Over the last month, Ryan Cole and I have been meeting with the ten students we\u2019ll be accompanying on a spring break service trip to Spalding County, GA. At our last meeting, our student leaders led us in a great activity: we each anonymously wrote down one worry we were carrying about the trip. Then, we read all the worries out loud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
There was a strong pattern: most of us were anxious about feeling worn out, overloaded, needing space to ourselves and not being able to get it. One student wrote: \u201cI\u2019m afraid I\u2019ll get exhausted and then snap at someone,\u201d and the rest of the group nodded in understanding. We\u2019ve all been there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201c…the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control\u2026If we live by the Spirit, let us also be guided by the Spirit\u201d<\/em> (Galatians 5:22-23,25).<\/p>\n\n\n\n I\u2019ve been thinking about the conditions that get in the way of those fruits of the spirit \u2013 that make them more difficult to grow. When I\u2019m overworked, it\u2019s harder to have self control (hello, fast food). When I\u2019m overbusy, it\u2019s harder to be patient with others. <\/p>\n\n\n\n In contrast, there are conditions that help me grow that spiritual fruit. When I spend time with people who care about me, my own well of kindness fills up. When I pay attention to my own blessings, it\u2019s easier for me to be generous with others.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Christian cultures I grew up in emphasized a number of important spiritual practices: worship, reading scripture, prayer. It\u2019s worth noting that in addition to these classic Chrisitan habits, the scriptures also emphasize (and even command!) things like rest and community, personal boundaries and good communication. These are also spiritual practices \u2013 conditions through which the Spirit works to bear fruit in us. <\/p>\n\n\n\n During this season of Lent, I invite you into the question: Which fruits of the Spirit would you like to see more of in your own life? Which spiritual practices \u2013 even out-of-the-ordinary ones \u2013 would open a way for the Spirit to grow that fruit in you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u2013 Pastor Kate<\/p>\n\n\n\n Rev. Katherine Museu<\/a>s<\/em> and Rev. James A. Wetzstein<\/a> serve as university pastors at the Chapel of the Resurrection at Valparaiso University and take turns writing weekly devotions<\/em>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Over the last month, Ryan Cole and I have been meeting with the ten students we\u2019ll be accompanying on a spring break service trip to Spalding County, GA. At our […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":689,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_EventAllDay":false,"_EventTimezone":"","_EventStartDate":"","_EventEndDate":"","_EventStartDateUTC":"","_EventEndDateUTC":"","_EventShowMap":false,"_EventShowMapLink":false,"_EventURL":"","_EventCost":"","_EventCostDescription":"","_EventCurrencySymbol":"","_EventCurrencyCode":"","_EventCurrencyPosition":"","_EventDateTimeSeparator":"","_EventTimeRangeSeparator":"","_EventOrganizerID":[],"_EventVenueID":[],"_OrganizerEmail":"","_OrganizerPhone":"","_OrganizerWebsite":"","_VenueAddress":"","_VenueCity":"","_VenueCountry":"","_VenueProvince":"","_VenueState":"","_VenueZip":"","_VenuePhone":"","_VenueURL":"","_VenueStateProvince":"","_VenueLat":"","_VenueLng":"","_VenueShowMap":false,"_VenueShowMapLink":false,"_tribe_blocks_recurrence_rules":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_description":"","_tribe_blocks_recurrence_exclusions":"","footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[7,14],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-katherine-museus","category-csl-newsletter-devotionals"],"acf":[],"author_meta":{"display_name":"dev@eridesign.com","author_link":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/author\/deveridesign-com\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/8\/2024\/02\/Newsletter-Devotion-Graphics-8-1-300x251.webp","coauthors":[],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Katherine Museus<\/a>","CSL Newsletter Devotionals<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Katherine Museus<\/span>","CSL Newsletter Devotionals<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 3 years ago","modified":"Updated 1 year ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on February 28, 2024","modified":"Updated on August 18, 2025"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on February 28, 2024 7:16 pm","modified":"Updated on August 18, 2025 8:15 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=252"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":690,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/252\/revisions\/690"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/689"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.valpo.edu\/devotionals\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}