Thought for the day

Thought For The Day: What You Water Will Grow – Matthew 13

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For the last two or three years I have tried my hand at gardening. While I admittedly am not very good at it. I like the idea of planting a seedling into the ground with the children and watching it change over time. Now another point of truth, I get far more excited about this than my children. Maybe if I were more successful they would be more enthusiastic. However here is the Golden Nugget that you each need to take away about life. WHAT YOU WATER WILL GROW SO BE ABLE TO IDENTIFY WHAT IS GROWING IN YOUR GARDEN.

I have a few planters in my yard from years of attempts at gardening. This year my succulents are doing pretty good. However in the white planter where I try to plant some kind of vegetable there seems to be something that wants to sprout life. Now this planter has been dead since oh around the third week after Good Friday, yeah i killed them early this year. So a good amount of time has passed and I’m pretty sure that even the squirrels have stopped digging for whatever roots might have still been in the ground. This is a planter of barren land if you get my drift. Ok so as I stated my succulents are growing beautifully. There is a purple and green vine plant that i have pinched and made others. There is a plant that was dead in walmart that is now growing beautifully and she was free. There is a little basket of carnations that was on clearance at walmart. Finally there is one peace lily from my Grandmothers funeral that has had some rough times but insists on hanging in there with me and I am so thankful.

However now all of a sudden there is life in the white planter. I see this life peeking barley over the lid of the the planter and on hot days it screams water me. Now the sad thing is I’m sometimes tempted to do just that, Just because it is struggling for life it wants to grow and is putting forth its best effort to do so. But what if i did, what if i went out there all enthusiastic watered this unknown plant and neglected the plants I know. What if I watered and tended to and cared for that plant even though I understand it is a weed. You follow me?

Many times in life will tend to and water the weeds in our life and let the succulents die. Not meaning to let them die, we figure they can thrive and survive if we give the weed just a little bit of attention. We just talk bad bout our spouse to our closest friends and family. the marriage will survive. We just distance ourselves from our family, the kids won’t notice or suffer. We just feed into this addiction just a little every now and then it won’t hurt anyone no one will know. I will go to bed angry tonight but I’ll be better in the morning. Oh no? Not this morning? Or the next as a matter of fact the more i do it the harder it becomes to get over just being angry not even remembering what ticked me off in the first place but somehow i will get back to forgiving ol me. right?

Watering the weed just once can give it all the strength it needs to destroy the garden. My current trials and errors have taught me to better understand the nature of the weed. The weed was not creating to get a little light and die, or get a little water and die , the weed unlike my vegetables was made to endure and outlive and choke out any competition that is in the garden. As a matter of fact it can be so intrusive that the Bible tells them to leave it bc if you pluck out the weed you will kill the wheat. Meaning its best not to ever have weeds in your garden, to prevent them from taking root because once they do letting them live or die can destroy your harvest.

Its hard to remember that when you think a negative thought about someone you are watering a weed. Its hard to think that when you don’t pray for someone you are watering a weed. So many of us wonder why our relationships don’t work, why we can’t stop looking thinking the worst in others it’s because the weeds are being allowed to grow. However in our lives prayer and thinking on the good are the best weed repellents that we can have. I’m starting to really like the vine plants. It’s something about their beauty and they way the grow and spread that I find encouraging. Especially these last few months because I have been going through so much and trying to hold onto what I know is good and right even though some days I feel like I am losing the battle. The weeds of bitterness and resentment and anger are going to take over and who I have been for so long is going to lose. But I watch my plants growing and I see them stretching and reaching and holding on to every inch of space that is around them. My Grandmothers plant was looking dead and all of a sudden it rained and it was like it had new life spring from it. I speaks to me and tells me that even though I am in a desert a dry and painful place that the living water of Christ is all I need to refresh me and revive me. I just have to remember not to water the weeds and be happy they are in separate containers.

Be BLessed,
Riverangel42

“How to Lead” — WJD! for 10/28/2013

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I get daily emails from various writers from Joseph Prince to Phil Ware and when there is something that I read that tugs at the good ole heart strings, I like to share it with you. Hope you all enjoy.
Be Blessed,
RiverAngel42

“The person that serves you like a servant is the greatest person among you. Every person that makes himself better than other people will be made humble. Every person that makes himself humble will be made great.” — Matthew 23:11-12 (ERV)

Key Thought:

Humility is a greatly under-emphasized quality among humans. We don’t know what it means. We don’t know how to appreciate it. We don’t know how to do it. And we’re not all that sure we want to have it.
Culturally we’re much more drawn to the energetic, dynamic, charismatic, crowd-drawing leader. That’s who gets the headlines and the attention. But if we listen closely and watch carefully, we can see in Jesus someone who is humble, but strong; humble, but charismatic; humble, but crowd drawing; humble, but dynamic.
You see, the same Lord who stilled the storm and spoke to the crowds is the Lord who washed feet and died on a cross and held babies in his arms when it wasn’t politically correct.
So maybe we need to rethink humility and live it like Jesus did. Come to think of it, that’s exactly what we need to do; no maybe about it! Let’s be like Jesus and the humility comes along with the character!

Today’s Prayer:

O gracious Father, how and why you chose to become one of us in Jesus is too overwhelming to even fully contemplate. Yet your humility in redeeming us, Jesus’ humility in saving us, cuts such a deep impression on my heart that I want to be more like him. And on those days, dear Father, when I am too big for my own britches, humble me gently by reminding me of Jesus’ willing service to redeem me and bring me into your family. In the name of Christ the Lord I pray. Amen.

The Thoughts and Prayers for What Jesus Did! are written by Phil Ware.
Thank you for this wonderful word.

Thought for the Day – You Were Born to be You by Tom Norvell

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I read this a few minutes ago and felt it was a great share.

“You Were Born to be You!” — Daily Heartlight for 08/15/2013

Written by Tom Norvell

Who am I?
What was I created to be and to do?

Why am I here?

Do I have a purpose?

Does God have a plan for my life?

These are all questions we struggle with from time to time — questions some struggle with all the time.

How about you? Ever wonder why you were placed on this earth? Does another year passing make you sad because it means you still do not know why you were born?

Maybe the apostle Paul can offer us some help:

For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you. For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these members do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others. We have different gifts, according to the grace given to each of us. If your gift is prophesying, then prophesy in accordance with your faith; if it is serving, then serve; if it is teaching, then teach; if it is to encourage, then give encouragement; if it is giving, then give generously; if it is to lead, do it diligently; if it is to show mercy, do it cheerfully (Romans 12:3-8 NIV).
Insight Number One: Maybe we think too much about ourselves.
In verse 3, Paul instructs us “Do not think more highly than you ought… ”

Maybe one way to read that would be, “Don’t spend so much time thinking about yourself.” Use sober or clear-headed judgment about yourself. Maybe we spend too much time trying to figure ourselves out when we should spend more time focusing on God and what He is doing, and how we can fit into His plan

Insight Number Two: God’s plan for us is not necessarily a puzzle to be solved.

It is mysterious. But, the puzzle has been solved:

I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness — the mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations, but is now disclosed to the Lord’s people. To them God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory (Colossians 1:25-! 26).
Christ in you, the hope of glory. That is a major part of the reason you are here, to allow Christ to be revealed in you. That happens when you have surrendered to Him. That happens when you have made your life a living sacrifice.
Insight Number Three: You were born to be you.

God makes it clear that we are all different, but we are all joined in Christ’s Body to be one. We all have different gives, but we make up the one body. We cannot be someone else. We do not have their gift. Although we may have similar qualities as our parents, as our siblings, as our closest friends, we are not them. We were not created to be them or to be like them. We were formed in our mother’s womb to be us. We are to be part of the Body of Christ as designed by God, and as He designed us.

You were born to be you. That is where you can be your best. That is where you will flourish. So, be who you were born to be: be you.