What Kind Of Fruit?

The Holy Spirit produces this kind of fruit in our lives: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Galatians 5:22-23

IT’S EASY TO READ PAUL’S LIST of the fruit the Holy Spirit produces in the life of the believer and turn it into a to-do list for ourselves or our kids. But Paul speaks of fruit, not fruits, of the Spirit. The fruit of the Spirit is not a checklist. All this fruit blossoms naturally in the lives of those in whom the Spirit dwells.

Just as apple trees don’t grow oranges and orange trees don’t grow apples, those who don’t have the Holy Spirit at work in the interior of their lives can’t expect to produce the kind of fruit the Holy Spirit produces. Instead they’ll produce the kind of fruit that comes naturally to a spiritually dead person. But when the Holy Spirit has come to reside and work in someone, we can be sure that the fruit will be produced. Of course, growing fruit takes time, and the fruit of the Spirit grows particularly slowly. Sometimes the growth is imperceptible, but the Spirit’s presence in our child’s life guarantees that growth will occur.

As parents, it is not our job to produce children who behave in a way that lines up with this list of fruit. We are mere instruments in the Holy Spirit’s ongoing work in the lives of our children. He is the producer of this fruit. And he has a long-term view.

When we realize it isn’t our job to ensure that our children produce this fruit, it reshapes our parenting priorities. Instead of pushing them to produce these virtues by the force of their own will, we point them toward Christ, who comes to dwell within and produces this fruit by the power of his Spirit. This removes a heavy weight from our shoulders. It helps us to see our kids not as a reflection of who we are, or as a result of our brilliant or substandard parenting, but as unique people in whom the Spirit is at work in his way, in his timing, producing his fruit as he sees fit.

Holy Spirit, you are the Master Gardener. You know what you’re doing in ________’s life. You also know what you’re doing in my life. I long for a bountiful harvest of love for ________, joy in ________, patience with ________, kindness toward ________, goodness before ________, faithfulness in my promises to ________, gentleness in my demeanor to ________, and self-control in my responses to ________. Won’t you generate that fruit in me?