Fruitiness

A few years back my older sister, Jennifer, did a Bible study on the fruits of the Spirit. She shared her wisdom and it got me thinking... let's live the gospel in such a way that Christ through us brings Galatians 5:22-23 (But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!) to reality in every day living. With God's promise to transform us and make us a new creation (Galatians 6:14-16) there will be evidence in the fruit of whether we've surrendered ALL of us over to Christ daily or tried to hold back some areas from His leadership.

So as our kids began school we started talking about fruit in our lives of Christ's gift of salvation. We began to ask intentional questions at the end of the school day. Not just, "How was your day?" or "What did you learn today?" but questions about the fruit of the Spirit.
"When did you practice self-control today?"
"What moments did you feel God's strength giving you patience when you felt frustrated?
"Did you witness others being kind?"
You get the point. Some may think, what 4 or 5 year old understands that? Well, when it's the language that we begin to use on a regular basis the kids actually begin looking for the fruits of the Spirit. They become excited to share about it. They've also begun praying for the fruits of the Spirit before school for themselves, their teachers and their classmates. What a beautiful space a school would be to see Jesus face all over a classroom that is displaying - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. What a beautiful space it would be in our homes to show evidence of Christ in our lives through these fruits of the Spirit.

Do we fall short each day - Yes. It's a great opportunity to work on sincere apologies and forgiveness b/c it's doubtful we'll ever get all 9 of them on any one day with our own strength. But with God's intentional transformation in our lives, our willingness to surrender, and the power of the Holy Spirit, beautiful, connected relationships can thrive in our homes, schools and communities with such fruitiness :)