Year-Around Good Will Toward Men

"...lest any root of bitterness springing up trouble you, and thereby many be defiled..." Hebrews 12:15


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Sometimes it feels like I've earned a right to complain more now that I am older. I've seen bad things happen to sweet people so I can legitimately sit here and rant about it.

Heaven forbid.

If I fear anything, it's having a weed patch inside of me where roots of bitterness spring up because I've tossed around a lot of complaining seeds. Bitterness will slow me down. It will choke out the good stuff I've planted. Make me sick. Make me useless to help others.

I got a mental picture this morning of Jesus spending his 33 years here on this earth all bent over in bitterness because of the sorry ways many people around Him acted. I laughed at that picture because it looked ridiculous.

But it's weird. I can't laugh when I get a picture of myself all bent over with bitterness. Maybe because it could actually happen. I really could waste my life in a paralyzing, tangled soul garden--growing in negativity right along with the world.

Heaven forbid.

Today as Tom and I are out in the freezing weather, I'll be slinging around seeds of hope as though my life depends upon it. Pulling seeds from my coat pockets, if need be. Hope is like pesticide for bitterness.




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Sometimes the heavy sugar-coating we spread over 'the good old days' covers their reality...

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