At breakfast on Tuesday, my four-year-old tore her blueberry muffin in half and handed one piece to her little sister, grinning like she'd just won the Olympics. About thirty seconds later she snatched it back. "Actually, I changed my mind." The toddler screamed so loud the dog left the room.
So, yeah. Kindness is still under construction at our house.
Why the Good Samaritan Works on Little Kids
Out of all the Bible stories about kindness, this is the one my kids actually hang onto. I think it's because it has a villain, a crisis, and a hero nobody saw coming. Two important guys walk right past the hurt man. The outsider is the one who stops.
We act it out in the hallway. A teddy bear lies face-down on the rug while two kids stroll past with their noses in the air, and the third one runs for the Band-Aids. My son once used an entire box on that poor bear. Wasteful? Totally. He still remembers exactly what the Samaritan did, though.
Jesus wraps it up with "Go and do likewise" (Luke 10:37). Kids take that very literally, which honestly might be the whole point.
Children's Stories About Jesus That Show Small Kindnesses
Not every compassion story needs a big rescue. Some of the sweetest children's stories about Jesus are tiny. A boy offers up his lunch, "five small barley loaves and two small fish" (John 6:9), and somehow it feeds a hillside full of people. Or Jesus invites himself over to eat with a tax collector the whole town couldn't stand.
Little kids can only do little things. Split a granola bar, maybe, or sit by the new kid at preschool. Those stories tell them that small stuff counts.
What to Say After the Story
My honest opinion? Skip the moral at the end. You can watch their eyes glaze over the second you say, "And what this teaches us is…"
Try one question instead. "Who was kind in that story?" Then later, maybe in the car: "Who could you be nice to tomorrow?" My daughter's answers swing between adorable and baffling. Last week it was "the mailman's dog."
On the nights I'm too wiped out to read, the kindness stories in Abba Kid come in handy. They're animated with zero ads, and the quick quiz at the end gets my five-year-old chattering about what happened without me nudging. We still keep a stack of children's Christian books by the bed for slower evenings, though. Some nights a paper page and a warm lap just beat a screen.
When Kindness Doesn't Seem to Stick
Some weeks none of it lands. You read about the Samaritan on Tuesday, and on Wednesday you're refereeing a full-on brawl over a scooter. That's normal. Kids pick up compassion the same way they learn to tie their shoes: sloppily, over and over, and then all at once.
Ephesians 4:32 says, "Be kind and compassionate to one another." My girls can't quote it yet. But this morning, the muffin thief gave her sister the bigger half. Nobody even asked her to.
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