"the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires."
This year at our women's retreat, we sang an old VBS song to remind ourselves that the Fruit of the Spirit is not a kumquat...or a strawberry...or any other fruit that you might name. I frankly don't even know what a kumquat is but was relieved to find out that others didn't know either!
It's a silly song and a fun way to segue into a more serious discussion in our small groups, where we discussed the specific fruit that we felt the Spirit was working on in our lives right now. I was in the gentleness, goodness and self-control group.You might be thinking that is just the group I needed to be in...and you are probably right!
We had another small group activity where we were given some specific items: toilet paper, paper clips, foil, pipe cleaners, and marshmallows and had to craft a depiction of our particular fruit(s)...here are some pictures of the finished products:
We shed a few tears in our small groups and we had a lot of laughs as our "projects" were presented. It may seem silly as you read about it...but it was really a great way to get out of the box to think about the fruit that the Holy Spirit produces in us. And to think about how He is going about that in my life on a daily basis. I came away asking myself questions like these:
Am I aware of how the Spirit is working these things out in me?
Am I working against Him?
Do others see this fruit growing in me?
Am I being intentional about allowing the Spirit to work in me so that this fruit takes root and grows?
That may be the take-home, right there. Being intentional about looking for how and where and why the Spirit is bringing forth fruit in my life and purposefully working with Him, rather than against Him. The result will then be, not a garden full of fruits, but a life filled with The Fruit that comes from the work of the Spirit.
- Holly Barrett
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