Last year, when my family was reading through the New Testament with our church, we decided to shake things up from our usual NIV and read from The Message Re-Mix.  One evening, a friend of my daughter’s was spending the night and shared our family devotional time with us.  As my husband was reading the assigned passage out-loud for that day, I remarked, “Wow, what a neat list that was!  Can you please read it again?”  The next day when I was sharing with the mother of my daughter’s friend about our devotional time, she asked what passage it was.  When I answered that I thought we were around Galatians 5, she said, “Oh, the Fruit of the Spirit.”  Ah ha!  No wonder that was such a great list!  My husband and I got a kick out of the wording being so fresh to us with the new version that we saw it with new eyes and didn’t even recognize it as that famous passage!  What a joy!  If we had read it in our normal version, we would have likely just glided by it.  I will always be an NIV girl because I love the familiarity of the wording I grew up with and memorized.  But, I now see the beauty in reading versions that help mix things up for a change! 

Galatians 5:22-23, The Message
But what happens when we live God’s way? He brings gifts into our lives, much the same way that fruit appears in an orchard—things like affection for others, exuberance about life, serenity. We develop a willingness to stick with things, a sense of compassion in the heart, and a conviction that a basic holiness permeates things and people. We find ourselves involved in loyal commitments, not needing to force our way in life, able to marshal and direct our energies wisely.  Legalism is helpless in bringing this about; it only gets in the way.

Galatians 5:22-23, NIV
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.