Category Archives: Life Lessons

Life Lessons

Reaching for the Sky!

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    As I said last week, I’ve been trimming and tying up the young rose cuttings from last year, and imagining a conversation I could have had with one of them. The particular rose in the photo had one long strong branch coming out of the main stem, reaching out to the side. It’s head wasn’t particularly strong looking and certainly wasn’t a good shape. So I picked the strong stalk up and tied it firmly  into an upright position onto the stake.

“Ouch!” exclaimed the rose, “That hurts!”

“I’m sorry about that,” I said, “But this is how I want you to grow. I want you to look up and grow into a taller plant with your head on higher things.”

The rose got a bit sulky at that and muttered, “I wanted to grow my branches out low, down to the ground because that’s how I would be if you weren’t watching me. After all, I AM a carpet rose you know!”

    I looked further along the row and saw a rose that I had trained a few years earlier. It is tall, with a bushy head  looking up to the sky, and is covered with flowers being a thing of beauty and joy to everyone who sees it.

 “Do you see that rose over there?” I asked the one I was dealing with, “That’s how you will look  too in a couple of years time. You will be able to have other flowers growing beneath your branches instead of being a tangled mess lying on the ground with other branches growing all over the place. You are a good strong plant and have great potential if you obey my pruning and staking!”

“I suppose so,” sighed the one I was dealing with, “But it’s not very nice being tied up tight like this. It hurts when you take my little side branches off too!”

“It’ all for your own good, my dear,” I said, “and you will thank me for it one day!”

   This little story has an application that we should all take to heart. It is only as we respond to the tying and staking of the Master Gardener in our life, and lift our heads to look up into His face that we will be able to reach our full potential that He plans for us. Yes, there will be experiences that we could well do without, but if we remember that He always knows what is best and can see the wider plan, we can take it all happily and rest in knowing His love for us.

Life Lessons

Pruning in our Lives.

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I have recently been trimming up my small rose plants which I have grown from cuttings. Most of them are doing well and have started to flower, making a cheerful splash of colour in the garden. But I want more than that from them….I want them to grow taller with a strong head on them so they stand up instead of sprawling all over the ground as they would if left alone. So I have to keep taking off the lower side shoots, and if there is a very strong shoot near the top, I tie it up to the stake to train it to be the main stem for the new head. As I have been doing this, I think of the parallels in our Christian life. If I’m left to my own ways, I will grow close to the ground and sprawl all over it just becoming a tangled mess. So the Master Gardener has to keep taking off those bad habits and selfish desires to keep us growing low to the ground. We need to have the painful experiences of life to make us look up into His face, and ask what He wants from us. This is how we will grow tall and straight with a strong head of flowers on us to give pleasure to all those around us. I suppose taking the shoots off the roses causes them pain, and many of the experiences we go through are painful and not what we would choose, but the end result is worth all the pain as we are able to comfort those who go through times of sorrow and doubt. We too need to be firmly tied to our stake of the Lord Himself to keep us firm and solid in His things or else we will wobble around not really sure of what we believe, and end up with broken off branches as the storms come through as they will.

So the next time you are tempted to ask “Why?” when things go wrong, just think of the young rose plants that need to be tied up and trimmed off , and remember to look up to the One Who loves us beyond compare!

Life Lessons

Another Family Broken.

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  We attended the funeral of a very much loved wife, mother, grandmother and friend the other day  who  seemed to have been taken far too soon. It was an extremely large funeral service, one that paid many tributes to our friend and to her faith in her God. Once again, it impressed itself on me the brevity and uncertainty of life, and I wondered how many of those who were present were ready to take this, their last trip from this earth.

The overall message from the Lord to several members of that family was that verse that says…”You will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on You”, and that is what makes all the difference. If our mind is stayed (or steadfast) on the God of our salvation, we have nothing to fear, but if we don’t know Him, the best that we can face is an uncertain hope.

When an untimely death like this occurs, we can know with certainty that it is God’s doing, not man’s. It is a clean break that can heal in time, giving the opportunity for a fresh new start in another direction. What a difference to a messy break in a family that is caused by man’s interference!

Yes, the sorrow is still there, and the gap is still as great, but it is like a pot of  boiling water that has a potato and an egg in the shell put into it. The boiling water makes the egg go hard, while the same boiling water makes the potato go soft! When the boiling water of serious trouble strikes us, which are we going to be…the egg or the potato? Let’s remember that picture and turn to the God of all comfort, softening to His will and moving on.

Life Lessons

Beauty in the Garden!

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I’m a fan of bearded irises! They are such a beautiful flower, coming from a rather uninteresting looking plant. There are many different coloured varieties, from deep purples and wines, to delicate mauves and pure white. Still others have a faint blush of pink. Each petal in the flower has its own brush (or beard), often a yellow in contrast to the rest of the flower. Over all , the flower when picked has a definite faint scent, that can be noticed as soon as you enter the room where it is.

Many have been cross bred to have the most distinctive colours and the combination of colours is quite startling. This all goes to show the creative genius of the Master Gardener who has given them to us to enjoy.  Man may have adapted and bred different colours into them, but it all comes from the Great Creator in the first place!

I couldn’t help thinking how we are like this beautiful flower in many ways. We may not have had the most wonderful start in life, but if we give ourselves to God, He can mould us and breed in us the things that please Him, making something beautiful from a very mundane beginning. Not a one of us can say that we are good for nothing, or have nothing to give….this is a just an excuse and often because we can’t be bothered making the effort. We can all give a smile and make a comment that will brighten someone else’s day, from the girl behind the supermarket counter to the gardener working in the council gardens in the car park! People don’t remember you for how you look, as much as for how you make them feel!

Life Lessons

Looking Ahead!

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How this year has flown! As you get older, so the time seems to go quicker. What once seemed endless, now seems to have the end come too quickly. When we were going to school, we would think at the beginning of holidays, that they seem to have no end. But then suddenly,  the end would  come  and they were over. This is just like one’s life.

When we are growing up, the years stretch ahead of us endlessly.

When we are middle aged, they are still there…we think ten, twenty years, even thirty years still to go to do things in.

When we get older at retirement, we think that now is the time to get things done, with plenty of time and leisure.

But when we reach our eighties, what is left? Looks have gone, health has gone, strength is not there, energy has left, and we see  how much has been left unaccomplished.  What remains?

Without the assurance of a life to come, nothing is left, there is no hope. But for someone who knows the Lord Jesus Christ, there is everything to look forwards to. Not only will we see Him face to face, but there will be so much more to discover. The Bible tells us that “eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, the things that God has prepared for those who love Him” (1 Corinthians 2:9).

   Did you notice that phrase….”for those who love Him”? If we don’t love Him enough to get to know Him while here on earth, how are we going to know  Him in a time to come? It is never too late to come to Him…He is calling to all….”Come until Me all you who are heavy laden, and I will give you rest” (Matthew 11:28). What a wonderful invitation!

Life Lessons

Go All Blacks!

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The All Blacks are the New Zealand National rugby team, and as such are very special to New Zealanders. At the moment with the world rugby games on in Japan, the teams’ results make news most days. Thinking about this and the distinctive uniforms that each team wears brought several thoughts to mind.

Firstly, each member of the team is chosen. In the same way each person who belongs to God has been invited, chosen and called. The only difference in this analogy is that ALL are called by God, but not all choose to respond to Him positively.

Secondly, all wear the uniform with pride. How much pride do we have in wearing the uniform that marks us out as different when we belong to God? Do we hide our light or do we wear our uniform openly?

Thirdly, our uniform and belonging to the team, shows commitment. We must live up to what the uniform stands for, and any member of the team who disgraces the uniform is dealt with immediately. How thankful we can be that God has patience with His people when we let Him down!

Fourthly, all members of the team wear it, and are responsible to each other. We cannot take it off and sneak into doubtful places to have “fun” which only brings shame in the end. Whenever a member of the national team gets into trouble when on tour, it makes the headlines at home in the papers. Let’s make sure we hold God’s standard high above reproach.

Fifthly, members of the team need daily training, there can be no slacking off. In the same way we need to keep up our daily training in God’s Word. It is only as we do this that we can keep our spiritual strength up.

Lastly, team members depend on each other to get the ball to winning goal. We are told to pray for one another, and to bear each other’s burdens when things go wrong for them. It doesn’t take much effort to make a phone call to encourage those who are part of your fellowship. We must remember the Owner of our team and keep our eyes on Him….

Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. (Hebrews 12:2)

Life Lessons

That Black Dot!

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A friend sent me one of those thought provoking excerpts that you see from time to time, and I thought this one was worth passing on. A professor set his class an exercise to teach them an object lesson, and as they sat at their desks there was a blank piece of paper in front of each of them. “Now when I tell you to turn that paper over,” he said, “I want you to spend ten minutes, describing what you see on it”.

The class settled themselves down, and then he said, “Now turn your paper over and write what you see.”

They each turned their paper over and it was completely blank except for one black spot in the middle of the sheet. There was silence for a moment, and then they began to write. After he had collected the papers at the end of the ten minutes, he began to read what they had written. Without exception, they had all concentrated on the black dot, describing its approximate size and position on the paper, and what they thought it might mean.

“Now,” he said, “I did this to illustrate a point that I want you to all remember. You all concentrated on the black dot, and you’ve all written about it. But not one of you even seem to have noticed the amount of clean white paper there is surrounding that black spot! You know, that’s like the bad things that happen in our lives, and we all have them from time to time. They are just like that small black dot, and they seem to consume our thinking. But I want you to concentrate rather on the amount of clean white paper there is on that page. This is like the good things that we can enjoy, even while there is a black dot on our page! There are always things we can be thankful for, and as we concentrate on them, the amount of clean white paper makes the black dot look very small…the good things almost over-ride the black dot.”

There is a lot of truth in this small parable…we should always concentrate on our blessings rather than on the dots of disappointments and discouragements. They will pass with time while the joy of the blessings will last. No matter how bad our circumstances, there is always something that we can be thankful for, especially when we have a Christian faith and hope in God. That is the first thing we can praise God for!

 

Life Lessons

Have You Ever Thought of This?

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When a child is born it is totally dependent on its parents for all its needs. As it grows older, so this dependence is taught to turn to independence until the child is able to look after itself and ultimately leave home.

But in the spiritual life, it should be the other way around. We so often loudly declare, “I’m not having anyone tell ME what to do!” The sign of a truly spiritual person is that of growing dependence on the Lord as they go through life. We are to learn to depend on the Lord for our decisions and our behaviour more and more as we go through life …the Lord said “Unless you become as a little child, you cannot have part in the kingdom of heaven”.

It doesn’t mean that we behave childishly, just the opposite in fact. The more mature a Christian becomes, the more he will depend on his Heavenly Father. Just as a small child depends on its father for its daily needs, so we have to learn to depend on our Heavenly Father for our spiritual needs. Without this dependence, we will surely make a mess of things in our life.

We remember that Jesus called Himself the “Good Shepherd”, and a shepherd’s job is to look after his sheep. He only allows what is for the ultimate good of the sheep, but sometimes we take ourselves out of the shepherd’s care. We wander away to where the grass looks greener over the fence, only to find that it is a sour marsh! Then we have to endure the consequences of our foolish and independent actions. The trouble is that we often take those we love with us into this maze of trouble that we have deliberately gone into.

But remember this…..the Shepherd is always there to pick His lost sheep up and take it back to the fold rejoicing as He goes! A sheep is never too lost to be found….all it takes is a feeble bleat of “Help me, God! ” Not only does He rejoice over the lost sheep that is found, but His angels and His people all rejoice as well! It is up to us as a lost sheep to make the first move towards Him and He will make ten steps towards you!!