Picking the Fruit of Self-Control

“Be self-controlled and alert.”
1 Peter 5:8

I spent a half a day yesterday picking pie-cherries. My dear neighbor Connie makes a most magical cherry pie that we all call “fun pie” cuz it is like a party in your mouth. We have about five or six pie-cherry trees between our houses that needed to be harvested. And I’m always willing to pick in the name of future fun pies.

I enjoy harvesting fruit (must be my ag roots J) I began picking the fruit at ground level. Picking was easy and seemed to go rather quickly, the quality was okay (seemed good at the time). Later I used the ladder and climbed up to the top rungs and begin to reaching the bright sun-warmed cherries from the top of the tree branches. These cherries were larger and more plentiful. And as usually my mind wanders as my fingers picked. I realized that the struggle with the ladder, dragging it among the branches, trying to find stable ground and climbing to the almost top rung was worth the effort. The cherries in the top branches were beautiful and my bucket filled quickly.

I thought about the terms “low-hanging fruit and cherry-picking” and how at first glance both idioms make sense — being an efficient, taking the path of least resistance, seizing the easiest opportunities. But as I continue to pick I realized that many times it is the additional effort that makes the difference that often times what seems to be the easiest opportunities might also be considered being complacent and taking the easy way out.

I’ve been quite complacent in my life lately. I eat whatever, I spend my time watching tv or reading whatever – not striving to do what is best with my time or my mind. I’m being lazy and lacking in self-control. I’m so tempted to continue contemplating this, examining my situatution, trying to reason why; but have realized what is needed most NOW is self-control and action rather than analysis. Actively choosing words, thoughts and ACTIONS that move me towards what God intends for me as one of the fruits of the spirit – self-control.

Moment by moment awareness and remembrance in choosing what is best, not what it easiest. For when you reach for your best and focus on the Lord, that is when you are rewarded with the sun-warmed fruit … or the much cherished fruit of the spirit.