Fruits of the Spirit and Pie

Excerpt from Eat. Pie. Love: 52 Devotions to Satisfy Your Mind, Body, and Soul by Tara Royer Steele

The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)

Baking protects my heart and fills my mind and soul. It is a time when I can take refuge in him and pour out of myself and into food. It’s a chance for me to be creative and try new recipes and know that I was created for such a time as this. It’s a time to dream up fresh pieces and food that connect people to Jesus. It’s just Jesus and me in the kitchen, cooking, and creating something good to share with the world. Baking reminds me of all the attributes of the fruits of the Spirit and how we are to live in his Spirit in community. Below are some of the attributes that come to my mind.

Love – Pour you heart into making the pie. It will fill you and others up.

Joy – Baking brings joy to you and our Father when we do it out of selfless service. It brings happiness when we humbly bake a pie for someone. And when you knock on their door, the sweet fragrance of brown sugar and apples brings them back to a memory with Granny.

Peace – We need to learn to put down the to-do list and create. It brings peace, and we were created by the creator to create! We all have something that we are good at creating!

Patience – When we go slow and are patient, we are less likely to miss a step or ingredient. If we rush the baking process, our food is undercooked and sloppy, or we don’t let the pie cool long enough, and it falls apart. Just like our lives, we must be patient with ourselves and the process.

Kindness – Serve yourself a slice of pie. Be kind to yourself, and it will flow to everyone around you.

Goodness – Fill the pie with all the good things: apples, strawberries, peaches, raspberries, blackberries, blueberries, or caramel, pecan, and chocolate. He fills us up with his goodness: hope, peace, love, grace, and mercy.

Faithfulness – Baking, cooking, and creating take time to learn. Faith is nothing without action. It’s a process, and we must be faithful to keep showing up to continue to grow and learn in the process.

Gentleness – Be gentle with the crust. It will crumble easily. Be gentle with yourself and others, just like he is.

Self-Control – Self-control has to be the hardest thing to learn in baking and cooking. I want to rush in and taste it all, but it’s not all for me. It’s for sharing with others. Don’t overindulge. Gather your friends and savor the pie and your time together.

Today’s Slice of the Pie

• Take something in your life and apply the fruits of the Spirit to it. Maybe it’s your husband? Your art? Your kids? Your work? Yourself?
• What fills you up and allows you to pour out? How is God using this thing to show you his love so that you can then share his love with others?

Ann’s Pecan Pie
Yield: 1 pie

Ingredients
1 1-pound Royers dough ball
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 cup sugar
1 cup light corn syrup
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 teaspoon salt
4 eggs
1 ½ cups pecan halves

Instructions

Preheat over to 350°F.
Roll out the dough ball and place into a 9-inch pie pan to form a shell.
Mix the butter, sugar, corn syrup, vanilla, and salt together by hand. Then mix in the eggs.
Pour the filling into the pie shell and cover with pecans. Bake for 45 minutes. The filling should be set and a knife should come out cleanly.

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