Detoured by a Weed

Café Menu for Friday, July 29, 2011

Today’s Lunch Special is: The sting of being forgotten

Carefully prepared just for you by your friend, Jenny

Main Ingredient: “Every plant that my heavenly Father has not planted will be pulled up by the roots” Matthew 15:13 NIV

Entrée:

As I dialed the number to a lady who has meant so much to me over the years, my hands were shaking with excitement. I just knew she was going to be thrilled to hear my news. Not only thrilled, but excited to be a part of what God was currently doing in my life. She had invested so much in me.

As she answered, one of the first things she said was, “I haven’t thought about you in years!” I could literally feel myself deflating, my eyes started stinging, and quickly filled with tears. I have thought of her often, very often, she had made such an impact on a young woman who was so damaged.

All evening it just ran around in my head, finally landing in my heart as I wasn’t important, I wasn’t someone she cared about, she hadn’t thought of me in YEARS??? Give me a break, how could she have not thought of me at all??

Doesn’t she remember all the things she taught me, all the times we laughed, and all the times she opened that worn Bible to encourage me. Her words had completely detoured my day, a day that went from excitement to dismay in seconds. Within a very short time my heart turned her words into a whole thought process along these lines:

How could she never think of me? Why didn’t I mean more to her? Does anybody really care about me? Will my friends now forget me so easily? Do I even have friends?

The detour started me thinking an ugly mess of thoughts. Thoughts that God had not planted in my life but that had sprung into a weed. One that He wanted to pull out by the roots because while it may be true to her, it isn’t my truth!

The good news about a detour is at some point it ends and you are back on the drive you originally intended. As I let God replace the thoughts of not being cared for my excitement returned and I’m continuing down the road!

Take Out: Have you let people’s words turn into weeds that threaten to overtake your mind and heart? Maybe someone has planted something in your heart that has turned into a huge weed. If so, pull out that weed using God’s very own words. You may have to be like me and say them over and over until they replace the weed! But when we let what God says take root deep in our heart, it will bloom into a beautiful flower!

Dessert: Heavenly Father, Thank you for your precious Word and for the encouragement that we find there everyday. Thank You for reminding us what the Truth really is and giving us strength to pull those weeds. We love You, Lord. AMEN.

A verse that really soothed my heart was “How precious to me are your thoughts, O God! How vast is the sum of them! Were I to count them, they would outnumber the grains of sand.” (Psalm 139:17-18 NIV)

Visit Jenny on her website for more encouragement:http://keepinginstride.com/