Spirit

Our church lesson today was on the Holy Spirit, and yep, we go to a Church of Christ. Growing up I wasn't exposed very much to talk of the Holy Spirit... that was for the crazy hand raisers or even worse, the clappers. All joking aside, I respect the church that raised me. If that's what they believe to be true, then more power to 'em. Personally I've come to believe that the Holy Sprit is active in our lives other than just speaking through the Bible.

On the other hand, I have a boatload of questions to sit down and ask God about someday in Heaven. Was the Spirit more active in the lives of the disciples and the early church to spread the Christian faith better? Did the Spirit become less active after the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70? Why do I not feel the Spirit working in my life at times (a lot of times)...is it because I'm not a "good enough" Christian (not reading the Bible, sinning, not serving, etc.)? Why is it so hard to distinguish between the Spirit's leading or my own leading? Confusing stuff.

Here lately I've felt a pull to write which is weird for me since 99% of the time I hate writing -like detest it more than sitting in the sun on an August day in Alabama. At work though my boss progressively pulls me into more language oriented tasks like writing/editing proposals. WHAT?! NO. Give me numbers and EXCEL all day every day PUH LEASE. And here lately I just want to write. About my kids (of course), family, faith, crafting... all of it. But why? I'm not really sure. Is it a Spirit thing? or just an Amanda thing? NO CLUE. Is it because I want to preserve this crazy/magical stage of life (that I  simultaneously find myself wishing would speed up some days?) Whatever the reason I guess I'll pay attention to this desire. Unfortunately, knowing me I'll be totally over it in a week.

If it's a Spirit-led thing I pray that I can follow and glorify God. In our lesson today our preacher said "Without fruit the gifts of the Spirit can be flat out dangerous." True. Our abilities can either produce yuck fruit (think cantaloupe) such as pride, false identity, idolatry, jealousy, dissention, or the good stuff (think strawberries) like....love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control." Galatians 5:22-23 I vote strawberries!