Come, Live by the Spirit!

I have been in education for a good while now and I noticed there are two basic groups in the lunch room. One group is positive and tries to find the good in there students and to be positive in their approach. This group is always sharing their successes and thinking of ways to improve. The other group is a bit jaded and complains a lot. The topic is always about how bad this class is, and how unhelpful the administration is and the useless attempts at dealing with some parents who defend their little devil even in the face of undeniable evidence. The funny thing is, I rarely see the complainers having much success, while I have always found the positive group to be much more proficient in helping their students learn. The fruit of their belief about their students produces much better results. In Christianity the Apostle Paul says this,

"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. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the sinful nature with its passions and desires. Since we live in the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit." Galatians 5:22-25

We will either have the fruit of the Spirit or the fruit of the sinful nature, often referred to as "the flesh." Which direction am I looking? To live in the Spirit I need to passionately seek and desire to be loving, patient, kind, good, faithful, gentle and self-controlled, not, controlled by my passions and desires.  If I may go back to my experience as an educator. The point of view that I had was a choice, to find the good happening in my classes and build upon that, or, to fixate on the negative and let that drag me down. The same goes as a Christian, I must choose to crucify the sinful nature by choosing to seek that which follows the way of love. 

Father, helps us to choose to live by faith in Christ Jesus. Give us strength to seek love, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Praise be to you in us today!