Sermon Recap

• Pastor Suzanne talked about the ways cultivating the fruit of the Spirit is somewhat like gardening. 
  • Our life is like a garden plot. Some of the things were planted in it by others (family of origin, friends, culture around us, etc.), and some of the things in the garden are things we plant and cultivate. 
  • Weeds naturally pop up in gardens no matter what, but daily surveying our garden and dealing with the weeds early helps them from growing deep roots. 
  • We need wisdom and the help of the Spirit to see what is a weed and what is a fruit. 
  • Fruit has to be grown from the inside out. You can’t just tape fruit onto a plan to make it look good. Rather than trying to look like good Christians on the outside first, we ought to let the Spirit grow and cultivate fruit from the inside of us out. 
  • We participate with the Spirit to grow fruit, but we cannot make the fruit grow on our own. 

Reflection Questions

• What other metaphors to gardening do you see in the spiritual life?
• What areas of your “garden” are overgrown right now? Is there anything the Spirit is inviting you to weed out?
• What areas of your “garden” are you being invited to help cultivate?
• As you look at the list of the fruit of the Spirit, what pieces of that do you want God to plant more deeply in you? Spend a few moments in prayer asking God to grow the fruit of the Spirit in you. 

If you want to keep exploring this metaphor, read the article below about starting a fruit and vegetable garden. What instructions do you see that could symbolically apply to the spiritual life?