strength

Burn that Bridge, Again

/ The WheatandTares

I’ve heard it said, “Be careful the bridges you burn. You might need that passage again one day.”

At times, this can be so very true, for I believe some people simply don’t know who their friends are.

At other times, I want to scream across the chasm of experience and life, “Burn it! Set a bonfire and run away!”

You may be reading this and think, “Ohhhh, here we go. She’s got unforgiveness. She’s got a bitter root.”

But I have to disagree.

I’ve got wisdom. I’ve got experience. And I’ve got a brain.

Sometimes, there are bridges that need to be lit with a blow torch and never again embarked.

Granted, I’m not telling you to burn every passage you desire, and I’m no saying every disagreement in life should end in an explosion.

But I’ve watched too many sit still in the middle of abuse.

I’ve listened to too many stories of the narcissistic control.

I’ve witnessed too many who remain in the toxic fumes of dysfunction and lose hope.

This is when I want to cry out to send help.

This is when I want to carry the gasoline and the torch and say, “Light it.”

Yes. There are some bridges in life that must be burned to restore strength, vitality and love.

Draw on foresight, common sense and know-how.

Lean on knowledge, maturity and expertise.

Rely on truth and reality and forsake fantasy and lies.

Then, you will light the match with confidence.

Then, the destruction will leave and peace can come.

Then, Hope will be welcomed to abide.

So he departed from there, and found Elisha the son of Shaphat, who was plowing with twelve yoke of oxen before him, and he was with the twelfth. Then Elijah passed by him and threw his mantle on him. And he left the oxen and ran after Elijah, and said, “Please let me kiss my father and my mother, and then I will follow you.” And he said to him, “Go back again, for what have I done to you?” So Elisha turned back from him, and took a yoke of oxen and slaughtered them and boiled their flesh, using the oxen’s equipment, and gave it to the people, and they ate. Then he arose and followed Elijah, and became his servant.

1 Kings 19:19-21

Walk On

/ The WheatandTares

Sometimes, you’ve just to walk.

When you’re in the middle of those toxins that are choking you, walk.

When you find yourself surrounded by the dunes of hostility and anger, walk.

When all you can see is the fiery darts of bitterness and hatred, walk.

Sometimes, it’s just better to remove yourself than to expect the other to change.

When you realize you’ve landed in the center of their pain, and they refuse to care, walk.

When you recognize you’re not helping, and those receiving refuse to give, walk.

When all you hear is the negative, the criticism, the accusations, walk.

You don’t have to stay to prove you’re right.

You don’t have to remain in the mud to express your love.

You don’t have to maintain the relationship when the abuse and jealousy are the weights.

This is not your punishment nor reward.

This is not your purpose or calling.

This is not your destiny.

Walk on, my friend.

Walk on.

But He answered and said to the one who told Him, “Who is My mother and who are My brothers?” And He stretched out His hand toward His disciples and said, “Here are My mother and My brothers! For whoever does the will of My Father in heaven is My brother and sister and mother.”

Matthew 12:48-50

Do not rob the poor because he is poor,
Nor oppress the afflicted at the gate; For the Lord will plead their cause, And plunder the soul of those who plunder them. Make no friendship with an angry man, And with a furious man do not go, Lest you learn his ways And set a snare for your soul.

Proverbs 22:22-25

Stretch

/ The WheatandTares

How’s your stretching today?

If you’re growing, you’re going to be stretching.

If you’re learning, you’re going to be expanding.

If you’re progressing, you’re going to be changing.

You can never become without growth.

You can never advance without change.

You can never develop without pruning.

When a seed bursts into a plant, the seed pod breaks.

When the sprout grows, it has to break through the ground.

When the stems reach for the sky, they have to stretch and move.

And if the tree is to one day flourish and bear abundant fruit, it has to be pruned.

Growing is never easy, and sometimes, it’s definitely not fun.

But if we are to be what we are called to be, we must embrace it.

We must look for opportunities to learn, to progress, to change.

If we are to succeed, we must learn to love the stretch.

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do,forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:12-14

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown. Therefore I run thus: not with uncertainty. Thus I fight: not as one who beats the air. But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

1 Corinthians 9:24-27

Committed Crazies

/ The WheatandTares
(Yeah. Somebody spelled it wrong, and my grammar self is going crazy inside!)

Some people don’t really have to be crazy.

They’ve just committed themselves to being a certain way, and their stubbornness will not relent.

Others have lived undisciplined for so long that they have convinced themselves this is a good life.

Still others, have fully embraced their crazy, and they want everyone else to embrace it as somehow normal.

If you find yourself in one of these three categories, and you’re living life believing everyone is just giving you a hard time, or they’re all just so difficult to be around , or they never give you a break to be who you are, please hear me screaming at you across the cosmic divide.

STOP!! HALT!! RELEASE!! RELENT!! END NOW!

Stop right now, in your tracks, and listen a moment to reason.

Open your ears to wisdom calling to you.

No one accidentally becomes the “crazy one.”

No one stumbles into the pools of insanity.

It is a choice. And you make it everyday.

So, make the right decisions.

Choose the correct outcomes.

Your spouse will thank you. Your children will sing your praises. And friends will begin to visit again as you walk away from the crazies and embrace life!

Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do,forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.

Philippians 3:13-16

But I discipline my body and bring it into subjection, lest, when I have preached to others, I myself should become disqualified.

1Corinthians 9:27

Everyone’s Crazies

/ The WheatandTares

The holidays always bring with them interesting family dynamics and semantics.

For some, it’s just simply dealing with the edges of uncomfortable scenarios and conversations, but nothing real out of the way.

No harm. No foul.

For others, it’s complete removal from the dysfunction and toxic environment which accompanies family, celebrations and traditions.

Survival of the Fittest or Crabs in a Barrel.

For most, it can just be learning to navigate between the two extremes.

The Journey to the Center of the Earth.

Wherever you find yourself during your yearly festivities, strive to do better.

Better yet, don’t just strive to survive.

Learn to thrive!

Your thriving isn’t going to look like another’s.

So, do what you can do to succeed.

Their crazies aren’t yours, and yours aren’t theirs.

They don’t have to understand.

Happy Crazy Holidays.

The righteous shall flourish like a palm tree,
He shall grow like a cedar in Lebanon.
Those who are planted in the house of the Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God.They shall still bear fruit in old age;
They shall be fresh and flourishing,
To declare that the Lord is upright;
He is my rock, and there is no unrighteousness in Him.

Psalm 92:12-15

Therefore, beloved, looking forward to these things, be diligent to be found by Him in peace, without spot and blameless; and consider thatthe longsuffering of our Lord is salvation—as also our beloved brother Paul, according to the wisdom given to him, has written to you, as also in all his epistles, speaking in them of these things, in which are some things hard to understand, which untaught and unstable people twist to their own destruction, as they doalso the rest of the Scriptures. You therefore, beloved, since you know thisbeforehand, beware lest you also fall from your own steadfastness, being led away with the error of the wicked; but grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and forever. Amen.

2 Peter 3:14-18

Survival Guides Were Meant for Sharing

/ The WheatandTares
*I do not own or have rights to this pic.
Google search/Fb repost*

You weren’t made to stay in the valley.

You weren’t made to remain stuck in the mire.

We all feel pain.

We all have heartache.

We all experience tragedy.

The brokenness of life was never meant to be a trophy we wear nor a badge we frame for the wall.

The hardship didn’t come for you to create a fortress around and hail the crisis as king.

We all feel the rain.

We all have tornadic seasons.

We all experience death, sorrow and grief.

You weren’t made to linger in the basin of despair.

You weren’t made to hover in canyon of defeat.

Look up. Cry for help. Claw your way out.

Write your survival guide and pass it along to the next to-be survivor.

Your destiny is waiting, and your little ones are watching.

Thus says the Lord to His anointed,
To Cyrus, whose right hand I have held—
To subdue nations before him
And loose the armor of kings,
To open before him the double doors,
So that the gates will not be shut:
‘I will go before you and make the crooked places straight;
I will break in pieces the gates of bronze
And cut the bars of iron.
I will give you the treasures of darkness
And hidden riches of secret places,
That you may know that I, the Lord,
Who call you by your name,
Am the God of Israel.
For Jacob My servant’s sake,
And Israel My elect,
I have even called you by your name;
I have named you, though you have not known Me.

Isaiah 45:1-4

But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, His own special people, that you may proclaim the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light; who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.

1 Peter 2:9-10

Holiday Blues

/ The WheatandTares / 3 Comments

A memory popped up today through technology in one of those ways that it can these days.

It was just five years ago, but the changes that have come would make it appear it’s been at least a decade.

It seems the holidays bring such highs and lows to my heart these days, that at times, I feel distracted.

And my heart is grieved.

It’s not really that I’m altogether down; yet, the grief I feel in those moments seem to bring clouds to the happiness of the season.

My arms ache for those who are gone, and I long to embrace.

The day of thanks came and went with less people gathering around the table, and so many shifts have occurred.

My eyes fought back the tears.

The morning after used to be filled with laughter of little ones as we went out on an adventure, but those boys are all grown and flown away now.

My smile resisted the complaint.

I decided not to cry. There’s too many things for which to be grateful.

Yet, the holiday blues are knocking at the door.

Don’t let them in today. For if we do, they’ll be tempted to stay.

So, I’ll pick up my step and go decorate the tree and hum those Christmas carols once more.

For even through grief, my heart can sing as I remember His grace, and let Him wash away the pain.

Today, I will embrace the goodness that God has given and the hope He has promised.

You will keep him in perfect peace,
Whose mind is stayed on You,
Because he trusts in You.

Isaiah 26:3

He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds.

Psalm 147:3

Take a Pulse

/ The WheatandTares

Take a pulse today.

Are you surviving or thriving?

If you’re only surviving, think it through.

Don’t accept it as normal.

Seek for change. Seek for a difference.

Fight for it.

Start thriving.

You can do this!

Therefore let us, as many as are mature, have this mind; and if in anything you think otherwise, God will reveal even this to you. Nevertheless, to the degree that we have already attained, let us walk by the same rule, let us be of the same mind.

Philippians 3:15-16

Fight For It

/ The WheatandTares

Too often, we lie down in the muck and more of what life has given us, and we choose to wallow in it.

If you are going to be more than what is behind you and beyond what is around you, you must step up, step out, and make a new path for yourself.

No one said it was going to be easy.

In fact, there will be moments when you have to fight, and kick, and claw your way out of the mud and quicksand that threatens to overtake you.

But I promise you.

If you will struggle, you will advance.

If you will resist, you will move forward.

If you will fight, you will become.

As I heard a wise man say once, “If you won’t fight for it, you don’t deserve it.”

Brawl, grapple, wrestle, clash and attack.

Survive and then thrive.

It will be well worth it.

And your children and those who love you will thank you.

But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ

Philippians 3:7-8

Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brethren, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do,forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.

Philippians 3:12-14

Magic or Madness

/ The WheatandTares

Sometimes, a self evaluation is in order.

Am I bringing out the best or worst in you?

Sometimes, a friend evaluation is in order.

Are you drawing out the magic or the madness from me?

The answers to these questions should reveal truth and reality in a way that causes our hearts to long for perfection.

Too often, we are seeking comfort of sedation so much that we settle for chaos and pain.

If I am creating turmoil and injury for your heart, I need to change or leave to bring the calm.

If you are stirring turbulence and tumult for my soul, you need to halt or be removed to bring rest.

Too often, we search for a cease fire when we should be waging war or removing ourselves from the battleground.

Peace is more important than popularity.

Stability is more important than the spotlight.

Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it.

Psalm 34:14

Nevertheless the Lord your God would not listen to Balaam, but the Lord your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the Lord your God loves you. 6 You shall not seek their peace nor their prosperity all your days forever.

Deuteronomy 23:5-6