Fruit of the Spirit. More like withering on the vine

Fruit of the Spirit? More like withering on the vine. What is it about starting some thing new and healthy that all of a sudden WHAMMY! (Any other Warehouse 13 fans?) It's been one thing after another that has had me way behind on our lessons and sadly leaving our Fruit of the Tree project entirely too bare.

Well all this whammy has left me with some soul searching and low and behold I missed my very first verse that I shared at the start of this series.

 If you abide in Me and My Words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. By this My Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; so you will be My disciples. John 15:7-8

ABIDING! Ug (head smack 80's style) how could I forget that? I have been trying to make myself and my kids produce good fruit in our own strength. Completely forgetting that it's His strength that makes it happen. Wanna know the kicker? It was my Pumpkin that helped me remember that. (I am learning so much by being these little guys mom.)

This is how the conversation went after I had that ah-ha moment when correcting something my oldest said.

Me: You know what Pumpkin, mama forgot something very important.

Pumpkin: You did?

Me: Yep! You wanna know what that is.

Pumpkin.: MmHm

Me: We forgot to plant God's seed in us this morning. Do you know what the seed is?

Pumpkin: No.

Me: It's God's Word. The Bible. Do you know how to plant that seed?

Pumpkin: Yeah.

Me: How?

Silence.

Me: Would you like me to tell you how to plant Gods seed in our heart.

Pumpkin: (Smiling now) Yes!

Me: First we have to till the ground. To do that we need to first pray and ask God to make our hearts and minds ready. Second we plant the seed by reading our Bible, so God's Word gets inside us. Third we water  the seed by praising and worshiping and spending time with God. What do you think about that. Can we do that?

Pumpkin: I can do that.

Me: I know you can and I can to.

Sometimes I need those great teaching moments to be toddler simple. And isn't that one of the beautiful things about God, He meets us at just the place we need. And I need more of Him! So I have been going back to my roots and listening, reading and watching Kenneth Hagin, Charles Capps and Casey Treat. While also filling up on some great teaching I've discovered in these past few years: Keith Moore; Rick Godwin and JD Henderson, just to name a few. I'm spending more time working on my heart so I have more fruit to model for my children. And more fruit for me.

In the mean time, I stumbled across a fruit of the spirit curriculum for toddles from the folks over at Intentional Homeschool and figured why create the wheel when life is already too busy as it is. I'm still going to use our House and Tree project but when you find great curriculum I say USE IT!

Got to buzz, nap time is almost over and I still have dishes to do.

-K