The Fruit of the Spirit Filled Parent
When you’re done by 8am, and you never signed up for days like this. When they push you and shirk you and you have to clean tomato seeds and avocado mush off them again:
Love
When they cry for reasons known and unknown, and we cry for the fourth time that night. With no strength left to get up and go to them again, know what He promises in the morning:
Joy
When the noise of life and schedules and anxieties seem too loud, too long and too uncertain. Then they start hurting each other and breaking things. Attune your heart to something that surpasses all understanding:
Peace
When they disobey again and again, and you have to approach again and again. Renew the sticker chart, re-arrange the weekend, re-do the homework, and remake the dinner:
Patience
When you think they’re throwing this tantrum on purpose, and you’re tempted to try and get bigger than them and louder than them and overpower them with your insistence:
Kindness
When they test you and test you and test you, and you can choose to take the sarcastic and insulting road, or the road that will best reach and guide them:
Goodness
When tempers flare and emotional reserves are out, when the snacks have long been eaten and you’re still far from home:
Gentleness
When wanting to quit is palpable, when asking for a refund seems legit, and when relinquishing care doesn’t seem so crazy:
Faithfulness
And on those occasions, the ones that make us feel outside of ourselves, when mental health seems beyond repair, when their screaming and defiance triggers thoughts of violence or aggression:
Self-control
But the Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against these things!
Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. Since we are living by the Spirit, let us follow the Spirit’s leading in every part of our lives. Galatians 5:22-25
Kylie is a Christian Psychologist whose client demographic includes perpetrators and survivors of Family Violence. Kylie is a graduate of SMBC.
