courage

Grasping at Heritage

/ The WheatandTares / 2 Comments

I recently lost my grandmother of 94 years, and I miss her so. She and I were a lot alike in so many ways, and often growing up, she was more like a mother to me than a grandmother.

She taught me how a young lady should carry herself and how to really love your man.

She taught me that a gentle word really can turn away wrath and a loving touch can bring harmony to a chaotic world.

She taught me how to be classy and be okay with tradition, religion and “the way things have always been.”

She taught me that you’re never too old to try new things, as she traveled to Jamaica in a missions trip at 80 years old.

She taught me that if you set your mind to it, you can accomplish just about anything, as she lived by herself for almost 20 years in a great big bay front property after my grandfather’s death.

And the most important thing she ever taught me was that a relationship with Jesus Christ and with the joy of the Lord being your strength, you can live out your days with laughter and peacefulness, no matter what the storms of life might bring.

I am thankful for the heritage she offered, and I will gladly pick up the mantle she left. She may not have always done everything right, and she’d have never wanted you to call her the picture of perfection.

But if I can live my life with as much dignity, class, integrity, charm, joy, love and peace as she had, I will call myself a blessed woman.

What heritage are you grasping hold of today?

Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting;
but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised. Honor her for all that her hands have done, and let her works bring her praise at the city gate.

Proverbs 31:30-31

She is clothed with strength and dignity;
she can laugh at the days to come.

Proverbs 31:25

She speaks with wisdom, and faithful instruction is on her tongue. She watches over the affairs of her household and does not eat the bread of idleness. Her children arise and call her blessed; her husband also, and he praises her:
“Many women do noble things, but you surpass them all.”

Proverbs 31:26-29

Demons of Consequence

/ The WheatandTares / 2 Comments

Too often, people blame their circumstances for their behavior.

They blame someone else for their poor choice.

They blame their upbringing for their bad response.

They blame this one or that one for their own failure.

Tragedy comes to all us in one way, shape, form or another.

Trauma befalls every individual on the planet.

(If it hasn’t hit you yet, just keep on living.)

It’s not the events that matter.

As much as, it’s what you do with it.

It’s what choices you make to get out of it, to keep fighting, to win.

A champion never wins by staying on the mat when he’s knocked down.

A hurdle jumper never sees success by remaining on the asphalt on top of the broken hurdle.

A rower never receives the medal by flailing in the water once knocked out of the boat.

We’re not promised good fortune simply because of what family line, nation, or skin color we have.

Our modern society claims if you’re born into the right circumstances, you will always win.

And those same people claim if your birth brings you into the wrong heritage, wrong race, or wrong town, you’ll never achieve more.

Lies. All lies. Never embrace those fallacies.

Show me a person who cannot succeed when effort is made.

Show me a person who cannot achieve when sacrifices are made.

Show me a person who cannot triumph when the passion is deep within.

Does it mean some have it easier than others?

Sure. That’s the life we live.

But never hate someone for the blessings she has been given.

You never know the cost that has been paid.

Never curse someone for the accolades he is presented.

You never know the hell he had to live before you saw the crown.

Stay focused on your purpose.

Stay tuned in to your faults.

Grasp the convictions needed.

Stay fixed on your goals.

Your success never depends on them.

It depends on the determination within.

And sometimes, you’re no longer winning because you’ve lost the two vital ingredients to score:

Coaching and support.

Everyone needs someone better in their corner. Let them refine you.

Everyone needs someone to cheer them in the darkness. Let them soothe you.

But never let them coddle, pacify, or justify your resignation.

Fight to win.

Win to testify it can be done.

Extend a hand to someone else.

For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.

2 Timothy 1:12

The heart of the prudent acquires knowledge, and the ear of the wise seeks knowledge. A man’s gift makes room for him, and brings him before great men.

Proverbs 18:15-16

Slay the Hidden Desire

/ The WheatandTares

Desires can make or break you.

Desires can thrust you into success or throw you down in shame.

And what you do with hidden desires will be the difference in honor or humiliation.

Desires have to be pulled out into the sunlight and exposed to verity and axiom.

Desires have to have the magnifying glass of honesty peered over them in full.

Desires have to be broken down with integrity and authenticity all wrapped in accountability.

Otherwise when concealed, neglected, and cloaked with insignificance, those same desires will become a dragon thirsty for flesh.

Those veiled desires throw off their disguises and unleash a furious reckoning that cannot be hinged.

So no matter how wise of a sage you have grown to be,

Those ignored desires will grow to be a beast not easily reconciled or silenced.

No matter the might you believe you posses,

No matter the expertise you trust you’ve acquired,

If those desires are held in secret, they will become your evil demise.

Reveal them to absolute truth and faithfulness, and those demons who seek your soul may be impeded and chained.

…Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

James 4:4

What causes fights and quarrels among you? Don’t they come from your desires that battlewithin you? You desire but do not have, so you kill. You covet but you cannot get what you want, so you quarrel and fight. You do not have because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

James 4:1-3

Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, yousinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. Lament and mourn and weep! Let your laughter be turned to mourning and your joy to gloom. Humble yourselves in the sight of the Lord, and He will lift you up.

James 4:7-10

Choose Well

/ The WheatandTares

It’s so true that there are many things of which we have no control of our choices.

Decade in which we are born.

Parents. Birth location. Upbringing.

Physical attributes. Talents. IQ.

These things are given to us, and we have no say.

Yet, we do have a say in how we respond, in how we handle, and in how we carry on once we have them.

And this choosing results in our character.

Which is also a choice.

And it also will become our voice.

How we respond to the things we cannot control will determine our promotions, our successes, and our influences.

We are never a victim.

Being a victim is a choice. And that choice brings about our character.

When we choose to hate these things out of our control, or maybe just fight against them in a rage that wounds all those around us, it shows our character as rude, spiteful and selfish.

When we choose to embrace these things out of our control as chains, and we are just a martyr for the cause, or maybe we just can’t do any better because of all that has befallen us, it shows our character as weak, whiny and self centered.

Yet, when we choose to accept these things out of our control, fight against the things that would try to inhibit us, and become overcomers inspite of the pain, the turmoil and the difficulties, it shows our character as bold, courageous and focused.

And when we take this tenacious attitude a step further and begin to show others how to overcome their own obstacles, it shows our character as loving, giving, and outward seeking.

We can be a hero or a zero.

The choice is ours.

What will you choose today?

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.

Romans 8:37

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?

Romans 8:31

And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose.

Romans 8:28

Concerning this thing I pleaded with the Lord three times that it might depart from me. And He said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for My strength is made perfect in weakness.”Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities, that the power of Christ may rest upon me. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities, in reproaches, in needs, in persecutions, in distresses, for Christ’s sake. For when I am weak, then I am strong.

2 Corinthians 12:8-10

What is Freedom?

/ The WheatandTares

FREEDOM!

What do you think of when you hear the words freedom, liberty, and independence?

What images come to mind when you hear, “We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness?”

For our modern culture, these words do not seem to invoke the same images and thoughts that appeared to be more commonplace among Americans in years prior. As a matter of fact, the other day I googled the words “liberty and justice,” and one of the first entries said, “pledging this means accepting the reality that today there is injustice and fairness in the society,” followed by numerous political views stated pertaining to diversity and inclusion.

These ideals have their place, and I’m not going to get tangled in a political war of words and opinions; however, it’s important to remember that our Constitution’s message and the words of freedom contained within it were not created solely in response to the issues our society faces today. We, as a people, had constructed these words and this declaration so many decades past in order to set the foundation for which our nation stands for freedom. We decided to make these words the very cornerstones for how we should live and respond as a nation.

It’s not a reaction. It is a declaration, a belief system, upon which to build a great nation that will sustain the test of time.

And it is a fragile one. It is one that, if not protected, fought for and defended, can be stolen within a blink of an eye. It is to be cherished, valued and upheld, or it will be taken away by those who work harder to defend their own tyrannical desires.

I love the quote by Ronald Reagan in reference to this concern:

Freedom is never more than one generation away from extinction. We didn’t pass it to our children in the bloodstream. It must be fought for, protected, and handed on for them to do the same, or one day we will spend our sunset years telling our children and our children’s children what it was once like in the United States where men were free.

President Ronald Reagan, 40th President of USA

As we celebrate this Independence Day in the great country of America, let us ask ourselves what we are doing to protect our freedoms in this country. Let us ask ourselves if we are fighting to value and cherish those freedoms, or are we conforming to the loudest voices amount us who may hate, demean and devalue this great nation.

Let us forever remember that she may have her issues, her difficulties and her need for improvement, but anyone who hates her, I ask you to go to a third world nation and compare. I ask you to travel to the war torn countries around the world and see if you’d prefer their fate.

I ask you to visit the nations who love her and wish they could be like her. Ask them how you should cherish her…

Happy Independence Day!

And seek the peace of the city where I have caused you to be carried away captive, and pray to the Lord for it; for in its peace you will have peace.

Jeremiah 29:7

Faith Over Fear Brings Freedom

/ The WheatandTares

Sometimes, you just have to saddle up and ride the horse scared.

Sometimes, you’ve just got to take a deep breath and dive in deep.

Sometimes, you’ve got to put one foot in front of the other and keep climbing.

If you don’t, you may never see the landscape from the mountain too.

If you don’t, you may never experience the exhilaration of exploring the utopia of the abyss.

If you don’t, you may never realize that he courage you had hidden deep within.

So, take the plunge.

Take the ride or die.

Chase the dream and see what is to come.

You never know the freedom of success until you do.

And David said to his son Solomon, “Be strong and of good courage, and do it; do not fear nor be dismayed, for the Lord God—my God—will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you, until you have finished all the work for the service of the house of the Lord.

1 Chronicles 28:20

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your labor is not in vain in the Lord.

1 Corinthians 15:58

Be Not Afraid

/ The WheatandTares

Enough said, but then, there’s more to explain.

Not having fear sounds like a great statement, but when it’s your dream, your sickness, or your child, it’s not always that simple.

Control seems easier and less unpredictable.

Having more faith and less fear seems like a great slogan to follow until it’s you who has to walk out on the water, weather the storm in the (seemingly) rickety boat, or step out on the tightrope of success and hope it holds.

Control seems more comfortable and less unreliable.

Yet, I have found in life experiences that no matter how intuitive I think I am, He always sees better.

I have found in all my days of leading, advising, sharing, no matter how capable I feel, He is always stronger and more able.

Control seems right through our carnal eyes,

But His ways are higher than my ways.

His thoughts are beyond my imagination.

And His love is beyond my recognition.

And so, I will trust Him, and I will follow.

I have found in my life that my heart is safer within His mighty hands than it ever was within my human ones.

And I will walk forward with faith.

I will move toward the goal with my focus on Him.

And even if I’m trembling within, I will trust He’s got this because He loves me beyond reason.

For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts.

Isaiah 55:9

For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. Then you will call on me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29:11-13

But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.

Matthew 6:33

Never forget

/ The WheatandTares / 1 Comment

Thank you for your time.

Thank you for your effort.

Thank you for your sleepless nights and endless days.

Thank you for your nightmare and your gut wrenching heartache.

We will not forget your sacrifice.

We will not forget your pain.

We will not forget all that you gave;

So, we could live free.

I’m sorry it cost you so much.

And I am eternally grateful.

We will never forget.

To everything there is a season,
A time for every purpose under heaven: A time to love, and a time to hate;
A time of war, and a time of peace.

Ecclesiastes 3:1, 8

Find Your Tribe

/ The WheatandTares

It has been said that you are the average of your five closest friends…

So, whose mission are you on?

And what’s your average?

Not everyone you meet is going to stay with you on the journey.

And not everyone you want to stay will do so.

Some may not be able to handle your load.

Others may not be able to carry their own.

And still others just aren’t going the same way you are.

Don’t grow angry with them and don’t hold it against them.

And by no means, beg them to stay.

Just gently, say goodbye and let them go their way.

They weren’t meant to travel along.

For if you demand they come along or stay too long,

They will hurt you, or you will wound them,

Or others will become damaged in the process.

Just let go.

Release them to be free.

You will be amazed at the freedom you will find.

Even if you have to shed tears as you move forward.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross,scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Hebrews 12:1-3

Fools give full vent to their rage,
but the wise bring calm in the end.

Proverbs 29:11

Saddle Up Anyway

/ The WheatandTares
*I do not own, posses, nor even know this site or name. Simply using meme found.

John Wayne once said, “Courage is being scared to death, but saddling up anyway.”

That’s the success of life.

That’s true courage.

There are so many things that can hinder you, limit you or intimidate you.

And you can certainly let those things hold you back.

But you have a choice.

You get to choose whether you build a little cage around your life or set yourself free.

You get to choose whether every time something scares you, you set another bar in place till the cage has a lock and key,

Or whether you remove those bars of fear, intimidation and shame and loose yourself from that bondage.

I say, Saddle that horse and ride it.

You may not ride it too well.

You may bounce and jostle and even almost slip off, but just hold on!

Hold on and soon, you’ll be able to enjoy the ride.

And maybe later, you’ll be racing that horse through the country.

But you’ll never win if you quit, lay down or die.

So, saddle up! We’ve got a journey ahead of us!

You can do this thing!

“Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Joshua 1:9

Fear not, for I am with you;
Be not dismayed, for I am your God.
I will strengthen you,
Yes, I will help you,
I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’

Isaiah 41:10