By
Dana Rausch
/ October 15, 2015
A person reaps what they sow. If you plant an apple seed you get an apple tree. If you plant an avocado seed, you get an avocado tree. If you plant a lemon seed you get a lemon tree. So what do you get if you plant lies in a fertile mind?
You get a person who grows up who acts out in various behaviors to hide what they don’t want others to see or know. They learn strategies to cover up their feelings of inadequacy. They become people pleasers, perfectionists, or performance junkies. They crave the approval from others to feel a sense of worth. I know, because I was that person.
Like a tree, my root system went deep. My trunk sprouted tall. Branches developed outward filling with blossoms signifying forthcoming fruit. Yet, the fruit was unpleasant, inferior and inadequate. You see, the mature tree yielded forth a harvest of anger, bitterness, resentment, judgement, and insecurity. I couldn’t understand why although I fertilized the ground around me with attending church, reading my Bible and praying that unpleasant fruit continued……year after year after year.
Not until a storm threatened to send me toppling over did a friend say I had a root problem. He further explained the fruit I’d been producing was directly linked to my poor root system. I needed to dig up and prune roots so I could flourish.
Accepting the inevitable, I began the process. But first of all I had to identify the roots which were lies I grew up believing:
· I had no worth.
· I wasn’t good enough.
· I wasn’t lovable.
· I was stupid.
· I was voiceless.
My behavior (fruit) was cultivated from a mindset rooted in lies. Therefore with Godly pruning shears I began the tedious job of pulling up and cutting away the roots of lies. Only to quickly learn how deep they had grown and intersected numerous other areas. Quite evident was the source of my years of unpleasant produce.
The soil was prepared for new seedlings. Clearing away the lies, I could now replace them with seeds of truth. A transformed mind began to take place.
· I have worth. Eph. 1:4 – For he chose me in him before the creation of the world.
· I am good enough. Eph. 1:7-9 – In Him we have redemption and forgiveness in accordance with the riches of God’s grace that he lavished on us…..
· I am loved. Jer. 31:3 – I have loved you with an everlasting love.
· I am smart. Heb. 8:10 – I will put My laws into their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people.
· I am heard. Ps. 4:3b –The Lord will hear when I call to him.
As Isaiah 58:11 confirms, “The Lord will guide me continually, and 
satisfy my needs in a sun scorched land and strengthen my frame. I will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose water never fail.
satisfy my needs in a sun scorched land and strengthen my frame. I will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose water never fail. Now springing forth is joy, peace, meekness, and a deep sense of repentance. I don’t ever want to go back there. I want to be an oak of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor. Isaiah 61:3b
Oh, how I want others to see Jesus planted in me.
