The Fruit of the Spirit

Abby loves the Fruit of the Spirit song that Jimmy Woodell taught her.

"The fruit of the Spirit's not a watermelon - watcha' yellin ... The fruit of the Spirit's not a kiwi - wee ... The fruit of the Spirit's not a banana- nah ... The fruit of the Spirit's not a kumquat- watcha' got ... Cause the Spirit's got ... love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control ... "

(For the record, before I ran spell check I had really butchered the spelling of kumquat.)

At Faulkner and Brecheen last weekend I heard another take on the fruit of the Spirit.

The first fruit of the Holy Spirit living actively in your life is Love. It's the first one mentioned, because all of the rest come from it.

Joy is LOVE when you're happy
Peace is LOVE when things are at rest
Patience is LOVE waiting
Kindness is LOVE in action
Goodness is LOVE's core ingredient
Faithfulness is LOVE being loyal
Gentleness is LOVE being careful with something fragile
Self-Control is LOVE with a firm grip on self

It reminded me that how we demonstrate love is really a demonstration of our willingness to let the Spirit of God work in us for His will to be seen. My goal for myself is that when I feel myself lacking in any of one these, I can remind myself that if I am really a princess of God, a person of love, I must work every day to show the fruits of love in my life.