The Fruit of the Spirit (Part 1)

Read: Galatians 5:16-26

“Riley!” Wynn called to her sister as she inspected her four tiny tomato plants. “Look, little green tomatoes!” This was Wynn’s very first time growing a garden, and she was very excited.

Riley smiled. “See? You just needed to have patience.” Riley was fourteen and had helped their mother grow vegetable gardens before.

“Look at those shrimpy tomatoes!” a voice taunted from next door. “We had tomatoes on our plants weeks ago.” The voice came from Kai, their neighbor, who was always mocking Wynn. He and his mother also had a garden. They had bought their plants already half grown, and they were now full of fruit.

Riley put her hand on her sister’s shoulder. “Ignore him. Yours are growing just fine. Now that they’re starting to get fruit, we should name them,” she told Wynn, trying to distract her from Kai’s rudeness. “That’s what Mom and I do with our plants each year.”

“What should we name them?” Wynn asked.

“Well, tomatoes are fruit,” said Riley. “And the Bible tells us that the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”

“Wow, that’s a lot of fruit!” said Wynn.

“Yep,” said Riley. “And it’s all fruit that the Holy Spirit grows in our lives when we put our faith in Jesus, just like your tomatoes grow in your garden.”

“But we only have four plants, so which names should we choose?” asked Wynn.

“I think the first one should be Patience,” said Riley, “to remind you to have patience as the tomatoes grow.”

Wynn giggled. “Okay, and we’ll name the second one Joy because I will be full of joy when they finally do! And the next one can be Goodness, because the tomatoes will be full of yummy goodness.” Wynn smiled. “Now I’ve named two and you named one, so you have to name the last one.”

“The last one should be Love,” said Riley. “Because nothing grows without love.”

Wynn looked down at her garden. “Now all four of our fruit of the Spirit plants have names.”

“Yep,” said Riley. “And they’re going to keep growing just like the fruit of the Spirit is growing in you.”

–Kristin Beaven

How about you? Did you know that, if you’re a Christian, you have fruit growing in your life? When we trust Jesus as our Savior, the Holy Spirit begins to work in our hearts so that His ways grow in us like fruit in a garden. As He fills our hearts with love, He grows the fruit of the Spirit in our lives to make us more like Jesus. Trust Him to fill your life with good fruit so others can see His love.

Today's Key Verse: But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23 (CSB)

Today's Key Thought: God grows fruit in Christians’ lives