But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Galatians 5:22-23
Back when I was a child in Sunday school, on one of the walls was a cork board with a construction paper tree on it – just the roots, trunk, and branches. The above verses bordered the corkboard. A new “fruit” was pinned on the tree’s branches each week. An apple represented love. All of us kids, on the first week, were given a paper apple with “love” printed on it to pin wherever we wanted on the tree. We were given oranges for joy the next week.. Bananas for peace the following week; and so on until there were nine different fruits on the tree. You could no longer see the apples and oranges by the end of the nine weeks because they were covered up by the newer fruit.
Fruit of the Spirit as a To-Do List
I grew up thinking these “fruits” were things to achieve and check off as they were realized. Kind of like a “to-do” list. Love? Checked. Joy? Checked. Peace? Still working on that one. Patience? Can I cross that one off the list? I fail miserably at this fruit stuff. I lose my self-control over and over again. Kindness gets put on the back burner especially when I am driving on the freeways. Patience is not a virtue for me. I try and I try but always falter. I thought the Spirit will never find a home in me..
Then one day, the light bulb went off in my head. I was looking at this whole fruit thing backwards. I discovered the Spirit was already inside me. Therefore, the fruit was also already inside of me. It came as a seed and needed to grow. That’s where these nine elements come into play.
Fruit Starts as a Seed
The seed was planted inside of me when the Spirit came inside of me. That happened when I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. A “normal” seed needs the correct temperature, moisture, air, light, soil, and fertilizer to grow to maturity. The “fruit” seed inside of me needs the nine elements of the Spirit in the correct amounts to grow into something pretty special. That is the tricky part; figuring out the amounts. Are they all equal with equal amounts? Is love more important than kindness and peace? Is that why love is first? One thing is certain: seeds need constant attention. Time and intentionality make us Christ-like.
These elements will become more apparent in my life as I become more Christ-like and serve God by loving and aiding others. Nobody said it would be easy. We are human after all. We try to find the easy way to do everything. But everyday we live is one more chance to get it right. The Fruit of the Spirit will grow to maturity and one day it will taste delicious.
In the coming weeks, I will discuss each element of the Fruit of the Spirit. In the meantime, tell me what you think about all this. How do you feel about the Fruit of the Spirit?
What a noble thing that you started, a blog site. Nine fruit seeds inside of me? Well, I’d better be a good soil – which makes me more aware of my intakes of soul and physical foods and nourishments. What a creative thought!
I hope we’re all good soil. 1 Corinthians 6:19-20 says, “Do you not know that your bodies are temples of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore, honor God with your bodies.” Good nourishment for our bodies, brains, hearts, and souls are a must. But I succumb to chocolate. But it’s now dark chocolate which is a little healthier for you. Thank you for taking the time to visit my website. I hope you will come back for more.
What a great opening topic–Fruit of the Spirit. I look forward to a good conversation about Ms. Crabtree’s take on each of the fruits. After all, these elements of the life experience here on earth are what makes living sweet (pun intended).
I’m so glad you approve. Please stay tuned; another fruit post is coming soon!