The Root

Someone at work shared this with me today. I really needed it. I have been dealing with an issue that has been tough but I have really tried to let go and give it to God! One of the issues I have been dealing with was me being me. It saddens me to think there are those out there who can't take being nice and being yourself for what it is. I am not perfect. I have my faults. However, when I do something or desire a relationship with someone it is purely because of the love in my heart. I do things and say things because of my desire to care and love for others. It makes me sad that there are those out there that can't accept that. At first I was mad and was thinking well fine if they don't want to have anything to do with me and if all my decisions are the "wrong" ones then forget it. I just won't do this or that anymore. The truth is...that isn't me. I ENJOY being with other people and I ENJOY doing for others...even if there is nothing in return because I expect nothing in return. That being said...I am going to keep being ME...albeit a little more guarded version of ME but you can't change me. I want the fruit I bear to be the fruit that shows only one motivation...the motivation of love.


A farmer once planted two fruit trees on opposite sides of his property. One he planted to provide a hedge to hide the unsightly view of an old landfill; the other to provide shade to rest under near a cool mountain stream which ran down beside his fields. As the two trees grew, both produced and began to flower and bear fruit.

One day the farmer decided to gather the fruit from the tree nearest his house " the one used to provide a hedge from the landfill. As he brought the fruit inside the house, he noticed that it was a little deformed " the symmetry of the fruit was not very good, but still the fruit looked edible. Later that evening, while sitting on his porch the farmer took one of the pieces of fruit for a snack. Biting into the fruit, he found it to be extremely bitter, and completely inedible. Casting the fruit aside he looked across the field to the other tree over by the mountain stream.

After walking across the field, the farmer took a piece of the fruit from the other tree and bit into it. Find the fruit to be sweet and delicious he gathered several more pieces of fruit and took them to the house.

The fruit was greatly affected by the nutrition of the root. Just as the tree grew by the landfill to be bitter, and the tree by the stream produced sweet fruit, so the Christian has a choice. He can either put down his roots into the soil of the landfill of fleshly pursuits, or into the cool refreshing stream of the person of Jesus Christ. We must understand that the root bears the fruit. The fruit of the Christian is the outward evidence of the inward motivation.