The Fruit of the Sprirt is...

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. If you are a Christian, then you have heard these all your life but (like me) not really understood what they meant or how they should be evident in our lives. I've been taking the Beth Moore Bible study called Living Beyond Yourself; Exploring the Fruit of the Spirit. It has really been working me over and God has been convicting me through this study so I thought I would share a bit here.

For the first time in my Christian walk, I have realized that since I am a Christian, I have this great gift from God...the Holy Spirit. And a life that bears much fruit will please God, so have I been bearing the fruit of the Holy Spirit? No! The thing is, this fruit does not come easily. The Spirit is given to us when we become a Christian, but the fruit comes later. Through a filling of the Spirit daily, through reading God's Word and prayer. These weeks in this study, I've had to ask God daily to manifest this fruit through my life, to help me as I try to walk in His Spirit. I've been reminded of what God said in 2 Corinthians: "Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom." It is so freeing to live with the fruit of the Spirit working in my life.

Today's study is on gentleness and the Greek description of gentleness is: "The acceptance of God's dealings with us considering them as good in that they enhance the closeness of our relationship with him."

Wow! God is dealing with me so gently and tenderly, because it (He) is good and all He desires for me is to be closer to Him and to have what is better than all I could imagine. He only convicts me in order to change my weaknesses into strengths and to enhance the closeness of my relationship to Him. He wants the very best for me, and the fruit, gentleness, will be evident in my life if I accept how He deals with me and I stop fighting and resisting Him...knowing that He is good.

Anyway, normally, I do not do much musing on my blog, since I don't see myself as a writer...BUT I was too excited about what God has been doing in my life to keep it to myself! I had to share how cool God is! I hope He is working in your lives right now too!

My Kids Love Youtube!

Here's a link to a video on youtube that Kenzie is in love with right now! She loves any kind of animal and this one is so cute and funny. She tells everyone that she is going to grow up to be a doctor that gives shots to animals.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzRH3iTQPrk

Our girls love to watch animals and other kids on youtube. I think it's great to expose them to technology at a young age, but if you're not careful with youtube, it will start bringing up related videos that have nothing to do with what you were watching. I know we will not have to worry about it for awhile, but I totally see the importance of having internet restrictions for your kids.

Dalmatians 100 and 101

I would have to say my dalmatians were the most adorable dogs out trick-or-treating on Halloween. Nana made their awesome costumes and their cute faces made it all the better! They played the part so well...Kenzie would not speak to anyone, she only barked! She stayed in character the whole night. Can anyone say Drama Queen? And luckily, we had gorgeous weather! Unlike last year when we had rain and sleet, this year was about 70 degrees and sunny. Perfect night!

Voting Day!

Did my civic duty today and voted! Luckily, I didn't have to wait in line for hours like some did...I was in and out in 15 minutes! I was a bit shocked that Michigan is still a darken in the circle system. I felt like I was taking a multiple choice test! Plus, in Virginia, we always voted in the schools, but here in Michigan, a lot of the voting was in churches. Does separation of church and state only apply when it doesn't benefit the government?

I was remembering that four years ago when I voted for president, the girls were only 2 months old and I took them into the booth with me in their car seats (they slept through the whole thing). When we left, the worker put a "I voted" sticker on both of their feet...so cute! Then I went to Taco Bell for lunch! I remember the important stuff! That was four years ago and it just feels like yesterday.

Another cute story, I picked the girls up from preschool and I had my "I voted" sticker on. Sydney asked me what it said and I told her I had voted. She had a puzzled look on her face and said, Huh? So I said, "Honey, when you grow up, you will have the privilege to vote (or pick) for the person that will run our country." She said, "But mommy, when I grow up I want to be a nurse!" Wow, she definitely knows exactly what she wants! I told her that nurses can vote too!