to see that you have put a treat of some kind at the other end of the
room. Tell your child that he/she is going to take steps toward that treat as you read. Each time you
read a not nice thing from the list, turn off the flashlight and let the room to be dark. Each time you
read a nice thing from the list, turn on the flashlight, creating a path to the treat. Allow your child to
take a step toward the treat each time the flashlight is turned on. Continue until the light is on and
your child reaches the treat.

Read 1John 1:5-10 to your child. Explain that when we do wrong things, we are doing what the devil
wants us to do, and that means we are walking in darkness. But when we do what God wants us to
do, we are walking in the light. God is light!
Place the Lighted Path chart on the wall or refrigerator. Cut out the shoes and put them into an
envelope, along with a glue stick.

Each time your child shows that he/she is walking in the light, tell them to go put some feet on their
path. (e.g. You came right away when I called you to help. That shows me that youre walking in the
light. Go put some feet on your path!)

Be sure to use words from the scripture to reinforce that your child is not only being good; they are
following God and walking in His light.

God bless you as you train your childs character to be like Him!

Laura@HeavenlyHomeMakers.com

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