Gentleness and Self-Control~ Renee Arnold

If you have grown up in the church, you have probably heard about the fruits of the spirit and their importance. Basically, the fruits of the spirit are the virtues that you should strive to love out if the Holy Spirit is living in your heart.Over the last few months I have written articles about two or three of the virtues and clarified their meanings. Finally we are at the end of the verse, the last two listed in Galatians 5:22-23 are gentleness and self-control.

 

Gentleness is sometimes misunderstood or taken as something it's not. Being gentle does not mean standing around and letting people beat up on you and not standing up for yourself because you're too "gentle." God does not want you to become a doormat. But, then again, he doesn't want you to use your freedom to be inconsiderate to others. Basically, make sure you are always thinking of others and trying your best to make peace with everyone around you.

 

Self-control is most times the most difficult virtue for a teenage girl to keep in mind as she lives her day to day life. We get angry, we get hyper, we fall in love, we get broken, we fall down and then we spring back up. It is hard to keep our emotions under control but that's what God commands us to do. When we learn to take a breath, calm down and pray in our times of need we will find that our problems can seem much smaller.

 

Did you know that Renee loves fashion?!

Kindness and Goodness~ Renee Arnold

So far we have covered love, joy, peace and patience. This month we will look at three virtues that are often overlooked in our culture.

Kindness and goodness are sort of the same thing in our language. They both mean considering others first and doing nice things for people. Just look at the bullying epidemic in our country. Kindness may seem like a kindergarten level topic, but evidently there are a lot of people that never listened during kindergarten. Kindness is sometimes easier than being rude. Flashing a smile to someone in need instead of following them around and insulting them. Other times it is difficult, like when your friends are teasing or gossiping about someone and you know it's wrong. In every situation kindness and goodness are the right way to go.

Another virtue lost yet treasured by our society is faithfulness. There are so many cheating scandals and adulteresses in our world. Individuals not happy with who they're with and so they go out looking for someone better. The bible calls us to be faithful to our spouse, friends, boyfriends and family. Of course that doesn't mean you stick around if you're in a destructive situation. There are always situations where the right choice is to leave.

Did you know that Renee has extremely messy handwriting?!
Did you know that Lauren owns a pair of bright pink jeans?!

Photograph property of Lilies Among Thorns Magazine. Photograph taken by Lauren Jaji.

Peace and Patience~ Renee Arnold

Last month, I wrote about the first two qualities listed in Galatians 5:22-23 love and joy. This month I will write about peace and patience.

Peace is a tricky concept. Over the years, pop culture has taken peace to different extremes. During wars, hippies and other anti-war groups have used the peace sign to symbolize togetherness and harmony. What is true biblical peace? Peace is trying your best to not quarrel and casue trouble with others. That doesn't mean not confronting those who do wrong or cowering in a corner when those you love are being attacked. Peace is trying to avoid conflict but defending those who are being confronted.

Patience is one of the hardest of the fruits for me to abice by. I am not a very patient person at all, I snap at my sister, I get fidgetty at church and assemblys and don't like to concentrate on one thing at once. Patience is a trait I wish I had becasue it makes life more enjoyable becasue you're not always looking ahead, you're content in the moment. This is something I need to work on personally.

Keep your eyes peeled for future articles about fruit of the spirit!

Did you know that Renee has extremely messy handwriting?!

Did you know that Haylie's fourth favorite animal is a dragon?!

Photograph property of Lilies Among Thorns Magazine. Photograph taken by Haylie Gregory.

Fruit of the Spirit Part 1~ Renee Arnold

If you look in Galatians 5:22-23, you will see a list of character qualities that you've probabaly heard rattled off many times before. This list contains love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness and self-control. These verses says that the Holy Spirit in us will produce these qualities, just like a good tree grows good fruit. Even if you've been a Christian a long time, that doesn't mean you're not going to struggle with these things. It just means that they should be developing as you mature in your faith. Over the next few months, I will write about two of these fruits at a time so it's not an overload on your system when you read 6 whole paragraphs on virtues at once.

Love may seem like the easiest out of all of them because we talk about love a lot in our culture. We usually say "I love you" to at least one or two people a day, wheather it be our parents, boyfriend, siblings or best friend. We kind of toss the term around csually, but what is true love? The love like Jesus had for us, where he was willing to be tortured for us. But, you don't need to die a grusome death to love someone. Loving someone can be as simple as helping them through a tough time, sitting with an outcast during lunch, giving cookies to a neighbor in need, or showing Christ your love worshiping and making a habit of reading your Bible every night. Love is so much more then three words, our world lacks people who genuinely care. Make a decision today to reach out in the form of a loving gesture to one unlikely person this week!

The next fruit found in Galatians is joy. Joy is a funny word, the dictionary describes it as a feeling of pleasure and happiness. That makes no sense becasue that would mean the Bible says it's a sin to be sad which is certainly not true. Even Jesus had times when he was upset and didn't feel happy and He lived a blameless life. Biblical joy is always having hope in Jesus Christ and not dwelling on the bad in your life. Even when everything else goes wrong, you know you have Jesus, and He will help you through. Lean on Him and you will find this subtle inner happiness no matter what you're facing, that's what joy is.

Keep your eyes out for my article on peace and patience!

Love,

Renee

 

 

Did you know that Renee has a reaccuring dream about an alligator??

The Fruits of the Spirits~ A Spiritual Article by Heather Young

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.  Against such there is no law.”

Galatians 5:22-23

            To walk in the Spirit is to act on these traits.  Yes, act on them; not to just have them.  The beginning of Galatians 5:22 says, “The fruit of the Spirit.” Fruit doesn’t just grow on a tree by itself.  The tree has to work to get energy from the sun and water from the rain.  We are like trees.  We get our energy from the Son and water from His Word.  In order to bear spiritual fruit, we must look to God and grow closer to Him by reading and learning the Bible.  Galatians 5:19-21 lists various sinful acts and states, “…those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God,” which does not mean that if you sin once you will not go to Heaven.  If you sin many times (as all of us have) you will not go to hell if you believe that Jesus Christ died for your sins and rose from the grave and ask God for forgiveness.  When God forgives you, you become cleaner than snow.

            Even before verses 19-21, verses 16-17 sum up what it means to walk in the Spirit:

“I say then: Walk in the Spirit, and you shall not fulfill the lust of the flesh.  For the flesh lusts against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary to one another, so that you do not do the things that you wish.”

            The Spirit and the Flesh are opposites.  The Spirit is purely good, while the flesh is purely evil.  Temptations arise from our fleshly sides but we can use the Spirit to resist temptation.  Difficult times will upon you, if they haven’t already.  We can be prepared by walking in the Spirit.  How exactly do we walk in the Spirit? Well, Galatians 5:24 explains that for us:

“And those who are Christ’s have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires.”

            When you become a Christian, it is your responsibility to grow closer to God through the Bible, prayer, and other ways that may help you such as devotional books.  We are God’s children, and when we believe that Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross for our sins, we also crucify our sinful desires.  This does not mean that we never feel the desire to do something bad; it means that we now have Christ helping us win the battle over sin.  Isn’t that a really good feeling? We don’t have to rely on ourselves anymore; we need to rely on God and He will help us overcome our evil desires, no matter how big they seem to us.  Our problems are super-duper teeny-tiny compared to our great, awesome, mighty, glorious God, Father, and Lord, Jesus Christ.

            The Holy Spirit was sent to Earth to live in us.  It is our Helper.  Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control come from the Holy Spirit.  When we become a Christian, God sends the Holy Spirit to come and reside in our hearts and help us win the battle over our sinful desires.  “If we live in the Spirit, let us walk in the Spirit.” (Galatians 5:25) You can be living in the Spirit but not walking in the Spirit.  Walking in the Spirit means to obey the prompting of the Holy Spirit.  Becoming a Christian means you are now living in the Spirit, but you must act on what God is telling you to do in order to walk in the Spirit.  The fruit of the Spirit are traits that you must act on so you can walk in the Spirit instead of just living in the Spirit.  Remember, God can help you win your spiritual battles, no matter how tough they are.