For a moment dream of a life of fruitfulness, a life that each decade gets more fruitful than the decade before. The fruits of the spirit, through your life, feed those around you regularly. Your wife is overflowing with your patience and kindness. Your husband has a strong foundation because of the diet of praise he has received from the fruits of your tree.
Your children are filled with self-esteem because of the nurturing they received by your fruitfulness. You, yourself are satiated and strong because of the fruit you get to eat from your spouse’s tree. Then there’s that additional fruit you receive from your children. Wow, you are full and satiated!
Now, don’t stop dreaming. Go a little further down the road. You plowed a field of intentional fruit. So not only does the fruit bless your spouse and children, but your family is also blessed because you taught them how to be intentional in growing the fruit of the spirit.
Now the harvest is growing multi-generationally. Now your children’s children have the fruit of the Spirit to give to their generation. Not only are they saved but they have fruit. This is the dream that I hope to your heart grasps on to.
Love agreements are powerful in teaching you how to practically grow fruit. Fruit that God wants you to have on your trees. There’s no direct benefits of growing fruit except maybe the sheer pleasure of being what God created it to be. The tree doesn’t control what others do with the fruit.
No, you don’t get to control how your spouse or others respond to your fruit. They may disdain, not notice or fail to savor your new fruitfulness. It’s your job to be fruitful. The first command God gave mankind was to be fruitful and multiply. Fruitfulness isn’t just physical fruitfulness.
God in Christ through the Holy Spirit planted His very nature inside of you. It is this river of life that flows deep inside. The spirit of God in you has already been planted. Now it’s your job to cultivate the seed of His nature. It’s not easy all the time because of the dirt the seed has to push through.
Our flesh may be innately selfish, rude or indulgent. The spirit of God inside us is none of these things. Hence, there is a conflict. The spirit wants to push through these layers of dirt so it can be seen and tasted by others through you.
You can just throw more dirt on the seed and make the seed work harder. You can choose to ignore the seed and have occasional and accidental fruitfulness. Or you can acknowledge the seed of God’s very own nature already in you.
Doug Weiss, Ph.D., is a nationally known author, speaker and licensed psychologist. He is the executive director of Heart to Heart Counseling Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, and the author of several books including, The 7 Love Agreements. You may contact Dr. Weiss via his website, drdougweiss.com or on his Facebook, by phone at 719-278-3708 or through email at [email protected].
