Monday's Musing...Who am I?

This past year has been one that has caused me a lot of frustration and hurt,

emotionally.

It's also been a year where I've grown by leaps and bounds,

spiritually. 

I felt the bitter sting of  judgements and assumptions of others...

I participated (Please know I'm not proud at all for these actions) in judging and assuming things about others... 

I felt betrayed...

I cried... 

I hurt...

I felt the evil dart of gossip, catapult from my lips, and into another's heart...

I felt that dart come right back and pierce my own...

It was awful.  Not a pain I'm willing to inflict on anyone,

ever. again.

I was reading this wonderful blog RESOLVED2WORSHIP  and her words whispered comfort to my heart, as they so often do... 

The professor's story... had me in tears...  The story about the tree (below)...filled me with hope...

I don't know how I had lost sight... I know we are all daughters and sons of God.... What we do to others we might as well do to him... 

And there's no way I'm throwing darts at my savior anymore...

"…There was a man who had four sons. He wanted them to learn to not judge things too quickly, so he sent them each on a quest to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away.

He sent his first son in the winter, his second in the spring, his third in summer and his youngest in the fall. When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen.

The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted.

The second son said no – it was covered with green buds and full of promise.

The third son disagreed, he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen.

The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe and drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfillment.

After hearing all his son’s responses, the wise father replied, “Sons, you are all right — because you have each seen only one season in the tree’s life. But you cannot judge a tree, or a person, or anything else by only one season. Most things can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons have come to pass”."

Thoughtfully, Jenn