Like you, I learned the fruits of the Spirit growing up: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. I learned songs about them, read books about them and saw a fair number of puppet shows with talking apples and bananas.

We’re told in the Bible that the fruit (or actions) our lives produce is direct evidence of our relationship with God. “You can identify them by their fruit” is what Jesus said in Matthew 7:16. If my life supposed to be filled with this fruit, why do I so often exemplify the exact opposite – worry, stress, rudeness, gruffness, doubt?

But don’t worry. If you’re a little low in your spiritual fruits, there’s an energy drink called 1in3Trinity that is actually “infused with fruit of the spirit” (along with a healthy dose of caffeine, taurine and ginseng). According to NASCAR driver Morgan Shepherd, 1in3Trinity is the “official energy drink of faith.” Shame on all you youth pastors out there still using Red Bull and Mountain Dew.

Ah, if only it were as easy as drinking it drinking it out of a can.

I’m not proud to say that some of my fruit lately has been a little rotten. If “a good tree produces good fruit, and a bad tree produces bad fruit” then I definitely need to do a little pruning.

Which fruit of the Spirit is a little sparse on your tree?

[photo: jakobesben]