Fruitful Sheltering

Love is the key. Joy is love singing. Peace is love resting. Patience is love enduring. Kindness is love's touch. Goodness is love's character. Faithfulness is love's habit. Gentleness is love's self-forgetfulness. Self-control is love holding the reins.  ~D.G. Barnhouse



Emily learned the fruit of the Spirit when she was quite young.  I don't remember her age, but when she was eight she was reading one of my magazines and came across an advertisement for Zondervan's Fruit of the Spirit Bible Studies.  The books were fanned out so that you couldn't see the title of each one.  Emily couldn't understand why there were only eight books.  I wrote to Zondervan and this is what they said. 

Page in Emily's Self Esteem Notebook

Dear Pamela,
Your daughter is perceptive!  We bundled "goodness" with "kindness."  Stores have an easier time displaying on their shelves 8 titles (or at least an even number) in a Bible study series.  To go outside that standard can cause confusion among restocking clerks in stores.

Now at eighteen, the fruit of the Spirit are evident in her life.  Each fruit.  Kindness and goodness aren't bundled together.  Each one is evident and distinct.  When others tell me Emily is just naturally sweet, I want to protest.  Nobody is naturally sweet.  Terry Fullam said, "The fruit of the Spirit grows only in the garden of obedience."  Obedience is a choice.  It is only through a consistent choice to obey that God's fruit grows in Emily and in her momma! 

Here's what Emily wrote at age eight:

I came up with a neat game to help me grow the Fruit of the Spirit in my heart.  I filled a basket with fruit (Mine is plastic, but it can be fruit you have drawn.)  Each fruit will represent a Fruit of the Spirit.  Each week I will pick a fruit and concentrate on applying it to my life.  This week's fruit is peace.  With the war beginning I have a lot of fears.  I'm learning the verses,"He will keep in perfect peace all who trust in him, whose thoughts turn often to the Lord" (Isaiah 26:3) and,"I will lie down in peace and sleep, for though I am alone, O Lord, you will keep me safe" (Psalm 4:8).  Each verse is printed on a fruit and when I learn it I put it in a basket we made for the door.  Mom tries to fix something for a snack in the flavor of the fruit I pick.  What's really good is apples dipped in caramel sauce or sprinkled with cinnamon and sugar!

Photo by Emily

How about you -- Are the Fruit of the Spirit evident in your life?  I found this "where we live" worksheet by Dave Ahl to rate them in my life.  You may want to use it yourself.  I (and I believe my dear readers) desire these fruit to be evident.  It's easy to be discouraged at the "slow growth."  After we plant a seed, we watch for the first tiny shoots, then it grows larger, sturdier. The fruit is the last to appear.  Plant seeds of love, joy, and peace.  It won't be long until others will see your fruit and be challenged to "taste and see that the Lord is good" -- the comfort and blessing of your sheltering tree...

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Fruit Salsa Blessing

Photo by Emily

Kiwi

Apples

Strawberries

Pineapple

2 T white sugar

1 T brown sugar

3 T jelly (I used sugar free peach)

Dice the fruit. You can use any fresh fruit you have on hand. Add the sugars (Splenda works) and jelly.  Mix well.  Brush melted butter on tortillas.  Cut each tortilla into six pieces.  Sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.  Bake at 350 degrees for 7 minutes.  

Emily is a fruit lover so I blessed my family with this recipe.  I also made up a basket for a dear friend.  I really wished I had a book to go with this gift.  Super Fruit Blueberries: Improve your memory and your eyesight would have been a fun book -- just because my friend would have seen the humor.  But what I would have picked if I would have thought through the project a bit longer is Living Beyond Yourself: Exploring the Fruit of the Spirit by Beth Moore.

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