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Where are your fruits??

Since we’ve been out on the race, God has been using this time in my life to teach me about fruit.  Here are a few things I’ve learned about fruit since I’ve been out of the U.S.:
 
 [I know this looks like a brain, but this is a cacao fruit that they use to make chocolate!]

– Eating fruit straight from the tree is way better than buying it in the grocery store

 [This is one of the biggest oranges we have ever seen, and it was delicious!]
 
– The weirder the fruit looks, the better it probably tastes
 
 [I don’t know if you can see the tentacles sticking out, but inside is one of our favorite fruits on the whole trip!]
 
– After being surrounded by miles of Chiquita banana farms in Panama, I will no longer eat one without thinking of the people who picked them off the tree.
 

 

– I didn’t realize how much I loved fruit until it wasn’t an option

– Pineapple is by far my favorite fruit, but there are many that come in a close second.

Yes, God has taught me a lot about fruit, but even more, He’s been teaching me about the fruits of the Spirit.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.” – Galatians 5:22

The way I treat people, the attitude I have when I wake up in the morning, testify to the fruits in my life.  Am I living every minute with love in my heart?  Am I allowing other people steal my joy?  When I have to wait on someone, do I have a patient attitude or can they see that I’m irritated?  Am I believing that God truly does give us peace that surpasses all understanding?

This year, Dustin and I have been called to live a life surrounded by watchful eyes and close community, and you can look at that two different ways. The way of the flesh that frustrates you when you have no privacy, the impatience when you’ve sat through another two hour sermon NOT in your own language, the restless feeling you get when ministry plans fall through or don’t look just like you thought they would for the day…again, or the sweat that is expended each day chopping down trees and clearing out the forest.

OR

 I could let the love the God has placed in me to show others my developing fruits.  The love of having so many people in the house to have a conversation with, the peace of a sermon I can’t understand to read my Bible and talk to God personally, the joy of being creative and flexible when ministry doesn’t look like the plan, but God does miracles anyway, and learning self-control of my mouth before a complaint comes from my lips about doing hard work for the Lord.

What are your fruits?  I by no means have perfected them all, and will hopefully continue to develop my fruits for the rest of my life, but God is faithful in teaching me to be more like Him.  

So think today of what God is trying to teach you.  Today think about LOVE, JOY, PEACE, PATIENCE, KINDNESS, GOODNESS, FAITHFULNESS, GENTLENESS, AND SELF-CONTROL.