Good fruit

I'm going to take a minute to write about something that's been on my mind lately.

In May, I had the opportunity to see Beth Moore at one of her LPL events. This was probably the single most important thing I've done spiritually. For whatever reason, I can connect extremely well to her messages. It seems as if she's speaking about a topic that was hand-picked just for me (who knows, maybe it was!).

Beth spoke about (among other things) trees bearing like-fruit. If you have a healthy apple tree, planted in good soil, getting good sunlight, receiving enough water -- it's going to bear vibrant, delicious apples. If you have a sickly tree, just sitting in a pot and you never water, plant or take care of it -- it's going to produce rotten apples if it produces anything at all.

She spoke about how looking at the fruit something bears is a good measuring stick for just about anything in life.

Do you have a teenager who wants to stay over at a new friend's house? We can apply this situation to our fruit example. Let your son/daughter spend time with this new friend. If he/she starts becoming defiant and rude, then obviously this new friend is causing him/her to not bear good fruit.

Are you attending a church that is putting other things before the bible? Are you more concerned with the "religion" than with your personal relationship with Jesus? Take a look -- this might not be bearing good fruit. (Think about what your fruit should be in this situation...)

For me, I've been thinking about this situation and Facebook. I think Facebook is starting to bear bad fruit with me. I have been spending too much time looking at other people's lives -- what other people are buying, where other people are going -- and I'm not spending enough time being thankful for the things I have, the places I go and the things I'm doing in my own life. I have started wanting more and more things. I've bought a few things outside of the budget. Not good fruit. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about it, but I know something needs done. It's hard to be at home all day, be around my computer and not hop on Facebook several times. It's not going to be easy, but I'm going to have to come up with a solution.

I don't plan on making it a habit of delving into issues like this on here (mostly because I just want this to be a place where you can go and get something for yourself and not have to read about others troubles or worries), but this one has been a tough one for me lately, so I thought I'd share.

I'll leave you with this... thanks Erin for another beautiful design. You are SO talented!!