Are you growing "Quince" or "Apples"?

Today was a good Sunday. Mainly because the Lord gave it to me. After all, he gives us the gift of another day and we are the ones who choose how our day is going to go, regardless of what happens in it. The devil's attack is inevitable, it's how we respond that counts.

Today's sermon was on "the fruit that we bear" and how people can tell alot about us by our fruits. My devotion this weekend was on being a "Godly Women". That was a double whammy wasn't it. As I sat through todays sermon I wondered how fruitful I was. I remember being tricked into eating a quince when I was little. It was a bitter bitter fruit, unlike the apple which is sweet. Hum! I wonder if the fruit I am bearing is "bitter" or "sweet"? I was also reminded of the verse in John,

I am the vine, you are the branches; He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit; for without me ye can do nothing. John 15:5

As I thought of this verse I wondered not only how I lack in being a "Godly women", but also how I lack being as fruitful as I should. My heart desires nothing more that to be a "God fearing" women, but I find myself letting life and the flesh rob me of this more than I should. When I am robbed so are the ones that I love, because my life affects their life. I allow circumstances to dictate my emotions and I allow the "hustle and bustle" of day to day to demand my thoughts. In the process of doing this, I don't think that we are as fruitful as we can be. Being fruitful is so much more than me reading a quick devotional or praying for someone, to be fruitful I need to never stop growing in Christ, not just in those instances, but at all times.

I love to grow flowers, though many don't make it. I think about the ferns that I love so much. They start out so beautiful and green. As I begin to neglect them they become dry and start to have noticeable signs of neglect. As I starve them completely of water, they simple start to break away piece by piece. I think I am alot like my ferns are at times. I know, that sounds crazy! Think about it, we get so fired up for God and we just glow in his spirit and then we slowly start slipping and not keeping ourselves fed on God's word. We too start to get dry and don't thrive like we should. We think we look okay, but others see. As we continue to neglect ourselves spiritually we simply start losing bits and pieces of ourselves much like the fern. What is so wonderful though, is that if I simply give that fern a little water, you start to slowly see the life creep right back in. God is offering us all we need to keep ourselves fed spiritually to bear fruit, beautiful fruit.

Lord help me feed on your words daily so that I might be fruitful for your kingdom. Lord help me to be the women that "YOU" would have me to be.