10 Bible Stories for Children About Kindness

What Does the Bible Say About Kindness?

The Bible has a great deal to say about kindness. As Jesus walked in his ministry, he showed several traits — some of the most notable traits that Jesus displayed while on earth were compassion and kindness.

However, the Gospels are only one of many places we can see these critical traits displayed in the Bible. In the Old Testament, courageous people extend kindness when it looks impossible.

There are many reasons why biblical mercy and empathy are something we can teach our kids and implement in our own lives. It encourages us to look beyond ourselves and see people the way Jesus would.

This doesn’t mean we allow anyone and everyone to walk all over us. Instead, it means we seize opportunities to show mercy and grace despite our human flesh.

Bible Stories that Teach Kids about Kindness

Taking a look into Bible stories that teach kids about kindness is a great place to begin.

The ten stories in this article is a great place to start if you want to show your kids examples of being kind to those around us. These stories take a look at topics of love and giving kindness to people who you may think don’t necessarily deserve it. Furthermore, sometimes kindness comes out of nowhere from people you would least expect it.

The Good Samaritan

• Found In: Luke 10:30-37

One story of kindness comes from Luke 10. Jesus tells it as a parable. During Jesus’s time, there were marginalized groups that the Jews did not associate with. These groups were considered “unclean.” One of those groups was the Samaritans. Samaritans were considered “unclean” because they often intermarried.

Additionally, they built their own temple to sacrifice to God. However, Jesus wanted the people to understand that grace and kindness should and can come from unlikely sources. We have to take a step back when it comes to our prejudices. The simple act of putting aside prejudices is seen in the story of the Good Samaritan.

Before Jesus begins the parable of the Good Samaritan, he is asked by someone deemed “an expert in Jewish law,” “Who is my neighbor?” Jesus responds with this parable.

The Good Samaritan

One day, a Jewish man gets attacked while he is traveling to Jericho. He was brutally bombarded and left for dead. Thankfully, it appears he was fortunate because a Jewish priest walks by. However, the priest did not stop to help. Instead, he passed to the other side of the street. Next came a Levite, who was a temple assistant. However, like the priest, the Levite passed to the other side of the street, even though he saw the Jewish man lying half dead on the street.

Last came a man from Samaria. When he saw the man lying half dead in the street, he did not see his Jewish roots and how their people despised his people. Instead, he had compassion for the man. So the Samaritan stopped to help, dress his wounds, and take the man to an inn. Here, he paid for his treatment.

At the parable’s end, Jesus asks, “Which of these three would you say was a neighbor to the man who bandits attacked?” The expert in Jewish law replied, “The one who showed him mercy.”

Jesus then tells the man to go and do the same.

We learn from this parable that extending kindness goes beyond who we are comfortable with. It also should be extended to those we don’t understand or disagree with, especially if they are hurt and in need.

This story is where the term “A Good Samaritan” comes from.

The Widow of Zarephath

• Found In: 1 Kings 17:8-16

During a drought, Elijah was instructed by the Lord to go to a village named Zarephath. God told him there he would find a widow and to ask her to feed him. When Elijah finds the woman in the village, he asks her to feed him. She replies that she didn’t have any bread in the house. All she had left was enough flour and oil to make one more loaf of bread for her and her son. Elijah asks her to feed him first; if she did, she and her son would continuously have enough flour and oil to eat for days after.

The Widow of Zarephath had no reason to believe that she would continuously have bread to eat. After all, they were in a drought. She could have written Elijah off, considered him a liar, or, at the very least, a little loony. How do flour and oil appear out of nowhere? Instead, she did what Elijah asked and then fed him. Because of her faith and kindness, the Lord blessed her with a continuous supply of flour and oil to make bread to feed her son and herself during the drought.

Ruth Stays with Naomi

• Found In: Ruth 1:16-17

The beautiful story of a young woman named Ruth can be found in the Old Testament. Ruth married a man whose mother’s name was Naomi. She also had a sister-in-law, Orpah. After a short while, tragedy struck. First, Naomi’s husband passed away.

Then Ruth and Orpah also lost their husbands. Now, three widowed women needed to figure out a way to survive.

It’s important to note that women did not have many options during this time. They typically relied on family and husbands. Therefore, Noami decided to go back to her hometown. However, she tells her daughters-in-law to return to their mothers before she leaves. They are still young, and God may grant them kindness with another spouse.

Ruth Stays with Naomi

Orpah decided to take Naomi up on that suggestion. Ruth, however, tells Naomi, No. “Where you go, I’ll go. Where you live, I will live. Your people will be my people, and your God will be mine.” (Ruth 1:16)

Ruth showed Naomi great kindness by sticking with her during a trying and challenging time. Even though leaving and going back to her mother would have been easier, Ruth chose the difficult option to show Naomi love.

Boaz Helps Ruth

• Found In: Ruth 2

The story of Boaz is a continuation of Ruth. In the second book of Ruth, she arrives in Naomi’s hometown. Since they were women with little means, she needed to figure out how to provide for her and Naomi. She decides to go to a field and pick up leftover stalks of grain, the ones that the workers dropped. Boaz was a wealthy and influential man who owned the fields where Ruth happened to go to. (He was a relative of Naomi’s late husband.)

During the day, Boaz notices Ruth and asks about her. When he finds out she is a widow, he tells her to stay in his field and walk closely behind the others to pick up what is dropped.

He then tells Ruth that he told the young men to leave her alone and that if she was thirsty, she should go ahead and grab herself a drink. As Ruth thanked Boaz, she asked why she deserved such kindness. He replied that he had heard about the kindness she showed her mother-in-law.

Boaz later married Ruth, and she and Naomi were secure once again.

Jesus Washes the Disciple’s Feet

• Found In: John 13:1-17

Before the Passover Feast, Jesus knew he was about to be crucified. He wanted the disciples to understand precisely why he had come and what to do once he left. So, despite their objections, Jesus washed their feet. He told them that though they didn’t understand now, they would. After he was done, he told the disciples that he washed their feet so they could do the same.

The act of washing their feet, even though he was about to suffer an unimaginable crucifixion, shows Christians how Jesus desires us to live. God wants us to remain humble and set a loving and kind example for those around us.

Rahab Hides the Israelite Spies

• Found In: Joshua 2

When Joshua sent two men to spy on Jericho (the land the Israelites were going to take for their own), they stayed with a prostitute named Rahab.

When news spread that two spies were in Jericho, the King sent for Rahab and told her to bring the men to her. However, instead of giving them up, she hid them on her roof and sent the soldiers looking for them in the wrong direction.

Rahab did this because she knew deep in her heart that their God was the true God. Before she helped the spies escape, she asked them to please spare her life when they raided the city.

Rahab Hides the Israelite Spies

So, the spies gave Rahab a scarlet cord and told her they would not touch anyone in the home if she displayed it on the outside of her house during the attack.

Since Rahab showed such kindness to two spies, believing they were serving the one true God, her life was spared.

King David Protecting Jonathan’s Son

• Found In: 2 Samuel 9:1-13

To understand this story of King David and Mephibosheth, you have to journey back a bit. After David killed Goliath, he became King Saul’s secondhand man. However, God had warned Saul that he would lose his throne. The King became obsessed with trying to get rid of David by killing him.

King Saul’s son Jonathan and David became best friends during this time. Jonathan went to great lengths to help David escape his scheming father. He swore an oath to David because he was his best friend. The Bible tells us that Jonathan “loved David like he loved himself.” (1 Samuel 18:3)

King David Protecting Jonathan’s Son

After David became King and Saul was gone, he remembered Jonathan. He asked a servant of Saul if anyone from Saul’s family was still alive, and that’s when he found out Jonathan’s son, Mephibosheth, was still alive. The servant went on to explain to David that he was also disabled (the Bible states he was disabled in both feet.)

David has Mephibosheth brought to him. That’s when David gifts everything that was Saul’s to him. David tells him that he will eat with him at the King’s table and that he and his children and descendants will have everything that belonged to his grandfather. David also tells Mephibosheth that he made a promise to Jonathan and planned on keeping it. Even though David had every right to shun Saul’s family, he didn’t because of Jonathan’s love for him.

The kindness Jonathan showed David secured the security of his future generation, even though he wasn’t alive to see it.

How Jesus Lived His Life

• Found In: The Four Gospels

When he started his ministry, Jesus traveled with his disciples for three years. During this time, he preached the gospel message. While straightforward with the gospel news, he showed love at every chance. Kindness is displayed in Jesus’s acts and how he lived throughout his ministry. He healed the sick and the blind and showed compassion to his followers. He did this even when they were not doubtlessly frustrated because of their lack of understanding.

Jesus sat with the children and listened to them. He also ministered to those who had left God or were sinning. He didn’t do this to condone their lifestyle but to show his love for them so that they may turn from their sins and follow him.

Zacchaeus Gives Away His Possessions

• Found In: Luke 19:1-10

During Jesus’ ministry, one day, he passed through a crowd. In that crowd was a man named Zacchaeus. Zacchaeus was a known despised tax collector. He was seen as an oppressor who stole from the Jews. However, he wanted to see Jesus so badly that he climbed a tree because he was so short.

Jesus knew he was in the tree and asked him to come down. He told Zacchaeus that he was going to eat at his house tonight. Yet, when the crowd heard this, they were displeased; they grumbled about how Jesus was dining with a known sinner.

Zacchaeus Gives Away His Possessions

Zacchaeus, moved by Jesus’s presence, claimed he would give half of his possessions to people experiencing poverty. He also said that if he had cheated anyone with their taxes, he would pay them back four times as much. Jesus responded by telling Zaccheus that salvation had come to his home that day.

Woman Who Washed Jesus’ Feet

• Found In: Luke 7:36-50

In the New Testament, Jesus went to dine with a Pharisee at his home. While they were there, a sinner woman came to Jesus. She brought an alabaster jar of perfume. The woman fell at Jesus’ feet, washing them with perfume and tears. She then dried his feet with her hair. During this time, the Pharisees grew angry and thought that if Jesus knew who she was, he wouldn’t allow her there.

During this time, Jesus knew what he was thinking and asked him the question in the form of a parable. The parable was about two men who owed a banker money, one 5,000 and one 50. However, the banker forgave both their debts. Jesus asked which of these people would love the banker more. The Pharisee replied with “the one who owed more.” That is when Jesus turned to the woman and said her sins were forgiven.

Woman Who Washed Jesus’ Feet

We can see kindness displayed in several ways here. In Jewish custom, it was typical for a person to wash the feet of their guests. However, the Pharisees did not extend this kindness to Jesus. Additionally, kissing was another greeting sign that the Pharisees did not extend. Jesus points out that the woman washed his feet and kissed him while the Pharisees did not. Additionally, Jesus forgives her of her sins. We can see kindness comes from the woman and also Jesus.

In Conclusion

While these Bible stories are great for teaching kindness to children, they aren’t the only ones out there. In both the New and Old Testaments, we can find amazing stories of how ordinary people give kindness to those who least expected it. If you are looking for examples to show your kids how to be kind to those around them, even if those people think, act, or look different than your children are used to, these stories from the Bible are a great place to start.