My mind has extensively been focused on the fruits of the Spirit recently (Found in Galatians 5 if you're looking).
It is my goal to make these more evident in my life. I struggle specifically with self-control and joy. Those two are the hardest for me to "force" into my emotional cycle.
The self-control part is hard, because, well, I like living by my natural feelings. This is easily just one I struggle with a lot.
The joy one is different because it is harder for me to see its value. I wouldn't describe myself as "unhappy" or a pity to be around, but I also don't think "joy" categorizes my life. The other fruits (like love, peace, patience, gentleness, kindness etc.) seem so all or nothing. Joy doesn't seem that way to me, or at least if it is, I fail miserably at it.
Does anyone have any strategies (outside the obvious get closer to the Spirit thing) that will help me make joy more evident?
Wednesday, February 07, 2007
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2 comments:
I was surprised to see that you struggle with seeing the value of joy or its' evidence. I think that joy is found in the simplest of things, like waking up in the morning to sunshine after a week of cloudiness, or getting an email or phone call from someone you haven't talked to in awhile, or not having to clean up after dinner without having to ask someone else to do it. These and many others give me a sense of joy. It's just those simple things of life.
mdk, I can tell you're a mom...I don't think men get very joyful over not having to clean up after dinner - I think they are joyful when they are not asked to do it at all (generally speaking, of course).
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