Month: May 2023

How’s Your Heart Today?

/ The WheatandTares / 2 Comments

This world is full of chaos, confusion, lies, deceit, destruction and devastation.

The list really could go on beyond this written page.

The people we encounter are both full of all of these experiences within their mind.

And the list for these could fill a book.

Everyone you meet, greet, and get to know has the opportunity to woo you or wound you.

Everyone you encounter has the potential to dump all they’ve received onto you, or they may ask to help carry your load.

There are no guarantees, no promises, no contractural agreements to make it as you wish.

And you’re not responsible for them.

You can’t control them.

You can’t dictate, command or place your expectations and know without a shadow of a doubt they will comply.

But you can control you.

You can be responsible for your reaction, your words, your attitudes and your interactions.

Respond with truth in love.

Respond with live in grace.

And respond with grace in hope for a better tomorrow.

And if you just can’t, check your heart.

The heart is deceitful above all things, And desperately wicked; Who can know it?

Jeremiah 17:9

Just Keep Walking

/ The WheatandTares

Your journey may not look like someone else’s, and it may feel you’re all alone.

Just keep walking.

Your path may seem hard and unachievable, with a rocky, uneven, treacherous terrain.

But just keep walking.

Your heart may be racing; your legs may be failing, and you may be breathless.

But just keep walking.

Keep walking toward your goal.

Keep walking toward your joy, your peace.

Keep walking toward your brighter tomorrow.

Never return to the abuse, the turmoil, the destruction.

Run away from the toxic attempts to reclaim your soul.

Run away from the confusion and dysfunction.

Run away from the vicious lies and conceit that thirst for your demise.

Never look back to the broken shards of those shattered dreams.

The you who was there is no more.

The you who was then can never be again.

Those expectations, desires and demands can’t fit you anymore.

You’d be as a butterfly crumbling her wings to fit back in the cocoon .

Your heart would be as the bird clipping her flight to crawl back inside the shell.

Your mind would become as the prisoner who once tasted freedom then slammed the prison door and became insane.

Just keep walking toward your hope that has become today.

For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart. I will be found by you, says the Lord, and I will bring you back from your captivity; I will gather you from all the nations and from all the places where I have driven you, says the Lord…

Jeremiah 29:11-14

Keep Growing

/ The WheatandTares
Said to possibly be the oldest oak in Florida (Tampa area).

When you stop growing, you start dying

No matter your age, no matter your limitations

No matter your intelligence or your pedigree

Life and death is a choice we have

Growth or stagnation is our decision

What will you decide today?

So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rootedand built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Colossians 2:6-7

Silly Saturday

/ The WheatandTares

Funny Friday

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How Many Roses Do You Count?

/ The WheatandTares

The old adage says, “Stop and smell the roses.”

And I like to add, “Stop and smell and then, count the roses.”

When you stop and encounter the beauty, it causes you to pause and reflect.

Yet, when you stop, encounter, and inhale, you not only pause and reflect, but it causes you to also embrace the reflection.

So, I wonder how many roses do we actually stop to count?

Take a minute to pause today. Or take a few more.

Smell the fragrance.

Reflect on the beauty.

And then, look around you and embrace all of its majesty.

So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Matthew 6:28-33

Is the Tunnel Lit?

/ The WheatandTares

Too often, we get tunnel vision, and we can’t see beyond the destination.

But sometimes, we need to pause. Take a step back and let a little more light in.

With more light comes clarity.

With more light come purpose.

With more light comes Truth.

For Truth is Light, and light pierces the darkness.

Let the Light shine in today.

It will bring forth a better tomorrow.

And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.

John 1:5

Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

John 8:12