Giving Thanks

For my incredible husband

And my wonderful family

And my gaggle of ridiculous and crazy friends

And for my kids

And to be quite honest with you: for face paint.

:)

I'm reading in Galatians and this morning this is what struck me: (ch.5, vs. 22-26) By contrast, the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. There is no law against such things. And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, competing against one another, envying one another.

(sorry for green - in my notes I always write down verses in green to differentiate) (also this is from the New Revised Standard Version)

Something that has been on my heart for a very long time now is that I have lost my joyfulness. I tend to be a snarly, sarcastic, snotty, albeit funny, but kind of snarky and mean person. Though I'm sure some of that is just part of who I am, I know that a lot of it comes from being somewhat bitter and cynical. Okay, being a LOT bitter and cynical. I have spent the last couple months in my time with the Lord really asking for a renewed sense of joy, His joy. The truth is that the things that made me bitter and cynical were completely legit things. People suck. They can be ignorant and hard hearted and mean (this is ALL people, including Christians...sometimes especially Christians). The church can fail at being loving and supportive. You get your heart broken and your spirit crushed when you lose your image of how you thought THINGS WOULD BE. And it can make you bitter. And I let it. But worse, I let it keep me bitter. I let it make me compettive about weird things with people for no reason at all. I let it make me angry and somewhat conceited, like only I could possibly see these bad thigns in the world, everyone else was blind. In the last few months of taking this before the Lord I have learned a lot about myself and realized a lot of things about joy. And this morning I was reminded that bitterness is a fleshly thing, and joy is of the spirit. I started thinking about joy and the other "Fruits of the Spirit" and how that phrase is so often spoken without really thinking about it. Fruit. When the Bible talks about fruit it is talking about evidence. Fruit = proof. Fruit on a tree is proof that the tree is alive. Fruit in your life, Biblically speaking, is proof of your faith, of your aliveness (I know, I know) in the spirit. Before starting Galatians I was reading in James so I've been thinking a lot about fruit and proof and life the last month. Based on the snarky, sarcastic way I tend to be, I'm not really exhibiting any fruit, I'm not giving anyone any proof of the spirit of God that lives in me. Or at least I wasn't. The Lord is working on it. I have better days than others, it's a fight, man. Anytime you find an area you're slackin in (and don't lie, we all have tons) it's a fight to tear it down and let the Lord rebuild it. But it's happening. And I can feel it. Some days I need to help a little though. Make the decision to be joyful, do things (usually silly little things) that put a smile on my face and remind me of the beauty of the joy our Creator instills in us.

So today I decided to jump on the "I'm Thankful For" bandwagon. Because these things that I am thankful for bring me joy.

More to come.