So how is your garden?

Took a zoo trip today with the family.  Maddax second trip, but first with mommy.  While we were there, walking past the elephants, we heard this annoying sound.  There was a man behind us speaking to his wife in a very loud so nice voice. Chris and I noticed it about the same time and turned to see this "not very not nice", as Makenna calls him, fella.  What was most shoking was not the look of the fella but of his shirt.  He was belittling his wife in public while wearing a shirt that said, "JESUS ROCKS."

"...for a tree is known by his fruit." Matt 12:33   His fruit definitely did not match his shirt.

This got me to thinking.  How is my fruit? 

Last week at church the preacher spoke about this very thing.  He talked about how people are always wanting to grow the "Fruits of the Spirit" but are not preparing their garden for the seeds.  How can we grown the Fruits of the Spirit if our garden is over-grown with weeds.  He went on to say that we can pray all we want for the fruit to love our wife (eg) but if all we are doing is watering the weeds of lust, they will choke out any chance the fruit of love has to grow.  A lightbulb went off. (doesn't happen alot)

I have been praying for more patience and self-control lately, especially with Makenna and homeschooling, but I forgot to weed out my garden first. Dugh!! I have been watering bitterness and self-pity instead of using the power of the Holy Spirit to uproot them.  Yeah at times I pluck them out with a prayer here and there but I have never really dug into the soil and pulled them out by the roots. Why you might ask? It is painful and surely not any fun.  Kinda like weeding the garden in the spring to prepare for flowers.

Now that I realize how to prepare my garden, how can I make my fruit grow to its fullest.

"Every branch that does not bear fruit He takes away; and every branch that bears fruit He prunes, that it may bear more fruit."  John 15:2

So now I am going to be pruned!!!! Ahhhhh!!! It makes me think of two things.  First pruning is painful and second reminds me of my mom talking about mums.  She tells me that if I want the fullest (most fruit) flowers from my mums that I have to pinch off their first blooms. Eventhough the first blooms are pretty I have to pluck it bare to reap the greatest benefit. The flower must go through a time of "ugliness" to reach its fullest potential.  Just like us.  Some of the pruning God will allow us to go through is down right ugly and painful but the rewards of our fruit are beyond what we could ever imagine. 

So what am I getting to. 

First we are to be know by are fruits and we should want to be bountiful.
Second when we do this "...by this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit..." John 15:8

Isn't that why we are here? Isa 43:7 "Everyone who is called by my name, whom I created for my glory, whom I formed and made."

I do not know about you but I want to glorify my maker by a bountiful harvest of the Fruits of the Spirit in my life.  On top of that I want to show my daughter and son, by example not by words, the life that glorifies the Lord.  And I want to be able to explain to them that mommy is far, way way way (did I say way?) far, from perfect but through the power of pruning she shows "...love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." Gal 5:22

So...How is your garden?