Ok, friends. I love this part. The Virtues Fruit fun! With each Virtue we explore here, there is a fruit for it. Why? To make concrete the idea that virtues are the spiritual fruits on the tree of a our character. We call these Virtues Fruits.

Yes, there are other activities to the Virtues Tree (from Intro & Inspiration to Art & Science fun) that come before a beautiful Virtues Fruit. These are foundational and necessary to get to the fruit – to lay down the concept, play with it, explore it, internalize it, love it. It’s like the sun, water, and good soil that a tree needs before it can bear fruit.

But the fruit! Ah! It’s sweet. And holds promise of new life that will continue to unfold.

So here’s the intro to the first Virtues Fruit for our Virtues Tree: Purity Papaya! Or Pure Heart Papaya – whichever you like! My kids decided on Purity Papaya for our tree. Your child will make a Purity or Pure Heart Papaya to add to your Virtues Tree soon.

Why Papaya?

Many years ago in our family’s first adventure with a Virtues Tree, a Pure Heart – or purity of heart as we also called it – was one of the virtues we did. Every time we focused on a new virtue, I’d get the kids involved to help pick a fruit for it.

And the criteria included that it start with the same letter and ideally sound. Not always easy. But not hard for P. We already had Patience Plum and Peacefulness Pomegranate, so we looked at the other choices.

After looking at all the pictures of remaining P-fruits, my children chose the papaya, also known as papaw or pawpaw.

Not sure why they didn’t pick the pear or peach. Papaya won that day!

I’m so glad. I think it works so well with the purity concept, as you’ll see here:

To start your fun with a Purity Papaya, buy a papaya from the store together or pick one if you live somewhere where they grow. Wait for it to ripen from green into a nice marbled green with yellows and oranges. It should be soft enough to yield to pressure, but not too soft that it’s starting to pit or bruise (as ours did).

Once ripe, cut it open lengthwise in two halves. Have fun discovering the seeds inside.

Ask your child to describe some emotions, thoughts, or actions that naturally happen during the day that can leave them feeling “yucky” if they hold onto them for too long. Imagine that the seeds are these things that one can clear out of the heart of the papaya to create a Purity Papaya.

Next, invite your child to scoop out all the seeds to “purify” the papaya.

Enjoy admiring the beauty of the papaya meat that’s cleared of its seeds. (If your kid is super curious and wants to eat try eating a seed, they are apparently edible. We didn’t try them, so I can’t comment on the taste, etc. but let us know if you do!)

Then, cut it up and eat the Purity Papaya pure: raw and all by itself! Invite your child to serve it up beautifully to the family and any friends who are next over. One fun way to do this is by cutting the papaya into small hearts using a heart-shaped cookie cutter. We find this even easier to do with watermelon, if you like the heart-sharped fruit idea but don’t have papaya lovers in your family. We tried both.

Many children have a ball playing waiter and using fancy, occasional, or even play dishes to serve something special that they prepared. Offering others prepared Purity Papaya is a great way to let a child’s pure, kindly, and radiant heart shine through service.

If you have a lot of papaya left over, try making a Purity Papaya Smoothie.

And if your kid is into crafts or would benefit from thinking about why it’s a great idea to avoid filling ourselves up with negativity, then try the Purity Papaya Mirror Activity. It’s also can be a great way to get him to clip his uber-long fingernails.

At the end of our Pure Heart activities, I asked my kids what were the highlights for them. My kid who most loves nature and science didn’t hesitate:

“What was your favorite Pure Heart activity?”

“The Purity Papaya! I loved scooping out the seeds!” 😉

Purity Papaya Extension for Older Kids

If you have older children, you can ask them to research pure papayas versus GMO papayas to see what they learn. Do this research in advance yourself so you’re familiar with the fact that papayas are one of the leading GMO foods in the world and also the issues faced by papaya farms in Hawaii for example. Discuss the pros and cons of pure versus modified foods with your kids.

Or you can do what I did, which is just share the research I’d stumbled across with them and chat about it. Informal, but worked for us!

If you tried any of the above, please share some of your insights and suggestions! Also, what other ideas do you have for using a papaya as a launching pad to understand a Pure Heart?