Picking Fruit

 By Sarah Bryant, Fellowship Bible Church Celebrate Recovery Devotional Team, 10/7/21

I don’t know about you but with all the craziness that’s been going on in the world the last year or so I can get worn down, and it can be hard to exemplify the fruit of the Spirit some days in the little things. 

I have to remind myself that it’s not the “fruits” of the Spirit – plural, where I can just pick one each day. 

Hold the door for an elderly lady (goodness), then tailgate someone on the interstate who is driving too slow (neither kindness nor patience). No, it’s the “fruit” of the Spirit – singular. One fruit. 

I like to think of it like a pomegranate, one fruit with a lot of seeds. I actually read a commentary the other day that said based on the original Greek it could actually be read with a colon after “love.” “But the fruit of the Spirit is love: joy, peace, patience…” Love being the fruit and the other eight items being the seeds. It’s a whole package wrapped up in love.

 

With that thought in mind I took a lighthearted but honest inventory this morning of some of the areas in my life where I’m currently struggling to live out the fruit of the Spirit.

 

            Love…your neighbor no matter how “woke” they think they are.

 

            Have Joy…even when your favorite brand of peanut butter is out of stock.

 

            Be at Peace…even when your neighbor pushes his mower past your bedroom window at 7am on a Saturday.

 

            Have Patience…even when your Amazon package delivery takes three days longer now.

           

            Show Kindness…even when you get cut off on the interstate. Keep those hand gestures   to a minimum.

 

            Do Goodness…even when your co-worker is an LSU fan, still help him with his expense             report.

 

            Exhibit Faithfulness…when you told someone you’d be there, but you really just want to            sit on the couch with your dog.

 

            Show Gentleness…even on Black Friday. Thou shall not trample a brother or sister over a sale on Instant Pots.

 

            And last but certainly not least…have Self Control…even during a Hogs game.

 

Maybe some of these resonate with you, or maybe you’ll take your own inventory. Because in all seriousness, I can’t expect to show love in the bigger things in life without practicing it in all the small day today situations.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

12 Days Of CR Christmas

Image
One of our great leader Monica rewrote the lyrics to this old Christmas song to tie into the 12 steps. We had a lot of fun singing it and love that it keeps the focus on the 12 steps thru Christmas. Great job Monica! On the first day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, the notion it’s not about me; On the second day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the third day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, the will to be faithful, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the fourth day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, my inventory, will to be faithful, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the fifth day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, the chance to come clean! my Inventory, faithfulness, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me On the sixth day of Christmas, my Savior gave to me, desire to be humble, the chance to come clean! my Inventory, faithfulness, my sanity, and the notion it’s not about me. On the
Read more

Why do we introduce ourselves?

One of the things that might confuse a newcomer coming into this great ministry is the way we introduce our self and do so every time we meet in a Step Group and/or Open discussion group. The question that often comes up is; “Why in the world would we have to introduce our self every time we come together? I mean, we all know each other don’t we? We all know what the other is struggling with right? So why should I have to state my main issue I am dealing with? These are all logical questions and I think the below content from Tina at Saddleback might help shed some light on this. As you may already know, in our small groups we ask our Leaders to introduce themselves with this statement: “Hi my name is _______; I am a believer who struggles with________.” We ask our leaders to keep it short; to stick to one or two primary areas of recovery. We ask them not to state a host of recovery issues and character defects, etc… especially because we do not run recovery specific groups for cha
Read more

Verbal Reality--Why you can't believe an addict and what you can do as a co-dependent

I recently came across the below article when websurfing for information about verbal reality, a concept a friend introduced me to last year during a time I was trying to figure out is someone was telling me the truth or not. The below article is specifically for Porn addiction, and comes from a very good website, but I've found it true with all addictive behaviors. If you've never heard of Verbal Reality, and you question whether or not your spouse is being honest, this is a good way to help you sort it out, and a great tool for your recovery. ______ Consider This. (from http://www.pornaddicthubby.com/Help-For-The-Addict.html) Addicts of any kind live in a "verbal reality." This means if they say it, it is true and if they say it passionately enough even they believe it is really true. Men who have an addiction to porn live in a verbal reality. A sex addict believes what he is saying while he is saying it. Your most helpful tool in dealing with verbal reality is look
Read more