"To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the LORD, that he might be glorified." ~ Isaiah 61:3

Friday, September 24, 2010

"Suckers"

One of the things about learning from the older and wiser is that you really do not realize the value of what they teach until the memories revisit you years down the road. 

My grandmother used to grow the most beautiful flowers.  I remember her African Violets especially.  She took great pride in her violets. She had shelves and shelves of fluorescent-lighted trays full of the most gorgeous prize violets you could possibly imagine. 

I remember her painstakingly watering and feeding each and every one, hundreds of violets.  As she would inspect each plant individually she would reach between the leaves and pinch off what she would call a “sucker plant.”  I always thought they were just “cute little violet babies” growing inside the plant. 

She would go on to explain that these cute little violet babies were harmful to the violet and that if they were left to continue to grow, they would destroy the plant altogether.  She would sometimes take the sucker, if it was big enough and root it in some soil, that way the baby plant, or sucker, could take on a life of its own, separate from its host. That always delighted me…

God uses these little memories to teach me lessons. The memory of the suckers was to show me how to recognize the signs of loving wrongly. While, I do not think it is possible to love too much, it is entirely possible to love wrongly.
 
One of the signs of loving wrongly is that you begin to feel depleted, or drained, mentally, physically and emotionally. At times, your financial resources will be drained as well. Your life source feels as though it is being emptied of all vitality. While your intentions may be very good, the outcome can be quite devastating.

You see, love is a living thing, like a plant or vine, if you take from it wrongly, you will deplete the source. There is only one source that never runs out of love and that is God.  When we abide in that source, the Vine, the love replenishes, and He expands your capacity to love, however; when we choose to love wrongly, whether consciously or unconsciously, we get what is comparable to a “sucker” and our fruit suffers, the fruit in many areas of your life, your job, your marriage, your ministry, your children and other relationships as well as your relationship with God.

Sometimes our suckers can even involve of some of these things that I just listed, if you’re doing them wrongly, or loving wrongly,  or you’re out of God’s will or doing these things for the wrong reasons. Even the things you love, the things you enjoy, even good things that you feel that you are doing for God, if you are doing them wrongly or you are out of God’s will, you’ve got yourself a sucker, and it is taking from your life, and from your fruit, and from your destiny and you and the people you love will suffer in the long run....

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