So in Church at the beginning of the year we were seeing much said about Fruits of the Spirit. The scripture is below. It’s talking about us having these “fruit” characteristics. Not collecting actual fruit.
Galatians 5:22-23 NIV 22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Last night as I was in prayer time, a devotional was swimming around in my head. I was liking it and then I kept going back to finish my prayer – Amen and it pops back up again so I am going to try to get this down and I hope it comes out as good as I was thinking it would last night.
Fruit, what is your favorite. You know, I’ve never really thought about what is mine… I am a fan of fruit, I like so many and I mean I really like them. My grandchildren love fruit too. Mostly strawberries and blueberries. My grand daughter was huge on raspberries when she was smaller too. Fruit - yes, I am a big fan of bananas but I’ll tell you a secret – bananas are dangerous for diabetics because when green they rank on the glycemic index much lower than a very ripe one (Several factors influence the glycemic index of a food, including its nutrient composition, cooking method, ripeness, and the amount of processing it has undergone) if a banana is brown it’s ripe and normally inside its tender and no longer firm. This banana is high on the glycemic index and therefore not good for a diabetic to eat. It’s sad because bananas are a favorite. I also love strawberries, blueberries, mango, pineapple, oh then oranges and apples – yummy. Cherries are wonderful when in season, then we have the melons – watermelon, cantaloupe, oh my..yes please. cold on a warm day is so perfect. I think my all time favorite fruit is tomatoes. Yep tomatoes
Going to pause right here and ask this… did you know Tomatoes are actually fruit? I know I know, they are veggies…but botanically they are actually considered fruit, why, Tomatoes are botanically fruits because they form from a flower and contain seeds. Isn’t that interesting. I wonder how many other things are different than we originally thought. Tomatoes are so good for you too, heart healthy lycopene, help reduce heart disease and cancers, gut health, low caloric content, high in vitamins, helps your immune system. So much more. I don’t love them for all that but mainly because they taste so darn good! I love all sizes and shapes of them. A good meaty one is my favorite.
When I was a kid both sides of my family grew tomatoes. My paternal grandfather – DL Parker owned a flower shop, he had a serious green thumb. He grew a hybrid tomato called the Parker special, it was a cross between a burpee and another variety. It was huge and meaty and I remember well eating them sliced on the plate plain with dinner – oh man – I mean fresh from the back yard! Divine. Then there were my maternal grandparents. The backyard of the home they owned was not huge but certainly was a decent sized yard. There were chairs up near the backdoor, to the right was a stand alone garage, a small sidewalk going over there and a large tree on the side of that garage. Near that tree was a massive set of tomato vines and I – as a kid – got in more trouble for spending time over there picking and eating more than my fair share of tomatoes. My Grandfather threatened to tie me to that tree if I didn’t stop eating all the tomatoes. I guess you could say I get my love of them naturally!
Fast forward to last summer, my daughter planted a garden, a raised garden and a tiered garden. My granddaughter had her own gloves, garden crocs and tools, she loves to garden with Mom, watering and harvesting. They had flowers, tomatoes – several kinds, peppers, strawberries, onion, lettuce, herbs, a bunch of herbs. She had two large raised beds full of edibles and the flowers to try and keep the bugs off.
Come harvest time it was picking, washing and eating. She grew several kinds of tomato but the ones I was just in love with were the sweetheart tomato. I had never heard of them before but I’ll tell you my first taste, it was a meaty one for its size and the taste was like being small again in the grandparents gardens. This tomato was wonderful. It’s a smaller cherry tomato size but very meaty like I said. So I admit I did get some but it was a fight, my granddaughter inherited my love for tomatoes too. She picks and eats, don’t wait on washing. She has loved tomatoes since small so why not love one fresh grown in your backyard. They were good. So my Grandson was not eating table food before the last harvest otherwise I’d be competing with both of them for tomatoes.
IMAGE BELOW: Sweatheart tomatoes - cute huh. Tasty too
So back to the original topic – fruit of the spirit. This time I choose joy – I think you can see why because I have joy about tomatoes. Now I know its not just about things to eat. Joy is about your every day walking around life and what does and should give you joy. Why not plug in the tomatoes though, they were a source of joy to me as a child and now that I’m a granny they still give me joy, not only because I love them but because my grands do as well. My daughter by the way will eat an occasional tomato but not often – hmmm – more for me!
What does the Bible say about joy. There are many instances, I’ll pick a few. 1 Samuel 18:6 When the men were returning home after David had killed the Philistine, the women came out from all the towns of Israel to meet King Saul with singing and dancing, with joyful songs and with timbrels and lyres. This was going on after David slew the giant and the battles that were fought afterwards. The philistines were a mighty adversary, so they were very happy to have the men home and doing well. I can identify with that joy, it’s a celebration when your loved ones return and are ok.
Another one - 2 Chronicles 30:23 The whole assembly then agreed to celebrate the festival seven more days; so for another seven days they celebrated joyfully. It’s a faith festival and people are rejoicing because they love God. Certainly, a great time of joy.
Here is another instance - James 1:2-4 NIV Trials and Temptations 2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters,[a] whenever you face trials of many kinds, 3 because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance. 4 Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything. This one is way different than the others. The others seem common sense, when we in our day to day life should have joy. This one seems off though, why should we be joyful at a trial? Well the scripture explains it wonderfully. So we can persevere.
The last part of this devotional I wanted to talk about outward joy. The big question when discussing fruits of the spirit – do I outwardly show joy to others. Do they see something in me that they want for themselves? If not I need to work on my outward joy. I am joyful about so many things in my life. I count myself very blessed for all I have. God certainly has allowed me to have struggles in my life and He has provided me with so so many things to be joyful about.
Heavenly Father – Thank You for fruit of the spirit - for tomatoes and joy. I know You love them too. Here is to hoping for an even larger crop this year Thank You in advance for watching over the plants and us so we may show our fruits loud and proud - AMEN.