Episode 42: Known By Your Fruit: How Christian Women Change the World

This is the transcript for Episode 42 of the Elevate Motherhood Podcast. If you would like to listen to this episode, click here!

We are just diving in here today guys! Last week, we celebrated half-birthdays with our kids, and this week, we are jumping straight to changing the world. Which if you know me well, or have been here a while, you know here at Elevate Motherhood, we don't think those things are TOO far apart. :)

But truly, You know what I really think can change the world? More women, moms and wives who are sure of their calling. Who day in and day out act and speak as the light of the world. Who love hard, who are selfless. Who show the fruit of the spirit - love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. When your life is planted in the good soil and your heart is seeking God first, those are the fruit. Those are what people see! And what a gift that is to the world! And what it really is, is an overflow of the heart.

And it’s a reality check, right? Like what do your friends, family members, coworkers see in you? Do they see the fruit of the spirit? They should! The bible is clear!

The fruit of the spirit was a recent topic at church and in my small group. God has a lot to say about this in scripture! In Matthew 7, Jesus says, “You will know them by their fruits.  A bad tree produces bad fruit, and a good tree produces good fruit.”  So this is the question we were asking ourselves and I’m asking you today - What do people know you for? Is it for the fuit of the spirit? What’s the overflow of my heart and asking myself why would that be, how am I feeding into that and responsible for that. 

In that scripture, Jesus is also talking about false prophets. And wow isn’t this so important! People sure love to talk right? I’m a girl with my own podcast so I’m talking to myself here too. But when people are upsetting you, disagreeing with you or hurting your feelings - ask yourself- what are their fruits? Is their life a product of the fruits of the spirit? If so, I’d be more inclined to listen. But if they are causing strife I’d bet more likely their lives don’t reflect the fruit of the spirit… If their life is a product of anxiety, fear, hate, pride, or just a completely different life than the one God’s instructing you to live, I’d be more inclined to tune them out and let it be without getting upset. Shake it off.

There’s a quote I love that says, don’t take criticism from someone you wouldn’t go to for advice. Isn’t that good? Just don’t accept the criticism, let it bounce off, be unoffendable. You can decide to be unoffendable. I know we have talked about this on Instagram and it was a great topic one day with a lot of feedback from you guys but I’m not sure if we have talked about it on the podcast or not. If we have it’s still worth talking about again. The permission to pray for ourselves to be unoffendable. The offense can bounce off, it doesn’t have to stick. And that’s our decision. What someone says does not determine what you’re supposed to say or do. You’re supposed to act like Jesus. You’re supposed to be so sure of yourself and the word and what you believe and what you want for your life that you are not easily shaken. Your house is on a firm foundation. You know God’s instruction for you and you can stay the course no matter what life throws at you. ESPECIALLY if it’s something petty from someone who might be considered a bad tree with bad fruit.

And gosh just thinking of myself here again and the importance of community and friendship and how much easier that all is when we decide to be unoffendable and extend grace and mercy to each other. I need it because I really feel like I mess up ALL THE TIME saying something that from the depths of my heart did not mean to be offensive but misspoke a little or when I was just like with a friend and get home and think, did I really say that, did she take it that way? Do I need to apologize or would that be stirring it up more maybe it really was so insignificant but gosh I hope I didn’t offend her. And I hope my friends know I really try to do that for them too, be unoffendable, give people the benefit of the doubt.  But if we have all decided to be unoffendable, it just takes that layer of offense away. If something really is hurtful, we can bring it straight to the table, hey, you said this and I felt this way… but it’s more like practical and less emotionally charged because we have already decided who we are and are confident in the Lord and all of that. Man, the Lord is speaking to ME here and I hope some of you all too! The power and freedom from knowing who you are in Christ and not giving too much weight to the minor offenses in life.

And I feel like I should say of course I’m not talking about someone who is physically hurting you or if you need to not be keeping yourself in a bad situation, please hear my heart on this I would never mean to accidentally shame someone who is in a bad situation and needs true help…. this conversation today is more along the lines of the little things like someone making you mad on Facebook or offending you at work or your kids in a bad mood, that kind of thing. These daily annoyances that can really set us off course if we let them, or we can pre-decide we are going to stay the course.

And I love this verse from James 3:17 the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere. If you’re wondering how to speak wisely, that’s it. If you’re wondering if someone else is speaking wisely, ask yourself if it looks like that. Are their words peaceful, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, impartial and sincere? No? Then its not wisdom from above. Let it go and stay your course. I think staying our course also means like freeing ourselves from trying to right every wrong we see in the world. If something is not that big of a deal or not your battle to fight, you don’t have to prove someone wrong by arguing with them about it. Prove them wrong by being unaffected and staying the course. Let the Holy Spirit convict them.

So now I’m asking you, what do you think the world would look like if and how might it change if Christian women just all firmly and courageously stay the course. BE like Christ. Show the fruit of the spirit. Raise our children with patience and gentleness and self control. Love our husbands with joy and peace and kindness. Act with goodness and faithfulness to the word.

And now I’m wondering, is this conversation making you think of someone who does this well? Who just by being around them you feel the overflow of their heart as a heart for the Lord. There are a few women coming to mind for me. I just want to be one of those women and I hope all of you listening want to be one of those women. Those women I’m thinking of are joyful. They are peaceful. They are who I want to be around when I’m feeling anxious or discontent. I want my kids to view me as someone like that. I want them to think of their mom when they are learning the fruit of the spirit. I want my influence on their lives to be pointing them ever more to Christ with every fruit-filled decision I make.

In John 15:5&8, Jesus says, I am the vine and you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit. Apart from me you can do nothing. This is my father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.

So in the sermon at church about this, our pastor listed the fruits of the spirit. And then he had a parallel list of the opposite of each of those words and called them the fruits of the flesh- selfish, frustrated, anxious, impatient, uncaring, bad, disloyal, harsh, indulgent. And he said if you belong to jesus and are connected to the vine, there is NO excuse for bad fruit. Don’t we just want to make excuses for ourselves? I was harsh because my kid was acting crazy! I was indulgent because it’s been a hard day! I was selfish because that person is always selfish too! I was frustrated because I was in a hurry! We try to justify it. There’s really no excuse for followers of Jesus who are filled with the Holy Spirit. If the holy spirit is in us, we have the fruit of the spirit. We HAVE patience, we have self-control. Through the spirit inside us, we have access to those fruits and they should be overflowing out of us.

I like that our pastor finished the talk about this saying, we shouldn’t be focused on the production of the fruit. We should be focused on connecting ourselves to the vine. We should be focused on our relationship with God. The fruit WILL produce. A tree can’t TRY to produce fruit, it just does. We don’t need to start outwardly worrying about our fruit. We don’t need to worry about what other people are saying or doing. We need to keep inwardly focused on abiding in Him. Connecting ourselves to the good vine. The fruit will be obvious.

And that’s how we change the world, friends! Stay the course. Stay connected to the vine. And let your light shine. People will know you by your fruits. And what a blessing that is! People are drawn to fruit producing Christian women. They just ARE drawn to fruit producing Christian women. But really, it’s God through us they are drawn to. We are an instrument in showing the world what a life built on Christ looks like. When we do it the way God instructs, it will be contagious. It’s how we change the world! 

I like to end every episode with a prayer and blessing for you. Dear Lord, thank you for these listeners. Please correct in their hearts and mine if I’ve misspoken, let your love for us be the overflow of this podcast. Let the fruits of the spirits just SHINE out of the hearts of all the moms listening. Let us cling to the vine and be connected to you, you are our strength and the one we love Lord. Let the overflow of our hearts honor you and be a blessing to the world around us. Let us just shine your light so you are glorified and hearts are drawn to you. In your son jesus’ name, amen!