I truly appreciate a beautiful garden, but I’m no gardener. My approach to gardening is simple: I visit the local nursery and buy pots—hanging pots or whatever catches my eye for an instant garden. This year, my pots, in various sizes and locations, have thrived remarkably well. In fact, I’m still caring for the potted plants I purchased back in May—and they’re still blooming! Typically, by late August, they would be wilted and faded.

So, what was my secret this year? I watered them! Yes, that was my big lesson.

Isn’t that true in life? We nourish what we want to grow and withhold from what we want to fade away.

In Galatians 5, the apostle Paul discusses two types of fruit that our lives can produce: the fruit of the flesh and the fruit of the Spirit.

The “flesh” doesn’t refer to our physical bodies but to the desires that pull us away from God’s Holy Spirit. These desires can manifest as hate, impatience, bitterness, selfishness, rudeness, chaos, and self-indulgence—none of which align with God.

However, when we commit our lives to Jesus, He grants us His Holy Spirit. The power of the Holy Spirit helps us “starve” those fleshly desires and put them to rest. By ceasing to feed these harmful impulses, we create space for the Holy Spirit to produce fruit within us that leads to positive life changes.

“The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.”
—Galatians 5:22-23 NIV

Left to our own devices, we might seek revenge when wronged, but the Spirit encourages us to extend kindness. In our weakness, we may yield to temptations that separate us from God, yet the Spirit calls us to practice self-control.

Are you experiencing love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control? If not, perhaps we need to reflect on what we are nurturing. Because what we feed grows!