Good Fruit

What is your favorite fruit?
Why is that one your favorite?
Yesterday, for Memorial Day, my family spent some time at my parents’ house swimming, eating, relaxing, and thanking God for all the military who have served our country and given their life to protecting our rights and maintaining peace.
Lately, I have been focused on fruit that I am striving to represent (Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control). I was challenged yesterday as my dad and I were trying desperately to locate any signs of fruit on his Loquat tree. That tree was given to him about twenty years ago to see if it would grow in Birmingham. It is doing incredible, and the fruit is certainly not one that people think of as their favorite, but I love it. The only problem is that it seems to produce fruit only when it wants to produce. You really have to search diligently at different times of the year to find one of those nuggets of sweetness.
What about you? Is your fruit of the Spirit easy to identify or is it hidden and made known only when you decide to share it? When others think of you, do they think of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and/or self-control?
Do you tend to be a person whose glass is half full or half empty? Do you look for the positives in others or consistently feel that your role in life is to communicate problems and negatives? Positives and Negatives are all around us, and I believe that our role is to develop the positives and figure out healthy solutions to the problems surrounding us. Just like any fruit tree, we must have a balance of the necessary nutrients to allow that tree to produce a healthy, sustainable fruit.
13 May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.
14 I myself am convinced, my brothers, that you yourselves are full of goodness, complete in knowledge and competent to instruct one another.
15 I have written you quite boldly on some points, as if to remind you of them again, because of the grace God gave me
16 to be a minister of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles with the priestly duty of proclaiming the gospel of God, so that the Gentiles might become an offering acceptable to God, sanctified by the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13-16 NIV)