 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!
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 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?”
 The concept of the power of prayer is something in my life that has developed over time. I remember so many times as a child in church hearing prayer requests, praise reports, and modern day miracles. Fast forward many years later my prayer life held a whole new meaning when I struggled with one miscarriage after another. I truly learned what it was like to pray circles around and truly turn circumstances over to God.
 This devotion started something like this…
Heather: “Even Jesus asked for help, Kim.” Kim: “He didn’t say LEAVE either, Heather.” Just being transparent here… Kim struggles with physically asking for help and wants to do everything herself. Heather struggles with allowing others to support her during weak emotional breakdowns and often says “LEAVE”. Neither of these are healthy choices. We are diving in today to see what scripture says about responding when “stuff happens”. There are days and moments that leave us feeling depleted, tired, and devastated. There are the small things that continue to hit wave after wave until you are depleted. Vacuum cleaners break. Tires go flat. Gas runs out. Pools collapse. Deer get hit. Flu. Kids disobey and have meltdowns. Houses get dirty. These seemingly little things can add up leaving us asking “Really God?”  All of us can relate to a time in life when we have been awaiting an answer. Remember as a child anxiously awaiting a yes or no from your parents about something exciting like a sleepover? Or are you in the middle a more serious solution involving a doctor’s appointment to learn test results? Answers come in many forms and levels of importance and sometimes are big truths and other times they are just opinions. An answer is a response to a question or open ended problem needing a solution. Some answers are forgettable and insignificant and others can change the course of your life.
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