Have you ever bitten into a banana that just wasn't quite ripe enough yet? Or any piece of fruit for that matter. It might look delicious on the outside, but the inside is still bitter. It needs more time, sometimes on the counter sometimes on the vine, to become sweet.
Such as it is with the fruits of the spirit. They don't feel good at first, but we keep practicing. Loving that person who doesn't love you back can drudge up feelings of bitterness, but we love anyway. Being kind to the person who hurt you pricks our pride, but we are kind anyway. A gentle spirit takes care and pruning to develop over time.
Just because love has grown on the vine doesn't mean it doesn't taste bitter for awhile. Just because you are cultivating peace in your life doesn't mean it is immediately satisfying. Being kind always looks good on the outside, but the inside starts out tough before it softens. We mature in self control not by picking it, tasting it, and throwing it away. We grow in self control by letting it be what it is until it has ripened in the SON long enough to change from bitter to better.
Fruit needs time to become sweet. It needs exposure to the sun while it grows. We need the same thing. We are growing in the fruits of the spirit. If we pick them too early and decide they aren't good to eat, we will miss out on the sweetness just around the corner. Persevere through the ripening season.
To grow good fruit, we must continue to nurture and expose our hearts to the son. Even when the fruit tastes tough and leaves a weird taste on our tongue (heart), we grow it anyway because we know that with time and patience it will become sweet in the son.