Fruit First

Well, I guess it’s time to admit to the whole world wide web that I do not love fruit (I’m glad my children do not read the blog).  However, because of my children, I have learned to try new things and possibly acquire a taste for some of them.  I am a work in progress.  If I want them to eat fruit, I will have to set the example.

Galatians 5:22-23 “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance:”

Lately, I have been studying my prayer life, and I have realized that I pray for myself a lot.  A whole lot.  At first I felt pretty guilty about it, as I am instructed to pray for the needs of others-how selfish of me!  But a few days ago, I had an ‘ah-ha’ moment, and realized that in my prayer life, I need to eat my fruit as well.  I need to get ‘me’ right first, and only then will I be able to pray for others in the proper light.  Only then will I see things in the proper perspective.  To pray for my children, I have to be sure that I have eaten the fruit of longsuffering and gentleness.  To pray for those who are hurting, I must first be sure that I am filled with the fruit of joy and peace.  Only then can our prayers be effective-we must be sure to take our Spiritual fruit on a daily basis so that we don’t fall into an effortless routine in our prayer life.  Asking God to daily mold you into the person you should be is an important thing-it’s like eating your daily dose of fruit.  Just for today, I will be sure that I have my daily intake of the proper spiritual fruit so that my prayer life will be healthy enough to pray for others.