Fruit of the Spirit: Eleven Stories to Transform Your Life

Keith Grant and Valerie Maryman
iUniverse (2009)
ISBN 9780595527137
Reviewed by Paige Lovitt for Reader Views (9/09)

 

“Fruit of the Spirit” contains eleven inspiring interviews with people who have found success by overcoming adversity.  Each interview has a lesson to teach us by reflecting on how their tough times made them more determined and stronger.  Their stories teach us how to lead a purposeful life.  Every interview is Christian based.
           
Each empowering interview has a topic which is based upon one of the nine attitudes or behaviors described as the fruit of the spirit in Galatians 5:22.  These include: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control.  Love is the main topic for three interviews. 
           
There is a reader’s guide at the end of each story that offers questions for journaling or group discussions.  I feel that these questions would make “Fruit of the Spirit” an excellent reading choice for either a church group or personal development course.

While reading “Fruit of the Spirit” by Keith Grant and Valerie Maryman I felt inspired and motivated to apply the questions being asked to my own life story.  Each person has a different background with a variety of different types of people and life experiences to motivate them.  None of them allowed themselves to give up during the hard times; this includes the woman who spent ten years of her life in prison.  Seeing how each interviewee defines his life purpose also made me realize that I need to discover what my own life purpose is.  I truly feel that everybody who reads this book will find it inspiring and will feel the desire to make positive changes in their lives.

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