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5.   FRUIT OF THE SPIRIT  IS LOVE APRIL 03

Schmoozing with Shari:

But the Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Against such things there is no law.  Galatians 5:22-23

This has become one of my “Life Scriptures.”  Many times during the course of each day I think about this passage as events take place.  I consciously incorporate this Scripture into as many of my daily thoughts and activities as possible.

My life is busy.  I work 9-10 hours per day outside the house and often come home to do housework or synagogue work.  Not that I am using this as an excuse, but I do not have the time I would like to read and study.  It is very rare that I have the luxury of sitting down with a good book that is not The Good Book!

Aside from the Bible, I find myself coming back to one particular book over and over again.  It is not a theological book or scholarly work.  It is not poetic or suspenseful.  When our son was in High School, the Lord directed me to this book and brings me back often.  The name of the book is All I Really Need To Know I Learned In Kindergarten written by Robert Fulghum.  Following is a passage that expresses to me a way to exhibit the Fruit of the Spirit in everyday life, everyday.  Let me know what you think!

Blessings,

Shari

All I really need to know about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten.  Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sand pile at Sunday School.  These are the things I learned:

Share everything.

Play fair.

Don’t hit people.

Put things back where you found them.

Clean up your own mess.

Don’t take things that aren’t yours.

Say you’re sorry when you hurt somebody.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Flush.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life-learn some and think some and draw and paint ant sing and dance and play and work every day some.

Take a nap every afternoon.

When you go out into the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, and stick together.

Be aware of wonder.  Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are all like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup-they all die.  So do we.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned-the biggest word of all-LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere.  The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation.  Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm.  Think what a better world it would be if we all-the whole world-had cookies and milk about three o’clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankets for a nap.  Or if all governments had as a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are-when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

Love and blessings,

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