Friend or Foe

June 10, 2025June 10, 2025 / The WheatandTares

Sometimes, it’s just hard to deal with certain humans.

If we’re being honest, you know it’s true.

Yet, just as it’s important to walk away from toxicity and dangerous relationships, it’s also important to be able to discern those who might be in a bad mood and those who are truly damaging.

And this distinction can truly make or break a leader.

Come to the wrong conclusion, and you can damage a relationship, a ministry, a group of people, and even a home.

Assume a friend is a foe, and you lose a covenant and companion for life.

Suppose a foe is a friend, and you may walk away wounded and scarred, or worse, you can find yourself enclosed in a cage of emotion.

Presume inaccurately on either side, and you can wound the most innocent among you.

Judge incorrectly, and the grace needed to make amends can sometimes be insurmountable.

So, step carefully and evaluate slowly.

Learn to recognize warning signs and decipher welcome flags.

Acknowledge personal hangups and triggers and work harder to overcome.

Create an atmosphere of curiosity and courage and allow for input from the older, wiser sages near you.

Open your heart wide and your ears and eyes even wider.

And above all, if you believe in the One who created you, pray and ask Him to guide, not only in the final decision but to the people who can help lead you in that direction.

A friend can be hidden from immediate view because the search is always an adventure.

A foe can be veiled from initial sight because the desire for communion is always a heart’s home.

Friend or foe, learning the difference is essential.

Open rebuke is better
Than love carefully concealed.

Faithful are the wounds of a friend,
But the kisses of an enemy are deceitful.

Proverbs 27:5-6

Ointment and perfume delight the heart,
And the sweetness of a man’s friend gives delight by hearty counsel.

Proverbs 27:9

The Obit

June 9, 2025June 9, 2025 / The WheatandTares

I heard of your passing today and wondered how you’d been.

It’s been so long since I heard your voice, my memory is wearing thin.

You’d left here with a destination, hoping to ease the pain.

But where you went the agony followed, and it never stopped the rain.

I wished you well and bid farewell, for my hands could never hold.

The life you led was a restless one, so many avenues, twisted and untold.

I read in your obit all the war stories and heroism I’d never known.

The star, the medal, the accolades, even the rescue made my heart within me groan.

For this man, I wished I had met while living and breathing and very much alive.

Rather, it was the one who set off to sea on holidays and birthdays who never arrived.

My broken heart is now mended; the scar you can barely see.

Yet, somewhere deep beyond the tears, a hope of what could’ve been still remains to be.

6/4/25 MG

Carry the Buckets

June 4, 2025May 30, 2025 / The WheatandTares / 2 Comments

Be the one who carries the buckets of water toward the flames.

Be the one who carries the light to pave the path.

Be the one who carries the torch to brighten the tunnel.

Be the one who carries the blanket to shield the frozen.

Be the one who carries the keys to unlock the prison doors.

Be the one who carries the swords to join in the battle.

You can be a life changer or a death claimer.

It is your choice.

But first ask yourself which you’d want if the flames were on you.

This is My commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one’s life for his friends.

John 15:12-13

Allow for Some Goodbyes

June 3, 2025June 9, 2025 / The WheatandTares

Change brings adjustments in relationships.

Adjustments bring uncomfortable conflicts.

Conflicts bring choices to remain or walk away.

When you are seeking to better yourself, sometimes, it will irritate those who want to remain the same.

When you are moving beyond the trauma, sometimes, those who enjoyed the drama will want to stay.

When you are healing and pursuing something better, sometimes, those who liked you broken cannot handle the new strength.

And that’s ok.

Keep walking ahead.

Keep healing from the past.

Keep moving forward toward wellness, peace, and joy.

Those who are meant to go with you will arrive.

Those who aren’t will remain where you were.

And that’s ok.

To thrive, sometimes you have to say goodbye to the old you and also to the old them.

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

Distance From Stupid

June 2, 2025June 9, 2025 / The WheatandTares

Distancing yourself from stupid people requires fortitude and repetition.

I’d have to say distancing yourself from dramatic people is even more essential

For often, stupidity and drama seem to go hand in hand, and these seem to multiply when you’re not looking.

But if you’ll take a moment to assess your surrounding and evaluate your relationships, stupidity and dramatic response can be weeded out and set apart.

You just must decide if you want peace or attention and popularity.

If peace is your goal, then the distance is an easier trek than if your desire is to people please.

If peace is your ambition, you will embrace it with vigor and pursue it with passion.

And where peace abides, stupidity and drama are closed out by the gates of solitude and tranquility, and shadowed by an overwhelming shield of calm.

So truly, the decision lies within your making.

What do you seek?

Peace or chaos.

It’s yours to choose.

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

Isiah 26:3

Silly Saturday

May 31, 2025May 22, 2025 / The WheatandTares / 2 Comments

References to real people, places and events may or may not be true… 😳🤣

Learn That Lesson

May 22, 2025May 22, 2025 / The WheatandTares / 2 Comments

Sometimes, walking away is the only thing that brings peace.

Sometimes, letting go is the only thing that will ease the pain.

Walking away isn’t always the easy road filled with presumed pride and celebration.

Letting go isn’t always the rebellious act of arrogance and annoyance.

Often, the turning away is the only way for healing to start.

If someone has walked out of your life, honestly assess your heart, and if no wrong can be found, then let them walk.

Sometimes, the walk is more for them than for you.

If someone has let go of you, take a soul check, and if you can truly find no fault, then let it rest.

Sometimes, the release for them will bring strength and reconciliation.

But if a speck on your heart is found, if a blemish within your soul is revealed, then cry your tears and talk to your Maker.

He’s the only One who can mend the wounds and bind what has been broken.

He’s the only One who can restore what had been forever lost.

Do not make friends with a hot-tempered person, do not associate with one easily angered, or you may learn their ways and get yourself ensnared.

Proverbs 22:24-25

Letting Go

May 21, 2025June 9, 2025 / The WheatandTares / 4 Comments

Well, I’ve been taking a bit of a hiatus from writing. I just peeked back at my past notes, and it’s been since December that I posted here. For my friends and followers, my apologies if you wondered where I’d gone or what I was up to. And to those who might not have noticed, that’s ok, too. I’ve just been over here living life in my little corner of the world.

I hope to get back to posting at least weekly, if not more, but I’m maybe not going to make a grand announcement this time of how much. It seems I don’t do a great job when I make the big ol’ declaration and keep up with it for a bit of time, and then, life happens, and I get distracted, or I simply don’t feel like I have anything “brilliant” or worthwhile to share. So I think this time, I’ll just begin small and see where it takes us…

LETTING GO

Sometimes, you’ve got to let go in order to hold onto the things that really matter.

Sometimes, you’ve got to release the pain to embrace the joy.

Sometimes, you’ve got to drop the anger like a hot rock to pick up the love that’s been there waiting for you.

It’s only when you walk away from what you’ve always known that you can finally see what is most important and valuable.

So, remove the chains that have bound you.

Be liberated from your shackles that confine you.

Set your souls free and let your spirit fly!

Stand fast therefore in the liberty by which Christ has made us free, and do not be entangled again with a yoke of bondage.

Galatians 5:1

You ran well. Who hindered you from obeying the truth?

Galatians 5:7