Kind to Everyone

This page is for you, the parent or teacher — not for the child.

Fifteen studies, five weekdays a week, three weeks. One short passage a day. It is built to be a child’s whole Bible time for the day and to take fifteen or twenty minutes, not an hour.

This is the fifth of the six thematic plans.

The shape of one day

1. Read the passage out loud. Twice. You read it the first time. Let the child read it the second time if they can.
2. Close the Bible and have them tell it back in their own words. This is the step everybody skips, and it is the one that does the work. If it comes out thin, read it again and let them try again. Don’t correct the retelling into a lecture — just ask, “what happened next?”
3. Ask the four questions. Let the silence sit. A seven-year-old needs longer to answer than you think, and the first thing they say is usually not the thing they mean.
4. Help them land one “I will.” On this plan that is the whole point — see below.
5. Pray. The prayer under each day is there if they want it; their own words are better.

The four questions

Every day, the same four:

1. What does this show me about God?
2. What does it show me about people — and about me?
3. What will I obey this week?
4. Who will I tell?

Under each day you’ll find a kid-sized version of each one. On this plan question 4 bends into “who am I going to do this for?” — the follow-ups say it that way, because kindness has a person’s name on it or it isn’t kindness yet. The site-wide question itself is unchanged, and telling somebody is still a good answer.

Why this plan is the easiest of the twelve to ruin

Because “be kind” is the one instruction every adult already gives, twenty times a day, usually while tired.

If these three weeks turn into a longer version of be nice to your sister, the plan is dead. Kindness in these fifteen days is not politeness, not niceness, and not staying out of trouble. It costs something, and it goes to people who cannot pay it back. A prince gives away his own crown. A widow cooks her last meal for a stranger. A farmer drops grain on purpose and tells his workers to say nothing. Four friends destroy a roof.

Two things follow from that:

• Don’t use the study as leverage. If day 9 becomes “and THAT is why you should include your brother,” you have swapped a discovery for a scolding and they will stop answering honestly.
• Don’t accept “be nicer” as an answer. It is the sound of a child ending the conversation. Ask again: to whom, and when?

Make the “I will” real — this is the plan

Every day should end with one action that has a name in it and a day on it. Say it like that: who, and when? Nothing else in these three weeks matters as much.

✗ “I’ll be kinder.” ✓ “At break on Tuesday I’m going to ask Daniela to play, because she’s always on her own.”

✗ “I’ll help more.” ✓ “On Saturday I’m going to carry Mrs Ortiz’s bags in from the car without her asking.”

Then ask about it the next day, before you read. Did you do it? What happened? Asking is what turns this from a reading plan into a habit of obeying — and on this plan the fifteen small things a child actually does are the fruit, not the fifteen right answers.

Keep a list on the fridge. Three weeks of named, dated kindnesses is a remarkable thing for a child to look back at.

When it doesn’t work

Some of them will go badly. The kid at break says no. The neighbour is short with them. The brother is unimpressed. This will happen, and it is worth being ready for, because a child’s first conclusion is that they did something wrong.

Say it before it happens, around day 5: kindness is not a trick that makes people like you. It is a thing you do because God is like that. Day 12 is the day for this — nine out of ten never came back to say thank you, and Jesus healed all ten anyway.

The uncomfortable days

• Day 7 — Elisha feeds the raiding party that came to capture him. Expect “but they were the bad guys.” That is the right reaction; let it sit. The raids stopped.
• Day 11 — invite the people who cannot invite you back. Most children (and adults) run their friendships as swaps. This is the day to notice that out loud, gently, about yourself too.
• Day 15 — “you did it to me.” Don’t over-explain it. A child does not need a theology of it to feed somebody. Pick one item off Jesus’ list and do it as a family this week.

Ages, and mixed ages

Written for roughly ages 6–12. A six-year-old will need you to read it and will answer in one sentence; an eleven-year-old can read it themselves and write their answers down. If you have both at the table, read once for everybody and let them answer at their own depth. Don’t split them up — the younger ones learn how to answer by hearing the older ones do it.

For younger children, days 3 and 4 need a sentence of setup: Jonathan is the king’s son who should have been king next, and Mephibosheth is the grandson of the old king, which normally made him a dead man.

Repeats from the other plans

Zacchaeus (day 13) also appears in Telling the Truth, and Jonathan and David turn up in the storyline plans. That is on purpose — a child meets a story once and hears something different the second time. If they say “we did this one,” ask what it shows about God anyway, then ask what is different about reading it as a story about kindness.

If you miss a day

Pick up where you left off. Fifteen studies is fifteen studies whether it takes three weeks or five. Whatever you start, finish.