Fruit of the Spirit

Before I get into what I really want to talk about I have a few health updates. I have been off my acid blocker since Friday and it's killing me. Friday night and Saturday night I slept maybe two hours both nights. I am nauseous all the time and have bad acid re-flux at night. But I have to do this for a blood test Monday morning. My doctor wants to see if I produce too much acid. I'm no expert but with what I am feeling I would say yes. And dealing with it right now is no fun.

Now on to other things. 

Those of us who grew up in church know the verse Galatians 5:22-23 "But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithful, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law." Now I believe that when the Holy Spirit comes to dwell in us we automatically get those things. They are like a package deal because the Holy Spirit has those things. But because we are also human we tend to suck at putting those things into practice. Well maybe I shouldn't say we because I don't know about you but I suck at being in step with the Spirit. I find that there are times in my life when I need to practice some of these more than others. The thing is, I have never been any good at practicing. But when it comes to the fruit of the Spirit I want to practice. I want to stretch out my spiritual muscles and put them to use. Different periods in my life I have to work on building up different spiritual muscles. Much like weight lifters have leg days, arm days, and core days I believe that working out the fruit of the Spirit in our life is the same. We are given them but to me they don't come naturally. My humanness wants to win over the spiritual, so I have to build up those things in my life forming healthy spiritual habits. 

Now this may not seem like it goes together but hear me out. 

I am a logical thinker. It makes me feel like I have some control over something. In a life that I can't control I like to at least feel like I have a good plan. I don't like to think with my emotions because that to me seems fickle because my emotions are ever changing. I am that girl who makes pros and cons lists for everything. I used to write them out but I have gotten so good at it that I can keep a mental list of pros and cons for things in my head. I like that kind of order. I always say that in the Mystery Inc. gang from Scooby-Doo I would be Velma. I also tend to think that I like the TV show BONES because I can be a bit like Temperance Brennan. I like things to make logical sense. I like to put all the pieces together before I say what the puzzle is. And much like these characters I have a hard time understanding things when they don't make logical sense and it's frustrating to me. I wish I could understand things that don't seem to fit together. 

This leads me to this. 

Lately I have been having to deal with situations that make no logical sense to me. And I am trying to deal with that and see situations from other perspectives. Which means I am having to work on my self control and my gentleness. When things don't make logical sense I want to tell everyone why. I want people to see from my perspective instead of changing my own because I start to think mine is the best. But it's not. So I work on my self control and gentleness by working on taming my tongue that wants to tell people why I am right. I work on those things by working on taming my anger and setting aside my pride. And it's hard. But my desire to build up those spiritual muscles and work on keeping in step with the spirit outweighs my inclination to be right. Well most of the time it does. And if I want that to continue to be true than I need to continue to work those muscles and strengthen them. 

Maybe someday choosing to act on the Holy Spirits urging will be easier or maybe it will always be a struggle to overcome my humanness. But if I truly want Christ to rule my life than the logical thing to do is to practice the fruit of the Spirit and to let those things dwell in my heart and life.

"But 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 flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other." Galatians 5: 22-25