"fruit" for the journey...

I have been working at getting the gift bags ready for "night out for ladies" at our church, which is on Monday... I did have mostly everything done, but there is always last minute tweaking to be done. I want these little gift bags to be a blessing to each lady that receives them... I believe if I am going to do something, I just can't do it half-way... which leads me to verses I want to share... Gal. 5:22-23 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, Meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.
I grew up with this passage being something I memorized early on… but I don’t ever think I really understood it… it was kind of “those are good things & I will strive for those,” ... I am realizing that it isn’t that I need to work those into my life but that I need to yield myself totally to Christ & all of these will be given to me through the Holy Spirit! This isn’t just a plan for living in “correctness”, but that these 9 graces (gifts) might be apparent in me.

Love, joy & peace – they are inner fruit; longsuffering, gentleness & goodness – they are the outward fruit; faith, meekness & temperance (self-control) – the fruits that are towards God. I now see that these are not all individual “fruits”, but by yielding to Christ that will allow the Holy Spirit to work all of these fruits through me & in me... kind of like a fruit basket! *Ü* (sorry bad humor) Not saying that is easy to do, especially if you might have "control issues" (I have really improved on that!!!)... just think though if you can give everything up to the One who rules the universe... what a relief would that be? Just a thought....

I am doing some post-it notes & I will try to post a pic later. But for now I am off to get some things done with a grateFUL HEART, carin