The FOTS Family Experiment

Can you all believe we are finally done looking at each of the fruits of the spirit? What was to take nine months (one fruit each month) turned into a year and a half. I guess mostly due to my not keeping up with it. But I'm glad I stuck with it and I hope you are too. I hope you stuck with it alongside me!

So, tell me, did you notice a difference in your life when you were focusing on each fruit? What did you learn? Did you notice growth, change, a difference in how you act towards others and God? How did your attitude and actions change? I'd like to tell you that I am a totally changed person in whom the fruits are now obvious, but that isn't truly the case. But I do believe that I have changed for the better in some ways. I feel like my faith is stronger as a result of this study. I am by no means perfect in demonstrating the fruits of the spirit, but I do not believe that such perfection can come in this lifetime. One thing I have learned is how dependent I am on God to have any semblance of the fruits in my life. Praise be to God that he gives us the power and the strength to keep going! Praise be to God that he gives us the fruits so that we may reflect and glorify Him in this fallen world! Praise be to God that he keeps us dependent so we must rely on and always turn back to Him! I know I will keep up the effort, though, and keep practicing. Hopefully the good days will outweigh the bad in the end. And I know that by following God in this way, my life WILL be changed for the better!

Well, you may think then that this blog is over with the end of the project. I hope that you are happy to hear it is not the end. I want to do a family experiment now. Recently, my church did a series called "Faith at Home." One sermon talked about the fruits of the spirit; another talked about Scripture memorization; a thread throughout was obedience to God and teaching in the family, particularly teaching our children God's truth at home and not just leaving it to church.

I want to get my kids involved in what I've been doing. We talk about Bible stories and Christian concepts often in our home, mostly in those "teachable moments" that pop up during normal daily life. This experiment will be more intentional. I will take one fruit each week, choose a verse for the family to memorize together, and generally discuss as a family what it means to show that fruit in our lives. I will post the fruit, the verse, a story to share with the kids relating to that week's fruit, and some suggestions for family discussion. I'm going to be sitting down with my kids on Sunday each week, but if Sundays don't work for you, choose another day. The point is sitting down as a family and spending the time to talk about each fruit, discuss the verse, and generally learn together. Then spend that week looking at the verse and talking about it. If your kids are old enough to read, then write the verse on note cards or paper and post it all around the house where everyone will see it. If your kids, like mine, can't read yet, then ask them about the verse and talk to them about it often so that it all "sticks."

I hope you will join me in this new experiment. Let's see if it makes a difference in the lives of our families! Stay tuned - on Saturday I will post the plan for our (once again) first fruit, love. Read it, tweak it if you like, and share it with your family! And, as always, I'd love to hear from you! Let me know how it goes and what you think of the experiment. Also, let me know how you did with the FOTS project that we just completed!