love.
joy.
peace.
patience
kindness.
goodness.
faithfulness.
gentleness.
self control.
Does this list feel like a cold drink on a warm day, or does it send chills up your spine because you don’t recognize any of them in your life? I have leaned towards the latter lately. So, I thought it would be good for all of us at our house (and by that I mean myself) to have a reminder of what the Spirit controlled life looks like (hint: see above list from Galatians 5:22,23). I am spending time each week focusing on a different quality and then the following week sharing it with my girls. 2 weeks for mom, 1 week for them. This is by design. Hopefully they will see it in me before I teach it to them.
In the New Living Translation version of the Bible it says, ” But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives He will produce this kind of fruit in us…..” He produces the fruit. My job is to give Him control to do it. When I try to produce this kind of fruit myself, I end up with one big mess.
The best picture I have of this was from a Bible teacher I heard in college named Jim Sylvester. He said that when we are not spirit controlled the fruit we produce is like a moldy, rotten, smelly peach. No one wants that. But when I let the Spirit produce His fruit in and through me, it is like a crisp red ripe apple that makes a glorious crunch when you bite it. And the juice runs down your chin. It is so good. You want more. More importantly, others want what you have.
So I have to ask myself this question: Does anyone around me want what I have? Am I allowing His fruit to be produced though me in such a way that it is recognizable as His produce? More importantly, what will my family say?
On second thought…maybe 2 weeks is not enough for mommy.
So far to go,
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