Bluebird Singing

There are many definitions of the word ROOT. Webster's Dictionary defines it as the following:  It absorbs moisture, stores food, and also serves as an anchor and support/fundamental or essential part/the original CAUSE of something.....

Most of us are familiar with the phrase "Money is the root of all evil" It's not the actual money, but the greed to have it that may causes it to become evil. The more we have, the more we want, and therefore sometimes we can make wrong choices to use it. Our past literally controls our future IF we let it.

Imagine a huge Live Oak tree...how strong it APPEARS to be..then visualize the size of what it's roots must look like BENEATH the soil that is HOLDING it firmly planted..It takes years to get to the size of a full grown HEALTHY tree. It started from a small acorn. It had to weather many seasons of growth.. On the other hand, the Water Oak APPEARS to be just as big, strong and well rooted, but it is not. It can be uprooted easier, BECAUSE it's roots are not as strong or as deep as the Live Oak to protect it from a mighty wind. The Live Oak may lose a few branches, but most of the time it will remain standing. The Water Oak can be seen most of the time laying on it's side and totally uprooted after a strong storm. I have seen these massive trees with hardly any roots at all. It is amazing to me that they can even stand at all with such a small root system.

Good roots are important in our lives. We have to rid ourselves of the bad roots, in order to have a healthier future. I had many roots of unforgiveness in my life that needed to be done away with. The following is my story.... 

I am married to a chronic complainer. His only conversation is COMPLAINTS. I loved him anyway for many years, after all I wasn't perfect either. For years I listened to this. I just pretended that I was alright. I soon began to realize that I was becoming  more and more bitter toward my husband.  This was not the normally nice sweet me. I didn't like what was happening. I could literally hear a wall go up..CHA CHING each time that he would fuss over petty unimportant things. Then one night as we laid down to go to sleep, the following happened...

  I was on my back, wide awake and SUDDENLY it was like a vine had come out of the bed and was now binding my feet, then my waist and last of all my arms. There was no fear. I asked "Lord, what is this? What is happening?" That still small voice replied "This is the roots of UNFORGIVENESS. Do you want to KEEP punishing each other like this?" I replied "No" and the vines released their hold on me. 

A couple weeks later a friend and I were walking down the gravel road that ran in front of my grandmother's house looking for pine cones. All sizes could be seen laying on the edges of the road. We could pick and choose which ones to keep. We had our noses to the ground and soon had walked a far distance from our starting point gathering our treasures. Then.........

  I heard the most beautiful singing of a bird nearby. WHERE was the melody coming from? There was a small brown bird sitting on a branch just singing and singing all ALONE. My eyes saw and my ears heard were the JOYFUL noise that it was producing. I then noticed all of these UGLY vines all over the tree. It was as if the vines were TRYING to squeeze the every ounce of life out of the tree. This little bird seemed to be so happy and singing. The tree on the other hand, looked lifeless and SAD. Then I looked down.....

About 2 feet from the base of the tree were large dark roots that had come OUT of the ground rose up and then changed direction to go back to the tree. They were now wrapped around the base, and now trying to vine it's way back to the top. It looked like a nest of ROLLING SNAKES fighting each other to finish off the LIFE of the tree. The bird could have chosen another tree, but it chose this sad, lifeless tree..to serenade with it's beautiful song...

    He put a new song in my mouth, a hymn of praise to our God. Many will see and fear and put their trust in the Lord.   PSALM 39:4  (NIV)

The Blue Bird of happiness can be heard singing a new song in my life these days. God revealed the destructive roots of unforgiveness that were planted in my life. He then handed me the tool to destroy them.. (Knowlege and understanding) He then showed me how to let go of the bitterness and then GO ON.

The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.  MATTHEW 3:4 (NIV)

Send in your stories to sl@michaelallenmarketing.com