Do Your Leaves Change Color?

Another lesson from nature!

In church, for a devotional, our brother talked about trees! He talked on how they change their leaves in the fall. If you don't know or have forgotten, when leaves receive less sunlight the chlorophyll breaks down. Chlorophyll is what gives the leaf its green color. So without chlorophyll the leaf starts to show the color underneath and that is how we get beautiful fall colors. The point of the devotional was, are we always focused on God that we stay green and don't die. I loved what he said and he then went on to give ways that we can stay green, it was a good life application. But I want to take it in a different direction. 

As Christians we need the Sonlight to be able to live. We need constant communion with God to be able to shine for Him and to show others His glory. Here's just some of my thoughts. When we don't have that communion with God, we don't have personal devotions with Him, we skip Weds night service, we don't guard our hearts and minds of impure thoughts or words, we start to let the "chlorophyll" break down. We begin to let our colors change. 

I know some people who put facades on and lived their life looking like a beautiful green tree. When they started to walk away their 'leaves' began to lose their color. When I began to see their true heart, their 'leaves' or outside appearance began to change and become ugly. Eventually these people become dead, bare trees with nothing to shine forth. If we are true and our hearts are pure then there will never be a time where our leaves begin to change. When we love God and focus on Him our bright green leaves shine out for people to see. When you go down the road what do you notice? A beautiful green tree or a dead tree?

How do you stay green? For me it's those daily devotions, prayer at anytime of the day, guarding my eyes and ears of profanity (a hard one to do in this society). Having your focus completely on God is not always an easy task. I fail every day with trying to keep myself pure and right with God. There are days that some of my leaves change color and I have to take care of that and fix that area in my heart so that I can shine forth again. Sometimes in my Spiritual walk I die. I go all out to do anything but what God wants. But thank Jesus, He is able to forgive and restore dead trees when they come back and ask Him to. He gives me new life that I am eternally grateful for.

We are all human, at one point or another our "leaves" will change color. I pray that you will have the strength and courage to go to God and ask for forgiveness and get that area and those problems fixed and that God would restore your soul unto Him.
Blessings~ Savannah

Growing in your Jungle

Something I have observed, I don't think there is any life truth we learn that cannot be learned through nature.

A brother in our church had devotions and he said that he and his son went hunting on a new property. He said there was a tree that was on one side of a fence that ran along the property. It grew up the height of the fence and then curved over top of the fence, ran parallel to the ground only a few feet off the ground and then at a 90* angle and shot straight up towards the sun. He asked "What are we willing to do to reach the light of God?" How far are we willing to go to reach God's love and grace? Are we willing to bend and and twist and go in any direction to grow and stretch? Do we climb over 'fences' so that we can hear what God has to say to us through His Word and others? 

I am guilty of not doing all I can to receive what God has for me. I need to be willing to do whatever I can to get to the light. Hard times, valleys, struggles, they aren't easy. It's just like that tree going along the ground to get to the light. Sometimes I have to go down and I struggle that it makes the light so much more enjoyable. Struggling through something is not easy at all. It is hard and difficult. We look ahead and see a steep mountain, stress, headache, financial crunching, whatever it is and we don't want to face it. But if you look behind you, you will see a row of mountains. That's where you've came from. Those are the things God has helped you through to overcome. He WILL get you through this and back again in the light!

Seeds fall in a jungle, they land in the dirt and they begin to grow. It's how we get new trees and bushes. Sometimes the already mature trees and plants are so big and overpowering that they block the sunlight and all the factors that the seed needs to be able to grow. When this happens that seed will either die, or it will struggle to survive. That is how we get cool and neat looking trees that grow at weird angles because they need to get to the light. Are you going to die or live in your current jungle? Stretch, reach and make it to the top and see what all you've overcome to get here or wither and die without even trying? God wants us to live, to stretch and to grow for Him. Prayer, Bible reading, fellowship with other believers, these are the keys to having that life for God. 

I pray that whatever you are struggling with, you would look to God and reach and stretch to find His grace and love!

Blessings~ Savannah

Be a weed...WHAT?

We hear sermons on pulling the weeds in our spiritual garden and from our mind.  But as I pull weeds in my physical garden I have to wonder if we shouldn't be like the weeds. I tried to think of a flower that would illustrate this point and I came up with morning glories, but to some people they are weeds. So I shall just stick with the word weed and you may use another word if you can find one better than weed!

So why be like a weed? Well when you go to your garden, your flowers may not be growing properly but 9 times out of 10 the weeds are growing just fine. Flowers can take a lot of care, having the proper soil, water level, sunlight, those are just a few of examples of things flowers need. Weeds will grow in almost any environment. We as Christians should grow wherever we are planted. Like the weed we need to survive any kind of weather and not worry if the soil is right or if we get enough water. Missionaries in poor countries don't make sure they have all the trimmings of life they want before they go to that country, they go in faith that what they need, besides what they've taken, will be provided by God. Grow and thrive where God has placed you.

You may be thinking "Be a weed? Right, weeds are hated and they get pulled out of the garden." Your right, they do. I thought about this in parallel with a non-Christian. You to them may be a weed. They don't want to hear what you have to say about Christ, so they "pull" you out of their life. Now by "pull" I'm thinking they ignore what you say but they may still hang out with you and be your friend, or you may lose contact for a few years. But you either bring the subject back up or you make contact again after those few years and try again. That's being a weed, coming back and sharing Christ even though they've tried to "pull" that subject out.

You may have had to use your imagination to see the points I've tried to make, and hopefully it's made some sort of sense. If what I've said is completely off or you have another view point on being a weed, please comment below and let me know! Thanks and God Bless!
~Savannah

Happy Heritage

Last week my brother, sister and I went to my Grandparent's house and helped Grandma in her yard. She mentioned that she was moving away from flowers to more garden art, due to being older and not being able to take care of the plants as she should. It makes me sad because I have always enjoyed Nana's full bushy, colorful, vibrant flower beds. But even though she is getting out of flowers she has left with me a love for them and a want to have big, full bushy, colorful, and vibrant flower beds. And after dead heading quite a bit of Lamb's Ear, I now have no desire to plant any Lamb' Ear.

We worked in a flower bed in the front of the house, taking out dirt and leveling it. Years ago she had put plastic in the bottom of the bed thinking this would help with weeds, it actually drowned the plants because it held the water. But what really got me was when she said, "Who would have thought all those years ago when I put that plastic in that my grandchildren would be helping me dig it out?!" Isn't it amazing how she had no idea she would have 11 grandchildren by the time she was ready to take the flower bed out? Time flies and moments go so fast but God is good and following Him I believe we will all leave a good Godly Happy Heritage!

Green Bean Moment!

This afternoon as I went out to pick green beans I looked down at the endless looking row and thot about all the picking, snapping, washing, and canning we would be doing. All that work to simply put a bowl of green beans on the table. My thots turned to the verse in Proverbs where Soloman says "Go to the ant, see how she prepares for winter" (not word for word). And I realized I was being the ant, preparing for the winter. I pulled some weeds around the plants and was reminded of Brandons opening about how we need to weed our Spiritual gardens. Then I started thinking about how the green bean plants compared to Christians. We all grow in Christ, as all the plants grow in soil. We all produce some kind of fruit, as the plants produce beans. Some Christians get really big and strong and bring many souls to Christ, as some plants get big and bushy and produce many beans. Some Christians live in the shadows of the stronger Christians and only do what necessary, likewise some plants grow in the shadows of the big ones and dont produce many beans at all. Some Christians come from a sinful, hurtful, and painful past but are the most radiant and touch the most ppl, same as some plants have bug-bitten leaves and holes throughout, yet they have produced the most beautiful beans. I then thot about the actual green bean and how they compare to the ppl in our life. Some beans were ready to be picked, some werent and some I accidently picked early when they could have been left to grow more. I compared the ready beans to those who know God or weve witnessed to and helped grow, God is ready to use and have them. The not ready ones I compared to the non-believers I know or young believers. We (with Gods help) are still nourishing them and allowing them to grow and be fed. Then I thot about the ones I accidently picked. I compared those to the babies and the young ppl God chooses to call home. We wonder what they would have grown up to become and what they would have done, but God always has a plan and purpose. And someday He will come back for His harvest and we will all be together!! ...All this because I went and picked green beans!! ;)