This devotional was written by Edith Moore Partman, a friend of Jane Walman's.  Thanks to Edith for allowing us to post this. Judge a tree by its fruit, not by its leaves-- But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance;  against such there is no law. Galatians 5:22,23   Is it hot where you are?  It is literally steaming here.  The temps are up in the upper nineties!  You can imagine what the heat index is.  It seems we went from winter to summer with hardly any spring in between.  I'd like to just vegg out under a big 'ole leafy tree and just swill in lemonade all day.  Yep!  A big tree sounds mighty good right now.   I remember having two big trees in our back yard when I was a kid.  Pear trees.  I remember them having beautiful green leaves on them, swaying back and forth, fanning my sister and I as we would swing back and forth in the swing Daddy had hung in one of the trees.   It always bewildered me that one of the trees bore beautiful, plentiful fruit, whereas the other one just had leaves.  Oh, it was loaded with them, but that was all.  The very few times it did produce, the fruit was small and hard and not very tasty.  The tree seemed so healthy, gave so much good shade, but produced either no fruit or bad fruit.   I understand a little better now.  Since I became a child of God, many things that were a puzzle to me have now become clear.  I now know that just because something looks good in no ways means it is good.  Great looking things may even do good things like the shade the tree produced, but that was not it's primary purpose.    It is easy for us to plaster on our pious and holy faces, and even for a short time, perform like good Christians.  However real fruit is not just doing.....stuff.  It's a lifestyle.   Christian fruit is love, joy, longsuffering and all those other things I mentioned at the beginning.  These are things you can't just make happen.  The real deal simply flows from your spirit because of your relationship with God.  They are as natural a part of you as peaches are to a peach tree, or apples from an apple tree.  That is what is supposed to happen.  They come because the tree has been nurtured, tended and well fed.   So it is with our our spirits.  If we put ourselves in places and around people that will nourish, attend and fertilize our spirit man, we will see great results.  That's why it is so important to not only attend worship services, but also attend Bible classes, Sunday School, BTU and other Bible based activities.  God will see that the fruit that we expect will flow from our spirits.   Looking good is important to me.  Like the tree, I want "pretty green leaves".   I enjoy putting on my best when I attend church.  After all, I represent Jesus!  I also want my smile to be genuine, my hug to be warm and loving and my handshake to be firm and sincere.  I want to be patient and kind naturally...not remind myself to act as though I am.  I want to experience the joy of the Lord, not just jumping and shouting for show.  I want the true fruit of the Spirit.   We can have it all, green leaves and fruit.  Just ask God who will give it to you liberally.  "Cuz Honey, ain't nothing like the real thing!   Love ya! Edith