Shooting at others and wounding yourself

Who can forget the amazing story of the Cheerleader Mum who hired a hit man to murder her daughter's competitor's Mother?

Wanda Holloway's claim to fame blew the newspaper stands off their feet with this amazing story of envy, jealousy and malevolence.

In 1991 according to Wikipedia "Holloways daughter, Shanna was beaten out for a spot on the Johnson High School's Cheerleading squad by Amber Heath, age fourteen."

That was the start of a chain of events that culminated in Wanda hiring the hit man to murder Amber's mother and subsequently being sentenced to ten years jail.

She believed that Amber would be so devastated by her Mothers death she would drop out of the team thus awarding the top spot to her own daughter Shanna. And why? All because of envy.

So what causes envy?

Envy is an emotion and like most other emotions can be traced back to some other underlying problems like desiring to be better than others or having an unhealthy ambition to better yourself or your family at the expense of anyone or anything else.

Sometimes looking at other peoples success can make us bitter and angry. We look at the gifts they possess and compare them with what we have and what is happening in our lives - The talents of their children for example compared with our own can make us resent every little success they have.

Envy can destroy long time  friendships and even families - I personally know of a deep friendship that was torn apart simply because one family's child succeeded and achieved in an audition and the other missed out - amazing but true. One family couldn't come to terms with the other's success and the hurt was just too much to bear, envy had taken it's devastating toll.

Envy gets us focusing on what we can't have rather on the amazing reality of what we do have.

This unique life has been freely provided to us by God, yet envy of others or things can put our focus on everything and anything that we believe we have every right to. Actually when we analyse it - we don't have rights to anything at all - we have responsibility to pursue goals BUT they are not rights.

On saying that I do appreciate how hard it must be to yearn for something so badly and see others attaining what you want with all your heart and yet you are unable to achieve what they have. It takes courage and peace of heart to be genuinely happy for that person and to be content.

Its so so difficult for an envious person to share the joys of others especially when they see them getting or achieving what they so desperately want.

So how do we overcome envy? To be perfectly honest, envy is often an unwelcome side of my personality and a side of me that I know is wrong and one in which God does not want me to have in my life. I would like to share just some of the ways God has helped me to overcome this nasty sneaky little sin.

Firstly read Galatians 5: 16-26 and you will find that envy along with a host of others is a product of our human sinful nature - This nature has to be controlled by God's nature - The Holy Spirit.

Giving our lives fully to Christ is the very starting point in overcoming our sinful nature - believe me you can never do it on your own - There is no "I did it my way" in overcoming sin - no matter what that sin is.

Recognise envy for what it is - name it - "I'm envious" - say it aloud if you have to. Naming it blows its cover - you have recognised how you are feeling now grab hold of God's promise.

Once we have recognised it for what it is - ask God to eradicate these thoughts from your life and especially in the situation you are facing right now. Ask His forgiveness and once you have accepted that you can start anew with Jesus.

In Galatians 5:16 it says "Let the Spirit direct your lives, and you will not satisfy the desires of the human nature". Simply put, once the Holy Spirit is directing our lives we can execute all desires of sin by being influenced by God's Spirit not ours.

Carting envy around with us makes us bitter and will definitely drive a huge wedge between God and us. God and His promises are vital for us to grow spiritually and become mature in Him. Mature enough to banish envy from our lives for good.

Also accept the fact that God made you unique; thank Him for that fact; He created us for praise - so praise Him especially in times when envy creeps up on you unexpectantly (and believe me Satan will make sure it does).

Remember selfishness is the mother of envy. If we can get our minds off what we want and start thanking God for what we have and stop comparing ourselves to others - miracles will occur.

God so wants us to have contented and fulfilling lives in Him and the only way we can do that is to have God-focused lives - with new goals and  new standards.

With the Holy Spirit indwelling us we can move from the ordinary into the extraordinary - putting aside anything, including ourselves, and moving to a much higher life with God.

...But I'm still asking why?

Why? - Good question.

Why does a lot of things happen when they are not supposed to - it's a question that often doesn't get answered I'm afraid.

When we look at the world stage and what is happening it makes our hearts just about burst with anxiousness and hurt for others - the terror and horror that is unfolding before us can make our heads spin.

Man's inhumanity to man seemingly has no bounds and then there is sickness as well.

Illness and even death in our families can leave us asking the inevitable question of WHY?

Just recently our No 2 Grandblessing was extremely ill - rushed off to hospital in the early hours, she needed immediate but comparatively minor surgery to alleviate the acute pain.

The pain scale was off the chart and she being the brave little soldier that she is sucked it in  and got on with the job of coping as best she could - until the pain got so unbearable she could take no more.

Being Grandparents in this situation, I can reassure you, is probably the hardest thing I have even had to do or witness. We immediately went to prayer, the hours wore on - We prayed through the night as the hours dragged.

The hospital staff, being at the start of the weekend, could do little - the minor surgery needed to alleviate the immediate pain could not be undertaken as it was the weekend - told to come back on Monday - she was given a small amount of pain relief and sent home in agony.

The next two days saw the pain level reach to crisis point as she struggled to cope. Copious amounts of phone calls attempting to reach doctors, specialists or anyone that would even listen went unheeded. There was nothing Anyone could do until the weekend was over - we were divested watching our little one go through this agonising time.

Through that weekend and watching her suffer so much - my question of WHY?? seemed also to go unanswered.Why didn't our Lord do anything to help us?

The two words that kept coming back to me was PATIENCE and TRUST.

BUT.... I didn't want patience I wanted ACTION and with a capital "A".

All over the Bible there is story after story of God's people suffering trials and tribulations - some of them got angry at God - others despaired - others whinged and gave up.

What we have to remember here is this - that all of us get to decide just how we are going to react when adversity, trials and tribulation come our way - we can easily become impatient and throw in the towel or we can depend on God that He will indeed answer but in His time.

Sometimes it feels like our hopes and  dreams are never going to be fulfilled. We had to wait over what seemed a very long weekend - some folk have to wait years and years and still their dreams seemingly never come to fruition.

Sometimes it's hard to understand why God doesn't allow things to happen straight away. My impatient attitude always seems to get in  the way and I find myself often despondent especially when I see my loved ones suffering.

What we need to do is to realise that whatever the issue we are facing we first need to bring it to Him in prayer.

We then need to trust Him. God has plans for your life. He knows everything about you.

We have to learn to be patient and wait on the Lord: His timing is perfect and he WILL answer us BUT in His time.

His answer to us may seem a long time in coming but every gift from God is worth waiting for.

Be encouraged: Wait patiently (not impatiently like me) trust in God and He will work things out.

God is so perfect and so is his timing - trust in Him to do what is right and good in your life.

I am reminded of a song by Melissa Greene called 'Jody's Song' - well worth the listen. Took me by surprise but pretty much spelt out how I was feeling.

BIG blessings to you all and may God's timing be perfect in your life as in mine.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DCFUD_PWjHc

Thistles and weeds.

How are you at weeding? I'm hopeless - after five minutes I have given up completely!

Weeds are a pain - just when you think you have the garden looking reasonable, along they come with their baggage and just move right on in and before you know it they have taken over completely.

My sweet Mum-In-Law was the very best gardener I have ever seen - her garden was the epitome of neatness - the flowers were breathtaking and it was a delight to just walk around and take it all in. Did it come easy? NO way - she worked hard to achieve success and it showed - the result? Just beautiful!

With gardening you have to work at it - constantly removing weeds, pruning, mulching and watering - it never stops a constant cycle of work - but certainly worth it.

I sometimes look at our garden and just sigh... Yes sometimes it looks fantastic and so beautiful and I can thanks my long-suffering and patient wife for her diligence and eye for detail - it's hard enough for me just to mow the lawn!

Weeds need to be controlled and got rid of as soon as they appear - if you let them go you only court disaster.

This lesson can be brought into your life. Jesus told a story in the Bible about the sower who sowed his seeds and the types of soil in which the seeds landed.

One lot of seeds fell on pretty good ground actually - and they sprang to life nourished by the good soil and the cooling rains.

Unfortunately though the good soil and the cooling rains also helped to germinate the weeds and thorns and before long the good seed was consumed entirely by them - nothing left!

How can we take this on board and how can this age-old story help us in today's world of the 21st century? Actually it has never been more relevant than it is today.

Just like the seeds sown in the ground - so is our life. Whatever we focus our attention on will grow. If we focus on Christ and His amazing mercy and grace - His forgiveness and love for others that is what will take root in our hearts and grow.

On the other hand if we focus our attention of the things of the world - just like the weeds, they will grow and soon take over our lives and in abundance!.

Proverbs 23:7 says "our hearts bring forth fruit of itself" in other words that which we let take over our lives is exactly what will happen. So.... we have to be very careful and pay close attention to the 'seeds' we let establish in our lives.

Don't know about you but our days seem to be choc-a-bloc with 'things'. We don't, it seems just 'drift' from one thing to another we gallop and the utter busyness of the day can sometimes overwhelm us.

Our lives can be consumed by 'things' and it seems to me the more 'things' we have in our lives, the more we often want - we often crave for company and the 'good' life - hankering for more and the more we get the busier we find ourselves.

Time spent with God becomes less and less as we cultivate the 'weeds' in our lives and soon we are reaping what we have cultivated.

Our lives only reflect was has been cultivated and what has been given preference. Whatever we choose to fill our lives, that it exactly what will grow.

The 'weed' seeds in our lives can be planted whether intentionally or not and will soon take over if not rooted out.

Jesus said "The worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful" (Mark 4:19).

We can get so busy, even chasing after our kids, taking them here and there, in this sport or that, in this concert or that one. Music lessons, sporting clubs etc - our lives can be so full yet so empty!

In 2 Corinthians 10 Paul says "it is the very KNOWLEDGE of God that can demolish strongholds and makes every thought captive and obedient to Him"

We need to immerse ourselves in the words of Jesus - we need to accept Him into our lives fully. He needs to dominate our thoughts, our minds and our lives to avoid letting the 'weeds' take root and smother the beautiful gift of salvation that has been planted in us.

Sure we can still enjoy the life that God has given us, but let's not get to the stage where the sheer 'busyness' of life consumes us entirely. God HAS to have the pre-eminence over everything, our time, finances even our children and family.

To weed properly we must set aside our desires and busy way of life and put them in the right order, giving God first place in our lives.