By Tanya Jolliffe RDN, LD
Have you ever spent much time thinking about fruit? Pondering its upward, outward, and inward qualities? Considering their health benefits both physically and emotionally?
Fruit is essential for good physical health with a taste and appeal for all types of palates. Whether you have simple tastes for something like an apple or desire a more exotic option like the custard apple, God created a world full of fruit to experience. Isn’t it amazing how He provided just what we need to benefit us both outwardly and inwardly?
Fruit helps us outwardly more than we realize. Fruit is rich in vitamin C which is important in the growth and repair of body tissues, especially collagen since it plays a key role in collagen formation. Collagen is not only the most plentiful protein in your body, it is also a major component of connective tissue from tendons and ligaments to skin and muscles. Want your skin to look its best? Healthy collagen helps that happen, and vitamin C is vital to its creation.
Fruit benefits us inwardly as well through what it does and doesn’t provide. In its natural form, fruit is low in fat, sodium, and calories and absent of cholesterol. This allows us to enjoy it with limited worry about worsening health conditions. At the same time, it is rich in potassium, dietary fiber, and folate. Each of these protect different parts of the body and aid in proper bodily function.
So, what about other types of fruit? What about the fruits of the Spirit and their impact on our emotional well-being? Ever given much thought to their upward, outward, and inward qualities? In Galatians 5:22-23, Paul lists nine important fruits the Holy Spirit produces in each believer.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”
Let’s take a look at each of the key “nutrients” for these fruits a little closer.
Love is declared in 1 Corinthians 13:13 to be the greatest of all virtues. It is essential and must be put into practice in everything we do regardless of how others are acting and behaving. It is a primary characteristic that identifies a follower of Christ. Love is also the tree from which all other fruit are produced.
Joy is a deep-rooted happiness regardless of what is going on around us. It can be hard to explain the feeling of true joy to others since it is different from happiness. Being happy is based on circumstances while joy is an expression of God’s goodness and grace. It is a peace that passes all understanding that grows from love.
Peace is described in Philippians 4:7 as that which transcends all understanding and will guard our hearts and minds. Much like joy, this feeling can be difficult to explain especially during difficult and uncertain times. When harmony and calm exist in chaos and divided factions, that is peace.
Forbearance is also known as patience. We need the ability to show restraint and tolerance today more than ever. We need to hold our tongues, scroll past hateful posts on social media, or offer a smile at unkind words. It is a quiet willingness to accept and persevere in difficult situations.
Kindness is an ability to be friendly, generous, and considerate toward others especially when they are not offering the same to us. It is a selfless expression of compassion and mercy to everyone regardless of who they are, what they believe, or how they act.
Goodness is having an upright heart and life of moral excellence. It is living in obedience to God’s commands and seeking the good for others over ourselves.
Faithfulness is being unswerving, unchanging, dedicated, and trustworthy regardless of the whims of society. Being steadfast and loyal to the word of God in all seasons.
Gentleness is also known as meekness or the ability to control responses and reactions to difficult people and situations. It isn’t being weak but rather having an inner strength through a clear mind with response counter to expectation.
Self-control is an expressed ability to say no to self through restraint and self-denial of inappropriate passions and appetites. It is living to please God instead of the desires of self.
You can see why the “nutrients” in this fruit are so critical for our emotional health. Love, joy, and peace provide upward qualities from above and are not things we can work harder at creating by ourselves. Forbearance, kindness, and goodness are outward qualities that are easily seen by others. Faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are inward qualities we must draw on to live and love as Christ in any and every situation.
We all need to regularly choose more fruit to improve our physical and emotional health and well-being.
