What if your deepest pain was actually planting seeds for the spiritual fruit your family needs most?

Every Christian parent walks through seasons of hardship and heartache, moments that feel like a “dark night of the soul.” But why does God allow these painful, confusing valleys? And—more importantly—what is He growing in us through them?

In this solo episode of Christian Parent/Crazy World, host Catherine pulls back the curtain on her own current season of struggle: holding down the fort as her husband works in another state, navigating loneliness, and wrestling with God’s timing and plans. But this isn’t just about surviving difficulty—it’s about discovering what God is accomplishing in the midst of it. Catherine reminds listeners that these hard, unchosen seasons are not evidence of God’s absence, but fertile ground for His deepest growth.

Key Insights and Takeaways:

• Gifts vs. Fruit: Catherine draws on a striking analogy from a recent sermon—how, in the Old Testament, priests wore alternating gold bells (gifts) and pomegranates (fruit) on their robes. Just as gifts and fruit were literally woven together, so too must our talents be balanced with the fruit of the Spirit: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control.
• How is Spiritual Fruit Grown? Unlike our natural gifts, spiritual fruit isn’t something we’re born with or can develop by sheer will—it’s birthed in intimacy with God, often in the hardest and most uncomfortable soil. As Catherine powerfully states, “The fruit of the Spirit is birthed in the opposite soil from what it reflects."
• The Soil Where Each Fruit of the Spirit Grows:
  • Love is birthed in loss
  • Joy is birthed in mourning
  • Peace is birthed in chaos
  • Patience is birthed in waiting
  • Kindness is birthed in disappointment
  • Goodness is birthed in need and injustice
  • Faithfulness is birthed in betrayal
  • Gentleness is birthed in conflict
  • Self-control is birthed in temptation
• Pain Has Purpose: Using vivid stories—from her own journey to those of friends facing life-threatening illness or unimaginable grief—Catherine assures parents that God never wastes our dark nights. These seasons prepare us, shaping our character to carry God’s gifts with humility and serving as a foundation for godly parenting in a fallen world.
• Practical Encouragement: Catherine offers heartfelt encouragement and a moving prayer for listeners enduring their own difficult seasons, reminding every Christian parent that “God is growing something in you that you will need for where He is taking you.”

Notable Moment:
Catherine shares, “Fruit is birthed in the dark night of the soul… Spiritual fruit grows in the dark, in the painful places, in the moments that push us and stretch us and sometimes crush us—because fruit is birthed in the dark night of the soul.”

Don’t miss:
This episode’s challenge to examine your own family: Are you nurturing both gifts and fruit in your parenting? Are you modeling for your children what it looks like to trust God through sorrow and uncertainty?

Call to Action:
How might your current struggles be the very soil God is using to grow love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, or self-control in your home? What fruit is He birthing in your family—right now, in the dar