Fruits of the Spirit

This week in meeting with students, we've been talking about the fruits of the Spirit. In Galatians 5:22-23 it list the fruits of the Spirit as: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control. Pretty much as Christians this list should be a check list for things in our lives. It is very much the way that we should be walking day to day.

In my meetings with students, I made a chart of the fruits and then we went through them. The first column listed the fruits, the second column was about how they currently are in our lives, and the third column was about how we can improve them in our lives. I must say this was not as fun as it sounds. It was good, but not that much fun.

By the end of my chart, I realized that I choose when I want to let the fruits show forth and when I want to hide them. For instance I am really good at loving people when I want to love them, however loving the unlovable is not so great in my life. Also joy. I am a joyful person, but I've realized I choose who I want to share my joy with. To some extent in all of the fruits, I choose when I want to use them. This my friends is and incorrect use of the fruits.

Jesus showed froth all the fruits all the time. If we are to be like Jesus, then we should do the same. I should execute love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self-control all the time. It doesn't matter who I am around, I should show forth all of the fruits.

Yeah, that was not so fun to learn this week. It's great and it's valuable and I'm better for it. But learning with God is not always easy. It is often hard, challenging, and painful. But hey it causes me to be a better person, so I am happy for it! Until then......