Fruits of the Spirit and A Free Crochet Pattern

Galatians 5:22 & 23

"But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, ²³ gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law."

It is important to note that these things are the fruits of the Spirit, not the acts by which one is deemed a “good person.” These things grow out of the Spirit and are characteristics that should naturally develop when a person is filled with the Holy Spirit and is listening to it.

Notice that of the nine gifts listed here, four have to do with our own personal well-being while the other five have to do with how we treat others. God has a bit of a hippie soul to him. He recognizes the value of love and peace and all that, but he cares much more for the way we respond to those around us. I don’t know if you’ve ever had the pleasure of being in the presence of a truly stupid person (and by stupid I mean developmentally challenged or anything. I mean people without a lick of common sense and without the sense enough to know that they don’t have any common sense), but if you have then you know that it takes an almost superhuman amount of patience to deal with them. And if you are blessed with the extra special distinction of being in the presence of a truly stupid person with a sensitive ego, you get to add gentleness to that patience.

Frustrating as it may be to people with a little bit of common sense, stupid people need to be dealt with too. God knows this, so when he gives us the Holy Spirit, he also gives us these virtues that will help us deal with things and people that are not always so pleasant.

And now for the free pattern portion of the post. It is a tapestry crochet cherry pattern.  

An appropriate one, I think, considering the theme. Most of my patterns will be tapestry crochet because that’s what I’m most into at the moment. You can access a PDF version of the pattern here. Feel free to print it and I'd love to know how you plan to use it. I'd also love to see pics of the finished products. You can post them to my Facebook page here. Enjoy :)

My Two Greatest Loves

Excuse the scarf...It's been a bad hair week.

               So, why combine my faith with my crafting—other than the fact that faith should be combined with everything we do? Well, it seemed only natural to me since God is the one responsible for gifting me the gift of craft. Let’s make a really, really long story short here.

               Back in 2009 I pretty much had it made. I was very close to finishing graduate school, I lived in a great apartment in a great area mere blocks from the beach with great roommates, and money wasn’t plentiful, but it wasn’t scarce either. All of that changed literally overnight. You see, all of that greatness was masking a lifelong battle with depression, and one day it all just came to a head. I grabbed the nearest bottle of pills (which happened to be Valium), a bottle of vodka, and had myself one interesting night. Needless to say my attempt came to naught, thank God, and within a week I had dropped out of grad school, quit my job, moved back home with my poverty stricken family in a not so great area, and was broke mind, body, spirit, and wallet. And then the real depression began.

               I had tried to learn to crochet for years. My ever patient mother would sit me down with the biggest hook she had and a skein of yarn and within five minutes I was totally over it. I was always too busy to put any real effort into it. Well in May of ’09, I was not so busy anymore. I sat in my tiny little room all day staring at the walls and wishing those Valium had worked a little better. I literally had nothing to do from sun up to sundown. And this went on for well three years my friends. Then one day, I spotted a discarded ball of yarn tucked into a corner somewhere. Mind you, by this point I was totally convinced that I was a born failure and would never again succeed at anything. I mean, if you can’t even manage to kill yourself thoroughly, what can you do?

               Anyways, for some reason I got it into my head to take that ball of yarn and one of my mom’s crochet hooks and try to crochet, fully expecting to fail. And would you believe that I actually managed to do a successful chain of, like, thirty stitches. Well, this was as far as I had ever gotten before and I was almost content with that. But, and I really don’t exaggerate this, something took over my hands and before I knew it I had turned those thirty chains into thirty single crochet stitches. I had never in my life done a single crochet stitch. I didn’t even know what it was. My mother and I never made it that far in our lessons.

               By the next day I was fully immersed and fully “hooked.” I grabbed books, watched YouTube vids, went back to my mom, anything I could to feed the beast. Within a month the bulk of my life crippling depression was gone and I actually felt a tiny sense of hope and purpose return to me. And I am fully and thoroughly convinced that God was the one who not only prompted me to pick up that stupid ball of yarn, but that he also literally touched my hands and gifted me the ability.

               Now some people may think, “God has better things to do than to teach you how to crochet,” and to those people I say, “No…he doesn’t.” God gives us the desires of our hearts and he also gives us exactly what we need when we need it. He knew that at the time I desperately needed to feel like I was not a complete failure and that I was capable of something...anything. By giving me the ability to crochet, he did more than just give me a hobby. He gave me a sense of accomplishment; he gave me something tangible to hold on to; he slowly but surely renewed my faith in Him and in myself; and he gave me a testimony which I am now sharing with you.

               So, why combine my faith with my crafting? Because… why not…?