against such things there is no law

good beautiful morning!

the sun is shining, 

summer break is here, 

my kidlets are sleeping 

and i just finished a cup of tea and my Bible time.

i am going to try to get up each morning, when my hubby leaves the house, and start my day with some time in God's Word.

that would mean getting up at my normal school year time, so this should be possible.

it's just wether i'll actually spend it on quiet time with God or whether i'll fill it with a shower or a task that can wait...

one day at a time.

This school year i made it a point to sit with the kids and eat breakfast with them.

other years i have given them breakfast and continued on making lunches or cleaning something, 

but this year i began thinking about the times i sat and had breakfast with my mom and brother before school.  

i wanted those memories for my kids.

so i ignored other things and made sure to sit with them.

sometimes we read Shel Silverstein poems.

I LOVE Shel Silverstein.

sometimes we read a book they had from the library.

sometimes we were just able to get breakfast down and get along.

and, yes, sometimes we watched Good Mythical Morning on YouTube.

i LOVE that show!

but the one thing i tried to do every school morning was to pray with them before they went to get dressed.

most mornings i was able to get some focused Bible time with them while we ate.

this year i decided to focus on a couple specific verses.

Galtaians 5:22-23

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.

We made these to remind us what the different qualities were.

in September we spent the month talking about the whole verse.

as of October i began to focus on a fruit for a month.

a fruit a month took us right to June

we discussed at the beginning of the month what the fruit was, and how could we live it that month.

sometimes we had goals.

sometimes we got rewards.

sometimes it was easy peasy.

sometimes it was crazy, pull your hair out difficult.

over the months i began to really learn about the qualities in these verses.

as i taught the kids i realized i had to also work on them.

there was a lot of prayer!

a lot!

i was praying for strength to live that fruit, and a lot of times it got easier.

sometimes...like the month of gentleness...i had some fails.

i encouraged the kids to remind me of the fruit as i would remind them in times of struggle.

i love that when we teach our kids something we usually learn something new as well.

that was me this school year.

one of the things i noticed this year about the fruits of the spirit:

they build up on each other.

without the previous fruit it's hard to have and show the next one.

especially when you get to the self-control one.

without the previous eight self-control is near impossible.

if my actions are not rooted in love than it's hard to see why i should live the next one, or two.

self-control was our last one as school let out.

it was a difficult month.

we were tired, it was hot, there were class trips, outings, lots of activity on the weekends.

we were exhausted and self-control was our focus.

it was not a perfect month.

we did not have a pinterest type of self-control learning: 

all perfect and tied with a ribbon.

pat-on-the-back for me great parenting.

look how wonderful and self-controlled my family is...

no.

it was a difficult month.

self-control in the tempers, fighting, whining.

HARD!

but the times when we were able to control things were amazing.

again, i repeat, there was a lot of prayer about it.

i had to remind the kids how much they loved each other, and how without remembering kindness or gentleness that self-control was hard.

i am so glad that i spent this year focused on the fruits of the spirit with the kids.

they did say they were sad to be done the list.

and asked what we were doing next.

i have no idea.

but i will continue to work on these fruits, praying for my kids as the summer continues.

may we live our lives in such a way.

we do it because we love God, and are thankful for His son Jesus Christ.

we seek to live these qualities with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.  

Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self control.

against such things there is no law.