 Thanksgiving 2020 was a unique day for sure. We aren’t exactly used to staying home for Thanksgiving. Sometimes we don’t just have a large meal we have two across multiple households. 2020 has thrown us another curveball in that we were quarantined during this time. Interesting enough the only family that could see us was one person that had recently had COVID and was beyond their quarantine time.
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 On the list next for the Fruit of the Spirit Study is Self-Control. It is tempting to keep scrolling. Who wants to read about self-control right?
In an earlier post for the Fruit of the Spirit Series we stated, “ Love is the foundation that is required to grow joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, and self-control”. The fruits of the spirit are so intertwined. To really love others you have to be joyful, be kind, be peaceful, have goodness, and have faith! To be joyful you have to practice the other fruits. Faithfulness also is fed by kindness, patience, and self-control. Being filled with the Holy Spirit can be thought of as having a basket full of these fruits!  Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Phillipians 4:5
Have you ever met someone who has a gentle and quiet spirit about them? Who has such a calming presence? Who has love and understanding that never stops flowing? Their gentleness is so evident that it warms your heart. These are the funerals you attend and people have unending stories of how this person blessed them with their gentle and quiet spirit.  I sat in Heather’s office one day asking, “What if I lose my faith in all this?” I was traveling back and forth between Duke Hospital on the weekends, then home to work during the middle of the week. Bill was staying there full time and we kept getting worse news with each doctor visit. I began to worry that losing my husband of almost 25 years would shake me to the inner core of my faith and even my identity. Heather’s reply to my question that day came to mind when I was studying faithfulness. She basically said, “I know you. You won't lose your faith.” Later that evening I asked the same thing of Aleta, Crystal, and Kara… their response was the same. It was if they all were more sure than I was about who I was.
 Goodness just sounds like such a sweet fruit of the spirit when it rolls off the tongue.
For this very reason, make every effort to add to your faith goodness; and to goodness, knowledge; and to knowledge, self-control; and to self-control, perseverance; and to perseverance, godliness; and to godliness, mutual affection; and to mutual affection, love. For if you possess these qualities in increasing measure, they will keep you from being ineffective and unproductive in your knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 2nd Peter 1:5-8 At my Dad’s house we have a set of blocks that has stood the test of time. They are at this point probably 40 years old. Not only are these blocks good quality, but if you start off with a good foundation whatever you build is very strong. This verse reminds me of building blocks; you start by having faith, add goodness, and then lots of other things can be added!  This week’s topic in the Fruit of the Spirit Series is kindness. This word is thrown around a lot these days as everyone is struggling just trying to get through the day sometimes. Kindness is a choice but it can also be abundant. How can we be kind not just in single moments but also make kindness a part of our character?
The Lord appeared to us in the past, saying: “I have loved you with an everlasting love; I gave you with unfailing kindness. (Jeremiah 31:3)  I don’t know why God made me the way I am. My mind, my tendency to overthink, analyze, go so deep in my head that I am visibly away from the present circumstances. My mother used to call it “checking out”. She described it to me as watching me fall backwards into something inside my head. She would even account for it in how she parented me. She used to joke with others, “just give her a minute, she’s checked out, she will be back”. I would be very deep in thought and come back around and she would be staring at me blankly then ask, “You back yet?”
But the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, PEACE, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. Galatians 5:22-23
Rivers, oceans, and rainbows are all scenes that bring about a feeling of peace when I see them or even think of them. There are people who can bring me peace in the moment when I am in their presence. Sometimes feelings of temporary satisfaction can come when making a purchase of something that is “needed” or “wanted” in life. All of these feelings can be fleeting. Places with water that are beautiful and serene can also bring destruction, people will let us down, and things don’t last. There is a peace that does last which can only come from one source!  The end of 2016 and ALL OF 2017 seem like a blur because my focus was on getting through each day while my Mom fought for her life. Early 2018 was filled with the hardest fight yet until her passing on February 13th. The rest of 2018 was occupied with trying to find a new normal again because a fight with cancer leaves you forever changed. If I had any major focus areas for those years I couldn’t tell you what they were. Whatever they were the focus turned towards surviving while attempting an almost impossible BALANCE of caring for my mom, my own household, and working full-time (with A LOT of support from some fabulous coworkers).
I started 2019 out not with some lofty new years resolution that I probably would not hit and would drop after the first 2 weeks, but simply a couple of focused words for my day to day life. One of those words was Joy. I wanted to be joyful as much as humanly possible and have joy that comes from deep within and not the fleeting kind. My joy truly comes from being able to look forward to a future that not only God has planned for me on this earth, but most of all to a future in heaven. We are afforded the opportunity to show joy to others, let our lights shine so to speak, and share our story with others to show them Christ’s love. I think back to how joyful I felt when God blessed me with each new baby, especially the first time I saw each beautiful face. In the early New Testament, joy is referenced several times. Jesus was born so that abundant joy is available to us. God used a baby who would walk as a human before offering the ultimate sacrifice of dying on the cross to save us from our sins. But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him. For if we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life. And not only so, but we also JOY IN GOD through our Lord Jesus Christ, but whom we have now received the atonement. Romans 5:8-11 When the source of our joy is in our salvation and in the Holy Spirit, it is consistent and available during the toughest times. Heather Lynch  “I just need some JOY!” This phrase is often heard in moments of sadness. How many times in desperation has joy been desired as a solution to that feeling? Let’s look at what scripture says and how there are actually varying degrees of joy.
Joy is often something thought of as either having or not having, something that is present or not present, found or lost. If you look at how joy is experienced and referenced in scripture, there are actually varying degrees from having a little bit of joy to being filled up and running over! Also, joy can be experienced in different amounts throughout the day. This study looks at joy from two perspectives. Joy can be a choice. Joy can be given by God. |
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