Sometimes the fruit of the Spirit are flowers.
I didn't plan to offer these custom order watercolors as prints in the shoppe until the overwhelming response caused me to reconsider. With the encouragement of the customer who ordered them, I've now made the set of 9 prints available in the shoppe in two different sizes.
And, can I leave you with one more thing? I don't mean to make more of it than necessary, but I want to share my heart in this:
We don't hang beautiful prints of the fruit of the Spirit to condemn us or to set the standard for what we must attain to. There is nothing in our natural man that can achieve any one of the 9 fruits of the Spirit. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? Left to myself, I am without hope. No amount of aspiring, striving, guilty, disciplining, or determination will cause us to be that fruitful.
But we can produce this fruit...in abundance by the work of the Spirit. It is Christ, himself, that transforms and replaces the worthless things of our flesh with the abundance of his grace and glory.
And so...know my heart. Be encouraged. Look on these reminders of the fruit of the Spirit with surrender, not more striving. I'm so pleased to offer them for your encouragement.