Fruit

The fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness, faithfulness, and self control.

God has put fruit on my heart. For the next 9 weeks (at least) I will be studying, meditating on, praying on, noticing, practicing and be transformed by the fruits of the spirit. A fruit a week. This week was L.O.V.E.

The first thought I had of the fruit of Love was that I could study and meditate on it for the rest of my life and still not fully grasp and understand it. I thought of the Love passage in 1 Corinthians. I thought of all the letters of the apostle John and his words that are also printed on the ring I wear everyday "God is Love" I thought of the entire Bible as a whole and how it is essentially a love story of God going to all kinds of great lengths to get his Beloved back. I thought about the love my family has among one another. The love I have for my friends. And also the love that husbands and wives share. I thought of the hippie movement that is resurfacing with the "All you need is love" attitude. I thought of the love the Father has for the Son and the Son for the Father. And of course the love the Father and Son have for us. I thought of the Shema, and the way Jesus added to it in the New Testament saying "love your neighbor as yourself" The two greatest commandments are about love. How can love transform us? Why is it so important...so big? Because that's what our hearts crave. It's what we function for. It's what we were created for. We were created to love God and Love others.

Here are some ways this week that I have noticed love come softly:

Being celebrated on my birthday
Discipleship time with Jackie
Saturday "guys time" seeing the male students here genuinely seek to be godly men
The love the students have for one another
Random encouragement
Sitting with a friend while she simply lets her troubles spill out
Special "kisses" from God in the form of waterfalls, butterflies, still evenings, and gentle whispers

Here's some things I learned about love:

Sometimes I just don't feel loving, and that's when I have to pray God to give that to me
Love is not a feeling-it's living and active
Some people are MUCH harder to love than others.
Love is freeing, never binding
Love is a choice, you don't just "fall" in love, you choose to love.
God's love is much bigger and more purer than we in our humanness can understand. But I still try my best.

I could go on and on about love and what God is teaching me about it.

I'm loving this "fruity" journey so far :) I'm excited to see what else God has to tell me. Next week is Joy.

I love you all mucho mucho mucho!!!!!