Friday, September 19, 2008

Fruit of the Gloom


I've been sick this week, and it's making me think...about life, the low side of life. When you don't feel good, and your guard is paper thin, who am I then? Our children see it all don't they?! They really do live under the glamorous "underbelly" of humanity. After all, they live with us at home...where it all comes out. Even babies. I read somewhere once, way back when, that babies and toddlers pretty much develop specific memory along with language. Although a very young child doesn't remember things specifically, they do remember emotions...how things felt.
What I'm getting at is this. I'm observing again this week just how critical my life with my God is. With the privilege of parenting comes the awesome responsibility of modeling how it works...even when I'm sick, or tired or when I make a mistake. It seems simple to teach our kids love, joy peace & patience...when we feel good. But all the more critical, and possibly even common, teach them the fruit of the Spirit of God when your exhausted or you just lost your patience. What does the Spirit-hungry-Jesus-follower do when she loses her patience, or realizes that her child just heard her tell a 'white lie' on the phone?
I'm realizing again this morning how earnestly I want my life to ooze fruit...the Fruit of the Spirit.

2 comments:

Caitlin said...

I want to say: 1) I hope you get better soon, 2) I understand your feelings entirely and want the same for my life, 3) Very clever title!

bethany said...

ha ha...ditto to what Caitlin said, I was literally going to make trhe same 3 comments!! So I will just say "thank you" for sharing this!