The Fruit of the Spirit is....

Last week we were eating breakfast and, being the health conscious mom I am, I was feeding my children.....umm.... fruit loops (they were left over from a craft...I promise). In his most sincere voice ever Carson proclaimed:

"This is the best fruit ever!!"

Obviously, fruit loops are not a fruit. But does Carson know that? If I want my children to be healthy physically, I need to be feeding them the real deal. They will never know what real fruit is if I don't ever give them real fruit. So it is with the Fruit of the Spirit.

What kind of spiritual fruit am I feeding my children??

Love

Joy

Peace

Patience

Kindness

Goodness

Faithfulness

Gentleness

and Self Control

Why is it so hard to exercise the Fruits of the Spirit as a mom? I used to think I had the whole joyful, patience, kindness thing down pretty well. (HA...prideful much?) Then I got Married. That's a whole different post all together on how marriage challenges your character and shines the light on your own sin...sin you had no idea you had.

But then I had children. Oh...how I had no idea the depths of my character faults! I sure am thankful that Grace abounds... because Sin sure is abounding over here and we are in need of MUCH Grace! I was reading through the Fruits of the Spirit recently. Often they sound trite and sing/song like... but oh, how they are no joke!

As I was reading, I kept thinking:

Nope...

uh, missed that one too...

hmmm...definitely not patient....

Fail!

Not me...

Surely I could breath a sigh of relief and be thankful that I exhibited at least 1 fruit of the spirit in my parenting that morning. Right?? And as I read the list I just kept thinking...
"when I read this list I just don't think of me. "
And I was convicted so deeply. I long to be full of the fruit of the spirit. I long to be SO full that is is just overflowing around me!

What do my children think of when they think of me? When they look back on their childhoods will they remember a cranky, tired, impatient, short fused mommy who was always barking at the them to "stop it!" Will they remember all the times I lost my temper?? Will they remember all of my facial expressions showing impatience, frustration, and annoyance?

Is this how I want to be remembered?? Are these the memories I am creating for them? Is this the fruit coming out of our house? More importantly, is this the fruit coming from my heart??

How can I expect my children to be loving and kind, sharing and generous if I am not over flowing with the Fruit of the Spirit? If Christ dwells within me, I want to live out His character to all around me... especially to the little souls in my own home!

There are many challenges that come along with parenting... I just had no clue one of the biggest ones would have nothing to do with sleep schedules, picky eating habits, or skinned knees. The greatest challenge in parenting is not the children...

It is ME.

Soaking up the Grace today... and relying on the Grace for tomorrow. I plan on looking at each of the Fruit of the Spirit and blogging about how I can live it out in my life and in my parenting. Join in as I try to put away the fruit loops and pull out the real fruit...the big juicy fresh fruit!