Straight Talk | Roots & Fruit

I enjoy learning new things.  When I was younger, I really enjoyed school.  When I got into college, I was introduced to a Biblical Literature, a degree offered at Northwest University. This was right up my alley because it involved research, research and more research!  Just about every week I was working on a research paper.  I didn’t mind it so much because I was a new Christian. All the study and research helped me better understand the Bible.  My passion for studying and researching didn’t stop once I graduated college. 

Today, I still find myself studying and learning new things.  When I was preparing for this article, I wanted to better understand roots. So what better place to start than learning about plant and tree roots!  No, I didn’t dig up a tree or dissect plants, but I did do a little recon work and found out some pretty exciting stuff.   

Did you know roots are the organ of a plant? Yep, it typically lies below the surface of the soil, has major functions and grows in any direction where the correct environment of air, nutrients and water exist.   Given the right conditions, roots can grow in such a way to crack foundations, snap water lines and lift sidewalks.   

Learning about plant and tree roots has been quite fascinating.  For the most part, it gives me more insight into how people are intended to grow. Think about it for a second.  Plants and trees have roots. The function of their roots are to absorb the water and nutrients, anchor the body of the plant and tree to the ground, store food and nutrients and provide basis for support. 

We aren’t too different if you think about it.  We have roots; we just don’t show them the same way.  For example, our roots extend to family and friends. They support us, help us grow, feed us with affirmation, direction, influence, and provide an anchor.  Also, our roots can be our environments and experiences.  Our environments and experiences provide nourishment for our belief systems, shape our perspectives and ideology.   

The depth of our roots is dependent upon what they are rooted in.  Perhaps you were rooted in a loving, strong and supportive family.  You were cared for, nurtured and encouraged.  Maybe, this happened throughout the generations in your family.  Naturally, your roots would be deep, given the right conditions to grow and to bear fruit accordingly. 

Say you weren’t rooted in a loving, strong and supportive family. Quite the exact opposite: inconsistent, unstable, favorable toward abuse and neglect.  Instead of care, nurture and encouragement, you felt forgotten, enslaved or an accident.  Perhaps, this happened generationally in your family.  Naturally, your roots would be shallow and you would bear fruit accordingly. 

Have you ever asked yourself the question: why do I do what I don’t want to do and the thing I want to do I don’t do? Yep, you do the do-do!  Essentially, we ask the million dollar question, “Why do I keep going around this same mountain?”  It’s a great question.   Let’s take a gander real quick at the world in which we live. 

Currently, our society tells us to correct the behavior. For example, if you have an anger problem, manage it.  If you are overweight, change the way you eat and exercise.  If something about your body isn’t up to “standard”, go under.  If you are depressed, anxious, suicidal, etc. then take pills.  Should you be afraid of losing control, making a mistake or appear without the answer, then control everything. 

If you have found that correcting a behavior isn’t working.  If you have tried to manage a habit, pattern or cycle and you aren’t getting very far.  If you have found yourself at the end of your “rope” per say, and all the chanting, poking and card reading isn’t working. Perhaps, you should stop chopping the fruit off your tree and go to the root.  Here is what I mean. 

When we have a problem and want to change, we go after what is being produced, i.e. the fruit.  Instead of trying to modify, correct or manage a behavior, head straight to the source.  In other words, go to the root cause because it is the source, the origin and the underlying support for what’s going on. 

Take a moment and read through the following scriptures. Next, journal what you understand them to mean and what sticks out to you. 

Job 18:16
His roots dry up below and his branches wither above.

Job 29:19
My roots will reach to the water, and the dew will lie all night on my branches.

Psalm 80:9
You cleared the ground for it, and it took root and filled the land.

Proverbs 12:12
The wicked desire the stronghold of evildoers, but the root of the righteous endures.

Isaiah 11:10
In that day the Root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples; the nations will rally to him, and his resting place will be glorious.

Isaiah 27:6
In days to come Jacob will take root, Israel will bud and blossom and fill all the world with fruit.

Isaiah 37:31
Once more a remnant of the kingdom of Judah will take root below and bear fruit above.

Jeremiah 12:2
You have planted them, and they have taken root; they grow and bear fruit. You are always on their lips but far from their hearts.

Jeremiah 17:8
They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”

Matthew 13:21
But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away.

Luke 8:13
Those on the rocky ground are the ones who receive the word with joy when they hear it, but they have no root. They believe for a while, but in the time of testing they fall away.

Romans 11:16
If the part of the dough offered as firstfruits is holy, then the whole batch is holy; if the root is holy, so are the branches.

Romans 11:18
do not consider yourself to be superior to those other branches. If you do, consider this: You do not support the root, but the root supports you.

Ephesians 3:17
so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love,

Colossians 2:7
rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.

Galatians 5:13-26

You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh; rather, serve one another humbly in love.  For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.” If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.

So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God.

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law. Those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. Let us not become conceited, provoking and envying each other.

Straight Talk | Introduction

I believe your life has incredible value and unfathomable purpose.  Without a doubt, I believe you are an incredibly important person. There are things you can do that no one else can do the way you do it.  There are people you can connect with that others cannot.  You possess a way about you that no one else can quite seem to emulate.  I believe that you were made and destined for greatness.

I also believe that throughout life, it is very possible that we lose sight, our focus changes and our passion dwindles.  I believe that we are a by-product of our environments, reflection of our influences and quite often, our own worst enemy.  More importantly, I believe that we can change if we choose to do so and we do not have to do it alone 

As we embark on this series, “Straight Talk”, I want to lay out the intentions of my heart and the purpose of this series.  First, my desire is that all of God’s people are whole, healed and walking in the Spirit.  I want so much for people who are far from God to come into a relationship with God that is growing, consistent and full of his abundant life.  

Second, I know this world we live in is full of pain and hurt.  Most of the time, we stuff the pain and the hurt, suck it up if you will, and move on.  Minimizing what was done is injustice to you.  And to be quite honest, this is what I’m after. I want to give the pain and the hurt a voice if there isn’t one by providing opportunities to identify with as well as point you in the direction for healing.   

Lastly, my intention for this series is for it to be used to help you or perhaps someone you know.  We are a very quiet group when it comes to pain and hurt. There can be a lot of shame, guilt and condemnation associated with painful experiences.  Often times, we are silent because we don’t know who to turn to, we are afraid or we are too proud. 

The people I’ve asked to help me write these articles have personal experience.  They are passionate to see you be healed and whole. They desire to see you living an abundant life.  They love the Lord and have a deep and growing relationship with God.  Additionally, they are professional.  

Naturally, I may not know all the answers, but I will find out or direct you to the best person who can help you.  You are not alone. God is up to something good and can’t wait to hear what he has done in your life. 

New Approach: Never Neverland

It’s been awhile since I’ve lasted posted and thought I would change things up.  In the last couple of months I’ve been able to identify some obstacles and make head way on achieving my goals.  All in all, it’s been a pretty exciting couple of months.

In a previous article, “God Please Make Me Skinny”, I talked briefly about changes made because of situations I found myself in as well as highlighted a couple gifts such as time and change.  Since then, I’ve embarked on a couple new adventures, learned a little bit more about myself and have moved on to new found victories.

First, I started a new diet. I know, “diet” is such an ugly word or at least it can have a bad connotation.  It is, it can be, but I was pretty excited to make some more changes.  Wanting to know how to recover from burn out and chronic fatigue syndrome, I started to research what changes I needed to make.  Another reason to change my diet is to lose weight so what is being done at the chiropractor isn’t counterproductive.

Seemed to me a choice needed to be made: to invest or not.  And since I am an investment, it only seemed fitting to proceed as so.  About now, I’m going to a chiropractor a couple times a week and a counselor once a week.  I’ve changed my workload and schedule, sleep schedule and exercise routine.  Embarking on my next change, I didn’t know what to expect.

Okay, that’s not entirely true because on some level you know what to expect.  I guess what I’m getting at are the little surprises and what you learn about yourself.  What I found out about myself was surprising. First, I couldn’t figure out why I was always craving sweets.  I didn’t want them, didn’t need them but there was something deep inside me that sure did want them.  Trying my best to muster up every ounce of self-control, I kept pressing on.

About three weeks into the diet, I had a profound revelation and gained some much needed insight.   Maybe you can relate or this might be something you’ve only heard about.  The need for sweets, the emptiness like a black hole to never neverland that was somewhere in the depths of my inmost being, seemed to have my attention in a very real way.

The relationship dynamics in a family are powerful and have an incredible amount of influence throughout a person’s life.  However, there is nothing like the individual relationships a child has with their parents.  As for me, it was my relationship with my dad that had a greater effect on my than I realized. 

So here is the revelation: my craving for sweets was a way to cope with life, stress or to sum it up, just about anything and everything.  The love hate relationship is true. I would go through or experience something and didn’t possess the tools to appropriately process through the situation in a healthy way. The comfort I felt numbed the rejection, abandonment, fear, etc. that I felt. Unfortunately, this isn’t what God wants and it isn’t what we really want.

What I started to do when I feel a craving is pray and ask the Holy Spirit to help me identify why I have a craving and to fill the emptiness I feel.  I dialogue through what I’m feeling, identify where it is coming from and how it’s all related.  I’m a believer that there is a link between patterns, habits and patterns that are either healthy or unhealthy. 

My goal is to identify the unhealthy and replace it with the healthy.  This is definitely something I can’t do on my own. I’m in need God’s help.  Some wisdom that a mentor gave me, and this isn’t just for this particular situation, but for the rest of my life, and I share it with you: God is found in our weaknesses.  In your weakness there is His power and strength.  Get to know your weaknesses because that is where God will be found. 

More to come and for those wondering about how my relationship with my dad fits into all this, that article is on its way. Stay tuned for more!

The Next It Girl | 3 of 3

Before we begin Part Three of “The Next It Girl”, let’s run a quick recap.  In Part One, we learned how our name and reputation reflect our walk with God.  Moving over to Part Two, we learn that swag naturally flows out of your relationship with God; the deeper your relationship, the greater your swag. It’s in your relationship with God that you know who you are in Christ, your unique skills and abilities as well as your purpose. When your relationship with God is deep and abiding, it’s not teetering on the trends of this world.

Without further ado, Part Three, “The Fear of the Lord”. 

We have two uses for fear.  Most of the time, we use fear to describe how we feel when we are afraid, in danger or in pain.  For this article, we are heading to the second use, the reverential awe.  You’re absolutely right!  This type of fear is hardly used or discussed, well, unless you are at a Bible study or in church listening to a sermon.  Nonetheless, it’s of utmost importance to understand its place in the book of Proverbs.

King Solomon, the wisest man on the earth, wrote the book of Proverbs and felt it rather important to talk about and have the fear of the Lord in our lives.  When you read through Proverbs you can see its benefits, uses, importance and significant value.  Does the fear of the Lord still apply to life today?  Is there a specific time and place for the fear of the Lord?

To best understand why “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge” (Proverbs 1.7, NIV), let’s dissect the verse, starting with the name Lord.  This a very special name used for God.  It’s Hebrew and translates to “I AM”. This name is incredibly sacred, so sacred that no one used it. Instead, the priests took the vowels from the Hebrew name Adonai, meaning Lord and infused it with the consonants, YHWH, thus producing Jehovah, translated to Lord God.

The very name, Lord, was revealed to Moses at the burning bush.  “I AM”—the God who always had been, and who always would be, whose name will be forever remembered from generation to generation—speaks to Moses.  Mind you, this name of God isn’t used because it’s sacred so when Moses uses this name, he is communicating to Israel that he has a personal and covenant relationship with God.

To help you better understand the magnitude of this name let’s dip into history for a moment.  The Hebrews are in Egypt under Pharaoh’s captivity, used as slaves to build his kingdom.  The Egyptians worshiped gods, lots of them. For example, they worshiped falcons which represented Re the Sun god.  When a falcon would die, they would mummify it and give the bird a ceremonial burial. Archeologists have found various animals mummified by the Egyptians in honor of the gods they represented.

The contrast between Hebrews and Egyptians is a similar theme throughout the Bible: God is alive and active, He is a covenant making and keeping God, He is “I AM”.  Let’s flip back over to Proverbs 1.7 for a minute, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge”. King Solomon is helping us to position ourselves to be in a personal and covenant relationship with God when he says that all knowledge begins with the fear of the Lord.  When you know who the Lord is, what He is all about and how your existence is dependent upon Him, nothing else is of significant importance.

The second part of the verse refers to a fool or morally deficient person, “but fools despise wisdom and discipline”.  King Solomon is saying that a fool will choose to ignore knowledge of the Lord, go about his way only to find out at the end of his days, that he has spent his life deficient in every aspect. The philosophies of this world and human traditions have limited value and benefit. King Solomon desires that we have all the blessings and benefits that God has for us. 

Here are some of the benefits you will find in the book of Proverbs:

·         9:10,  fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; knowledge of the holy one is understanding

·         10.27,  fear of the Lord adds length to life

·         14.26, he who fears the Lord has a secure fortress

·         14.27,  fear of the Lord is a fountain of life

·         15.33,  fear of the Lord teaches wisdom

·         16.6,  through the fear of the Lord a man avoids evil

·         19.23,  fear of the Lord leads to life

·         22.4,  humility and fear of the Lord bring wealth and honor and life

What does this mean for the God’s It Girl?  Good question, glad you asked! First, knowing who God is, his purpose for life and your life as well as having a personal relationship with Him are of utmost importance.  Sure you can get places with your looks, swag and who you know, but nothing will ever pale in comparison to the personal relationship you have with God.  The philosophies of this world come and go, but God will always be.  People will come and go and let you down, but God will always be there.

Knowledge doesn’t happen overnight.  You get knowledge from studying, applying and experiencing.  The fear of the Lord isn’t limited to a location or conversation.  It’s a way of living.  Your attitude and action are a reflection of your relationship with God; it’s your worship. Out of your respect for God, your actions and speech change accordingly: morally, ethically, spiritually, etc.

Did you know there are thirty-one Proverbs?  That’s one for each day! Try it and don’t be afraid to highlight.  To see how God is active in your life, start journaling: write down the verse that jumps out to you, what you sense the Holy Spirit saying to you with the verse, jot down a couple key highlights from your day and a few prayer requests.  In a year, pull out your journal and see how God has been actively involved in your life.