the right recipe

It's Chili Night at the Weed house tonight.  A nice, delicious, obnoxiously mild, chili.  And my southern roots (a girl can pretend) dictate that with chili must be corn bread.  Not a cheap Jiffy Corn muffin pack bought at Wal-Mart for $0.33.  No, the real, made from scratch recipe from my Grandma cooked up in a heavily buttered cast iron skillet.  delicious!
I know, from years and years of enjoying this cornbread just exactly how it should taste.  Crispy on the outside, moist on the inside and not too sweet.  In order to make sure that my cornbread comes out just the way I want it, I have to put the ingredients together exactly the way that the recipe tells me to.  Too much sugar= too sweet cornbread.  Too little baking soda=flat, heavy cornbread.  I can't just willy-nilly throw a bunch of ingredients together and hope it all works itself out in the oven.  It's all about putting each piece together correctly to achieve the desired result.
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Ah, life.  How's this "cornbread" supposed to taste?  It seems I remember a verse about the fruit of the Spirit - love, joy, peace, patience (ooo, that one's tough), kindness, goodness, faithfulness and self-control.  My life, as a declaring follower of Jesus Christ, should "taste" like these things.  What my life cooks out day-after-day-after-day should be these traits.  But, how?
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It's all about the ingredients.  What am I "throwing in the mixing bowl"?  Too much flour, not enough sugar?  Too much world, not enough Truth?  If I want my life to be the way that Jesus tells me it should be if I'm following Him, then I have to intentionally add the ingredients that will produce those results.  I can't just willy-nilly throw a bunch of stuff in and hope it all works itself out in the oven.  I have to carefully add the correct ingredients.  But what?
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I'm no expert, but I think that putting  whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable into my life, would be an excellent starting point. (Phil 4:8)  Of course, that requires purposefully not putting in stuff that isn't those things.    But to get delicious "cornbread", it's vital to follow the recipe.