Exercising the Fruit of the Spirit

My husbands family from Tennessee have been visiting for two weeks and they stayed with us the duration of that time here in California. Without saying too much... has anybody seen National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation? The movie had it's funny moments, but I was living it and was not laughing. There was one day towards the end of their stay with us, every open minute that I had, I was reading pages of the Bible on how to love the unlovely and the unlovable only to feel unlovely feeling like I had been. I needed God's help to love. I kept going to the fruit of the spirit; love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I noticed that love was the first mentioned and self-control was the last one mentioned. These fruits are placed like book-ends to very meaty self help books sitting on a shelf in the Bible. There was a reason why Galatians had the fruit of the spirit in that order. I wasn't feeling any of the fruits at that time, but when I focused on love and self-control I noticed that the rest came more easily. It was a lesson that I thought I already had down and realized that I had not anywhere come close to arriving to. I still haven't and probably never will, although I will always strive too.

I kept asking myself why was this happening at a time when our family should be healing from six months of pain and suffering? There is always a lesson to be learned from our experiences in life, even if it is BIG or small.