34 MEASURE GROWTH BY FRUIT, NOT JUST STUFF

Each time we moved during our marriage, we couldn’t believe how much stuff we had accumulated. Nonetheless, we could not measure our impact based on the number of moving boxes we had added since the last move. Rather, we had to measure growth by other criteria, such as:

Had we changed for the better?

Was the fruit of the Spirit more evident in our marriage and family than before?

Was our relationship with Jesus Christ more passionate and loving?

Had anyone around us been saved, healed or delivered?

Are growing more deeply in God’s presence and purposes for our marriage?

Fruit always has two components—substance and seed. Substance is what feeds us now in the journey. Seed is what is sown into our children and others to bring a harvest in the kingdom.

Robert H. Schuller often quips, “You can count the seeds in an apple, but you can never count the number of apples in a seed.” Marriage is more than accumulating stuff; it’s sowing seed into the lives of others that produces more fruit and finally much fruit (read John 15).

Try this: Sit down together as a couple and review the last year, five years and ten years. Answer the above questions about each span of time.

So God created man in His own image;
in the image of God He created him;
male and female He created them.
Then God blessed them, and God said to them,
“Be fruitful and multiply.…”

Gen. 1:27–28