How I learned to be fruitful and grow the fruit of the Spirit.

how I learned to be fruitful

Hi. I’m Dawn and I’ve learned to be fruitful. I’m a fruit pot! I have worked in many different careers trying to discover myself. Each time God filled me with a new assignment, I believed I had found it. However, He continually took away the very thing that gave me purpose. My experiences taught me that what matters in life is not the things that I hold, but the things that can grow through me. I wrote my testimony through a story about a little clay vessel named Little Pot. Here is how it happened…

to be fruitful as a paper pot

As a child, I never enjoyed school. The curriculum my teachers used bored me. I tried to be creative and drew pictures on my papers. Consequently, I got in trouble and decided I NEVER wanted to be a teacher. But, after high school, I met a college student who drew pictures and was very creative within her coursework. Unknowingly, I decided that I would major in the same field. Ironically, she was an elementary education major and I decided I would be a teacher.

After college, I became a public school teacher. My career filled me with new knowledge about all types of education. I loved being a teacher in the public school systems. The challenge of knowing that all students, regardless of background and socioeconomic status were given the same expectations, pushed me to join forces with other educators, study harder, and help develop much needed common standards. I had found my purpose and knew I was able to be fruitful in this role. Consequently, I NEVER wanted to work in private education.

to be fruitful as a coin pot

As the years passed, I had children of my own and needed to spend more time at home taking care of them. That meant less time being a teacher. I knew what God wanted me to do. So I reluctantly left the classroom. Next, I purchased a small company from a friend and began to run an on-line business from home. Even though I knew very little about running a business, I worked very hard to be fruitful in this role. I was not very good at selling. Consequently, I knew that I NEVER wanted to be a salesperson.

Once my children were older, I decided to look for work outside the home again and went to work for a publishing company. I thought I would be able to be fruitful by creating books and resources for children and teachers. The job, however, was to sell their books to Christian schools. I was a salesperson and working in private schools. These were two things I NEVER wanted to do. But, I continued to make creative teaching resources that went with the books I was asked to sell. As I did, schools were buying more and more books. I began making more and more money. Eventually, I loved being a salesperson and I fell in love with the private school market. I felt I had finally found my true purpose

being emptied.

Due to structural changes within the company, the division was cut and I had to leave a job that I loved. I was left feeling empty and sad. I had no idea what God was doing with my life or what He wanted me to do next.

to be fruitful and be a fruit pot.

It was through these experiences that The Little Pot story originated.

It took me many years and many jobs to learn to be fruitful and that God created me simply to be a vessel in which He could grow His fruit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.

I was so focused on the things God allowed me to hold in life that I allowed them to define who I was. After The Little Pot was published, I became a principal so God could use me to be fruitful and grow the fruit of the Spirit.

Fast forward ten years, and I am still making creative teaching resources, still helping parents and teachers like you, and still allowing the potter to grow fruit through me. I have even developed a curriculum specifically about how you can be a fruit bearing vessel just like Little Pot!