Fruit of the Spirit and Baby Noah!
August 2025 - Bruce Fairbairn, Elder
In Galatians, Paul enumerates the Fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. These are considered the very traits and attributes of Christ as produced and nurtured within believers by the Holy Spirit. One of my spiritual practices is to periodically reflect on the evidence of these nine elements revealed in my own life, including areas where I have fallen short.
Barb and I are now helping watch and care for our three-month-old grandson Noah while his parents work. Needless to say, this undertaking brings about a big change in how we spend much of the week and finds us having to relearn parenting skills long unused. We recall the wonders, excitement, hard work, and challenges from raising our own children. We find it a beautiful blessing, but I’m also reminded of the book Barb’s Mom gave us years ago, entitled “Parenting is Not for Cowards!”
I also started thinking about how the Fruit of the Spirit—these character traits and Christian virtues—are evident in how we love and care for an infant. Certainly there are sacred parallels to our own “Abba” in heaven and how these attributes of Christ help guide and enrich our work on earth, both with a baby and people of any age. Here are my evolving thoughts:
LOVE: Love fruit is a deep and constant love for other people, one that is selfless and sacrificial. Love at first sight is not just a cliché when parents and grandparents gaze on the newborn baby, welcoming him or her into this world. Our hearts and minds are filled with the strongest commitment to love, protect and nurture the baby. Surely, this is a mirror of God’s love for all His children and His desire that we thrive and enjoy life in abundance.
JOY: Christian joy is not dependent on circumstances but is a deep sense of contentment and gladness that comes from a relationship with God. It is the realization of God’s favor and grace in one’s life. We rejoice, sometimes quietly and sometimes ecstatically, as we live and learn along with this healthy baby brought into the world and entrusted to us. We look forward to so many good and happy times, but we also know there will be challenging and tiring times of turmoil and frustration as well. The Bible reminds us “be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer.”
PEACE: This joy brings a deep inner peace that all is right in the world (at least for a time) and that we can live and rest deeply and harmoniously, one with another. Noah soundly sleeping seems to be the epitome of peace and contentment. Of course, that feeling is often interrupted when he awakes and wants to be fed and his diaper changed! But that busy and necessary work also brings another kind of peace, one that is intimately entwined with love and commitment.
PATIENCE: Patience involves maintaining an even temper and showing forbearance and a sense of constancy and steadfastness toward others, even in stressful circumstances. Noah’s needs are immediate and paramount; after all, it’s not about us only anymore (even if it ever was). Circumstances change, priorities are altered and not everything goes according to plan. The Bible instructs us to wait patiently on the Lord and to even “glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope.” Looking down the road, we know how important it is to maintain an even keel and be patient with developing children. And we also know that this will be tested many times, especially in the “Terrible Twos” and beyond!
KINDNESS: Kindness is not just being friendly and hospitable, but having a spirit of generosity and putting other’s needs ahead of our own. Noah’s smile, soft cooing and even his rapidly changing moods engender warmth in our hearts and an outpouring of care to satisfy his wants and needs before our own.
GOODNESS: Closely tied to kindness, goodness signifies moral excellence and integrity in character and actions. As Paul wrote “We pray for God’s power to help you do all the good things you hope to do and your faith makes you want to do.” We know that our love, commitment and caring for Noah while helping his parents are good and right things to do with upright hearts and determined actions.
FAITHFULNESS: Faithfulness involves belief in God and our trust and confidence in Him. We thank God earnestly for answered prayers. For years, Barb and I prayed for Neal growing up, learning about Christ, and notably while serving with the Marines in combat in Iraq and Afghanistan. We also prayed for years thereafter that Neal would find a very good woman to settle down with, create a family, and be blessed with a child. God surely answered; these prayers came into beautiful fruition with the welcoming of Karolyn and now baby Noah into our family.
GENTLENESS: Gentleness involves having a gentle and humble spirit while showing a true humility and compassion for others. People sometimes lose this trait as they try to bully their own way through this busy and hardened world. A new baby, however, helps bring a gentle, giving and forgiving spirit back into proper focus as we care and nurture him. Along with his total dependence on family, Noah requires gentle touches, gentle voices, gentle attitudes, compassion and selfless actions. Scripture instructs, “Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love.”
SELF-CONTROL: This fruit is about exercising discipline and restraints over one’s desires and behaviors, as well as a strong commitment to seek, know, and follow the right paths and priorities. While the world encourages and seems to reward self-centeredness, a new baby reminds parents and grandparents that “it’s not all about me.” There’s a new, largely baby-centric world in which the young ones’ immediate needs supersede much of our own. This leads to changed lifestyles and rearranged priorities, while overcoming temporary frustrations and (maybe especially) coping with lack of sleep!
At the Last Supper, Jesus gave the disciples and us the great sacrament of communion and later prayed for our oneness in Him and the Father. The Holy Spirit indwells the hearts and lives of believers while producing and nurturing the Fruit in us as we continue on our sanctification journeys to become more like Christ. Whatever your age and circumstance, I believe that actively reflecting and praying about the fruit in your life will bring about a renewed sense of devotion and commitment to follow Christ wherever He leads.
