Fruits of the Spirit

Today we had MOPS.  Oh MOPS.  What a blessing.  I started going to MOPS last year as a break from my kids.  I'm not going to lie.  I tell it like it is.  I was overwhelmed with having the 3 and I was overwhelmed with Jim in school and other life issues. MOPS is all about the moms and I welcomed a retreat from the daily life with all 3.  I had heard good things about MOPS and a friend posted on FB about it... I jumped right in.  The kids all go to age appropriate classrooms and I go to the gym.  The moms are fed a hot breakfast and have a 2 hour long meeting.  Each meeting is different and all around awesome.

Well... MOPS has turned into more than just a break for me.  It's an outlet.  It's companionship.  It's faith.  It's vital.  This week we had a great speaker who spoke about balance.  I think I'm pretty balanced so I didn't expect much.  Well... this speaker rocked.  She spoke of being purposeful with your time and being fruitful instead of just productive.  The fruits of the spirit hit me.  I'm trying to raise Saints... Godly children.  What better of a way to raise them than to push myself to be the pure example of how I want them to live.

I have always been big on leading by example.  "Do as I say, not as I do" is a bunch of crap, to be blunt.  Yet, hearing the fruits and thinking of molding my life into fruitfulness was awesome.  I can do that.  It's good for me and good for them.  Currently, I'm good at being productive (unlike the lesser outwardly seen fruitfulness).  I can organize with the best of them and I keep a clean house (outside of the hours of 9am and 7pm where my wrecking crew do their work).  I can get dinner on the table and I am pretty great at keeping the laundry up to date.  Do you see my ego rising?

What I'm not good at is slowing down and being purposeful.  Fruitful.

The fruits of the spirit are love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self control.


I've got some of those in the bag, others I totally want to strive for, and some are still a bit foreign, but what a cool list of things to strive toward, no?  Would you be like the best person EVER if you just lived by that list!?

Kindness is one I have been trying to focus on lately (even before today's talk).  To be kind, doesn't mean to people-please.  The way a blogger recently described it was being honest but not malicious...  Be truthful, respectful, and considerate of others while keeping your standards in tact.  I can be nice.  I'm good at being nice. ("Yes"ing people to death even if it throws my standards out the window... agreeing just to agree) But being kind is still a bit foreign to me.   How do I stand by my morals, yet show compassion and empathy for others... without causing then negativity.  It's a simple word with a BIG meaning.  So I ponder and move along.. but I have kindness specifically in mind.  And all the fruits on the back burner.

If it's the last thing I do, I will live a good life and instill those virtues in my kids.... or I'll die trying. :)

(Now I feel like I need to do a post about a fluffy puppy or something equally trivial and light.  Enough growth! Geesh!) ;)