She is coming at you, erratically throwing every behavior and emotion bomb she has in her arsenal.

Sadness.
Anger.
Frustration.
Passive aggressiveness.
Maybe even a little deceit.

It looks like your daughter, but in the moment you’re not entirely sure.

Then you feel it.

That rush inside of you as your own army of frustration, sadness and anger begins to rise up and prepare for battle — and you still don’t even know why this is happening.

What do you do?

Do you let emotio...

Have you ever read through the fruit of the spirit and mumbled through goodness, kindness and gentleness like they were one big lump together?  Aren’t they all about the same thing?  We certainly have used them interchangeably in our culture and I know that when “Be good”, “Be kind” or “Be gentle” rolled off my tongue as a mom of 4 toddler girls they all meant, “Please don’t smack your sister in the face and grab that toy!”.

The truth is, these three attributes of the Spirit, and of maturity...