Moving back to the Fruit of he Spirit found in Galatians 5:22-23, we saw how that the first three characteristics: Love, Joy, and peace was a development of our upward focus toward God. The second triad of characteristics focus on our outward focus toward others. These three characteristics: longsuffering, kindness, and goodness, help us as we engage the people that God brings into our paths. One of the things that makes us different as believers is that we recognize the value of those around us. No matter who they are and what they do, we recognize that they have the same right to life that we do. They are often different, and at times they come across in hurtful ways, but our response to them must never be a reaction based on our emotions or feeling, but rather a response that is built in by our walk in the Spirit (seen in Galatians 5). We must realize that our response is not “natural” but supernatural, and therefore, we must not assume that others will respond as we do, but their response must never dictate how we interact with those around us. These characteristics grow out of our heartfelt desire to glorify God in all we say or do. We must never allow them to cause us to become proud or arrogant but recognize that the responses come not from within us, but from the working of the Spirit in our lives. This week, we want to explore these characteristics and see how they manifest themselves in day to day living.