This is one of my favorite little Psalms. It reminds me that if I'm letting God in with all my heart, I should radiate every fruit of the Holy Spirit to everyone around me.
One of the daily meditations in the Magnificat recently was an excerpt from the diary of Elisabeth Leseur, a married laywoman who lived at the end of the 19th century in France. Leseur's cause for canonization is underway. She was married to an atheist and suffered much during her life from his antagonism of her faith. Her husband read her diary after her death from breast cancer, however, and converted to Catholicism, eventually becoming a priest.
I was struck by how this passage from her diary expands on the idea of radiating one's faith–especially to one's husband and family.
I could use some work on all of these "blossoms" though.
The very nature of marriage and motherhood makes it a huge challenge (maybe just for me?) to maintain anything close to consistent "tender love," "equanimity," or (I'm laughing as I type this) simplicity every moment of every ordinary day.
But giving myself up to hopeless spiritual mediocrity also isn't an option.
Reminding myself that I am created for more than mediocrity, and then praying for the grace of God to live that out–that's my strategy.