What Are Your Markings?

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control.

Galatians 5:22-23a (NASB)

"I could see its markings," my son said about the snake on our front porch. (see day one if you missed it!)
We know you can tell a venomous snake by its markings. However, we have no idea which markings are venomous and which ones aren't. So we couldn't tell if the snake was dangerous or not. Just seeing the snake's markings didn't tell us much. If we had known the markings of nonpoisonous snakes, we might have been less afraid.

My boys have continued to talk about the "markings" for weeks now. I think they just like to remind me there was a snake on the porch.

As I've thought about my son's statement, I realized we all have markings — or ways people identify us.

"Markings" can include many identifiers. Snakes have various colors and patterns. Politicians have voting records or speeches. College students often wear sorority or fraternity letters. Really any symbol or mascot can identify a person with a particular group.

As Christians, we have markings too. Our verse today tells us what they should include:

Love

Joy

Peace

Patience

Kindness

Goodness

Faithfulness

Gentleness

Self-Control

People should look at our lives and be able to identify us as Christians when they see these qualities.

Take heart, we don't have to produce these on our own. As we spend time with Jesus, they become a natural outpouring of His love in us.

We should be able to identify true believers by their markings. So whether you're looking for friends, a spouse or the next president, you should look at their markings. What do their lives say about their character?

What does your life say about your character?

Stacy