Skip to main content

Root Hairs and Dandelions

Children are delighted by dandelions.  They love to pick the yellow flowers and take them to loved ones as tokens of their affections.  I’ve had small bouquets of those little flowers in my house on numerous occasions thanks to my children and grandchildren.  I loved receiving that spontaneous gesture of love, and proudly displayed them in little vases.  Bonus: Picking the blooms will prevent them from going to seed.

Many a child has enjoyed those stems of fluffy  “wishes” that we know are future dandelions.

Root hairs are what I call those tiny roots that run off the main root of a dandelion.  You can pull the dandelion and its big long root, but there are oodles of little root hairs still in the ground.  Underground, those root hairs get busy.  Soon, new dandelions are sprouting up in your yard again.

George and I had words on Saturday evening.  Well, it was more me than George.  Yes, the topic was silly, but the real issue was my old insecurities.  Again!  George’s action projected disapproval, and I felt hurt.  Sadly, I allowed that hurt to express itself through anger and angry words.

Like dandelion seeds, those words cannot be retrieved.  So, the root hairs of my insecurities bloomed, flowered and were blown around our home in an instant.  I cannot tell you how quickly it all happened.  Remorse instantly followed.  Of course, saying “I’m sorry” is not enough.  It doesn’t erase the hits to the heart that angry words cause or the bruising that follows. 

I wasn’t alert to what was growing in my heart.  It was silent and happened without warning.  I didn’t even recognize it until it had fully bloomed.  Even then, I didn’t recognize the root of the problem until I’d spent a lot of time before the LORD.

I’m glad to say that George’s forgiveness was complete and we enjoyed making up later.  But, I do wish I had never allowed myself to be less than vigilant. 

Then, so far as your former way of life is concerned, you must strip off your old nature, because your old nature is thoroughly rotted by its deceptive desires; and you must let your spirits and minds keep being renewed, and clothe yourselves with the new nature created to be godly, which expresses itself in the righteousness and holiness that flow from the truth.  Ephesians 4:22-24 (CJB) 

Father, thank You for Your forgiveness and for healing the hurts my words inflicted.  Please expose and remove all the root hairs of my old nature.  Replace them with Your goodness, righteousness, and shalom.  Amen.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

2 Peter 1:2 - May grace and peace be multiplied to you through the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord.

I've been away, but I've not been idle. I've been healing and learning. Healing from all the grief our family has experienced in these last few years, and learning from the LORD during the healing process. No! I didn't quit life, but I did spend most of my time in our Heavenly Father's lap surrounded by His love and comfort. The problem was, I was a hot mess whenever I crawled out and tried to get back to living life as usual. Believe me when I tell you I've cried a lot of tears, but God was there to capture each one and continued to love and comfort me. He was also there to pick up the pieces when I unexplectedly boiled over like oatmeal. Believe me, it was just as messy and just as hard to clean up.  Please don't misunderstand, it wasn't because the people in my life weren't there for me, but many of them were grieving too. Each death brought more grief, bringing me to a place where I finally realized I needed someone to help me see my way forward....
2 comments
Read more

1 Corinthians 12:27 - Now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it.

Okay, call me crazy, but this is where my mind is today.  Everyone of us who has confessed with our mouth, "Jesus is Lord," and believe in our hearts God raised Jesus from the dead, are saved (Romans 10:9). All believers are IN Christ. We are IN Him, He is IN us, and He is IN the Father. You can check it out for yourself in John 14:20. Every believer is IN Christ. Thinking about being IN Christ and a part of His body got me thinking about how a body is filled with cells. Well, you know me, I had to do a Bing search and find out what I could about the anatomy of a human cell and its function. This is what I found: "The human cell is the basic unit of life that can replicate itself." There are trillions of cells in one human body and they don't all have the same purpose or function within the body. But no matter what the purpose or function, every cell must replicate. No exceptions! Okay, translate that into us being cells in the body of Christ. We are not all th...
Post a Comment
Read more

James 4:2b - You do not have because you do not ask.

  Prayer is having a conversation with our Heavenly Father. Talking to Him is giving Him our time and attention. It's acknowledging Him as our Father, our Creator, our Provider, our Protector, and the Lover of our souls. One way Father speaks to us is through His written word, the Bible, and He doesn't beat around the bush when it comes to the subject of asking. Nope! He clearly tells us to ask, and when we ask we will receive (Matthew 7:7). And then in today's verse, He tells us we don't have because we don't ask.  So why don't we ask?  I spent all week pondering that question. Short answer? Lack of confidence. Yep! I'm pretty sure that's why I don't ask as often as I should. And I especially have trouble asking for myself. Anyone else? My lack of confidence breaks down into three categories.  A lack of confidence in His desire to give me what I want. Which is totally silly! I know He delights in giving good things to His children, and He would neve...
Post a Comment
Read more