June 25, 2024 • 39 mins
Join me as we explore the fascinating analogies between spiritual growth and plant life. Discover how our journey with Christ can be compared to the nurturing and growth of plants, using rich biblical references and personal stories. We discuss the importance of being watered by the Word, living in His light, and being planted in rich soil.
Learn how to teach your children these spiritual truths through simple, relatable plant analogies. Whether you're a city dweller or live in the countryside, this episode offers practical insights to help you and your family grow closer to God. Plus, find out how to get your hands on my new book and related products at thetreehousestoryteller.com. Don't miss out on this nourishing episode!
Bible References:
- Galatians 6:9 ‘…and let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap if we do not lose heart.’
- Psalm 1:2-3 (NIV) 2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. 3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither— whatever they do prospers.
- John 15 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes[a] so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, as I also remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. 5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
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Music.
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Hey, you're listening to The Treehouse Storyteller. Meet me in The Treehouse
for God-shaped storytelling.
Treehouse Storyteller is where we can come together as messy parents seeking
Jesus together and raising kids to love Him too.
If you aren't scared of addressing cultural issues head-on and finding a deeper
understanding of the biblical worldview to share with your children,
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then you've come to the right place.
I'm not afraid to be transparent and tell all of
the juicy details sails our children are being chased by
the world and it is our job to be well equipped and know not only how to lead
our flock but successfully send our arrows out into the world one day to build
the kingdom so snuggle up by the fire or soak up the sunshine with those earbuds
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in and meet me in the treehouse for some biblical storytelling storytelling.
Music.
Hey guys, welcome back to the tree house.
So much has happened since uploading my last podcast episode.
We are already at episode 33.
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How in the world did we get to 33?
Oh my word. Okay, so the other big thing that happened is this little thing called Misunderstood.
I just launched my second children's book.
If you follow me on Instagram, you're probably getting blasted with posts and images of my new book.
(01:38):
It is called Misunderstood, A Girl with a Promise the World Forgot.
And I have been so excited to share this with all of you and to share it with the world.
It is really a reclaiming of God's rainbow, the story behind why he created
the rainbow in the first place, and all of the promises that it holds that are straight from God.
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It is definitely a book to have in your arsenal. It's endorsed by people like Heidi St.
John, Lucas Miles, Walt Heyer, who we just had on the podcast.
Heidi was, I don't have her episode in front of me, but back early episodes in season two.
So I am just thrilled. We also have an endorsement from Rebecca Bershwinger,
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dear friend of mine, and several others.
So really cool to share that with you guys.
And I am just excited that it is finally out there.
Here's the thing. It is not on Amazon yet. It will be in the future,
and I will give you a heads up when that actually happens.
(02:45):
But right now...
It is only found through me at thetreehousestoryteller.com.
So be sure after you're done listening to this episode that you head over to
the treehouse, click the link below in the show notes if you don't know where
that's at, and we will get you a copy.
We have a hardback, a paperback.
(03:07):
Guys, there's t-shirts, there's stickers, there's a whole line of misunderstood
products that I'm so excited to share with you. and just enjoy that.
Let me know what you think. I'd
love to have a review and just hear your feedback and hear your stories.
Since I have pushed out this book and kind of launched it, I have had the pleasure
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of hearing the most amazing stories of why this book is so necessary in today's culture,
whether it's a family member struggling with gender identity or or the pride community,
and the way that it's influenced maybe your children, or a school, or a classroom.
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And I've just heard stories about people's neighbors, and people's friends,
and just the need to bring them to Christ, and the need to show them the true story of God's rainbow.
And so if that is you today, pick up a copy.
The paperbacks are $15.99. The hardbacks are $26.99, and we'll get that shipped to you right away.
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Grab a t-shirt, grab some stickers.
So fun. So anyways, let's dive into today's episode. Our topic is about plants.
Now, if you guys have been around for a while, you know that I'm kind of a sucker. Ha!
No pun intended there, but I really am. I am a sucker for anything that is a
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garden analogy, a plant analogy.
I talk about it way more than I actually can put to use, but you know the old
saying, those who can do, those who can't teach. Yay.
So I feel like I am a terrible gardener at times.
I came from parents and grandparents that had beautiful gardens,
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wonderful, lush, beautiful flowers.
My grandma had beautiful roses all along her back fence line.
And then she also was incredible with tomatoes.
She has transferred that down to my dad.
I have taken on tomatoes. I feel like they're kind of easy in the climate that
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we live in, but I know they've got their problems in other areas with pests
and the worms and all sorts of things that can attack tomato plants.
But today, we're not going to sit here and talk about my failures in the garden,
but instead we are going to talk about...
What it looks like to be like a plant.
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So stay with me. It's going to get fun. All right.
So what does it look like to be a healthy plant?
So we're going to just kind of talk about the analogies. And this is just a
fun thing that the Lord walked me on a journey one morning. It was maybe a month ago.
And he's like, just showing me all of these analogies and all of these comparisons
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between human life and plant life.
And I'm not talking about human life as we live and breathe,
but instead from a spiritual perspective,
how our spiritual walk, how our spiritual growth aligns with plant life and
what makes a plant grow and what makes a plant thrive.
So we're going to kind of like break that down.
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And I think using plants, we see it in the Bible over and over and over again. Jesus uses plants.
The Old Testament uses plants.
I mean, it was the agriculture in front of the culture at the time.
And so it made so much sense to compare people to trees or plants or a field or a crop or a soil.
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And the Bible is so rich with all of these comparisons and all of these analogies
and parables and stories that we take from plants.
And I think it also translates super well...
For us parents to be able to show children a plant and show them basic science
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or biology of a plant species or the way that it grows and use that as a parable,
use that as a story that's very simple and that's very easy to understand and to visualize.
And I think God gave just such a simple, I mean, we are made from dirt.
We are made from the dust.
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And so what better way to explain how we are, who we are, who we are to become,
how we grow, than to use our very foundational level and starting from the dirt up.
Okay, so when we look at what does it look like to persevere?
Because I think plants are a true representation of perseverance.
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Plants either thrive or they fail.
And so I was kind of thinking about the comparison of those two concepts.
And so we're either going to just completely waste away, wilt and die, or be destroyed,
or we're going to thrive and nourish and flourish and have fruit and abundance
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and all of the blessing of the growth, right?
So Galatians 6, 9 tells us, and let us not grow weary of doing good for in due
season, we will reap if we do not lose heart.
Oh my word, that's so much plant language wrapped up into one little tiny verse.
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So let's break it down so let us not
grow weary so that's acknowledging
that this life is going to
have times where we're tired but God's instructing us let's not grow weary of
doing good for in due season so there will come a time we will reap if we do not lose heart heart.
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Guys, I think in parenting, I think in mothering, I think just in this life
in general, it's so easy, especially the season that we're in.
We're in an election year. Everybody hold on.
We will grow weary if we don't follow this.
So let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season, we will reap if we do not lose heart.
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Guys, let's not lose heart. Let's join Join this community together and wrap
our arms around each other, either physically or just here,
you know, just representing this group, this body that we are listening.
I mean, some of us are on the other side of the world. Let's not lose heart
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of the season of life we're in. So what does this look like?
So let's look first at what it looks like to not grow weary as a believer.
So if you're not going to grow weary, maybe you are pushing into obedience and pursuing Christ.
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I know that's something that I've really pushed into more.
Maybe that is spending more time in the Word or just spending time in the Word,
period. Maybe you're in a season where you haven't been in the Word.
Let's get in the Word so that we don't grow weary. I think that's like number one.
Maybe we need to be praying without ceasing because we are called to always
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be praying without ceasing.
Maybe we need to really take that to heart and take that serious.
Let's let other people pray over us. Maybe that's me. Maybe that's a close friend.
Let's let other people pray over you.
Let's let other people speak life into you. But I say this one carefully because
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there are a lot of people with a lot of opinions that don't deserve that role in your life.
And so be very choosy and very mindful and very prayerful of who you let speak life into.
Make sure the life there or what they're speaking into you, the words that they
have have over your life are God-edifying, that are God-glorifying,
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that align with scripture.
If they don't, then that's not the person you want speaking life into you.
Let's be clear with that one.
All right, here's our first comparison. So why do plants grow weary?
Or maybe just say, why do plants stop growing?
Well, let's think of it. So they, plants, stop growing if they're not given appropriate light.
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Maybe they're not living in the light. Maybe they're shaded too much.
Maybe there's a covering over them that's not allowing them to see the true
light or to receive the light.
Maybe they're dried up because they're not watered properly.
Maybe they're in bad soil. soil maybe they've
experienced some harsh climates or
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they've been damaged maybe they've been
stepped on or trampled maybe they've
been exposed to pests maybe pests have
come in and started to eat on their leaves and cause destruction and damage
and a disease to start maybe they've been flooded out maybe their soil isn't
well drained enough and they've been just flooded and washed too heavily with
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the wrong amount of water.
Maybe their roots have rotted.
Maybe their root system has been eaten from the underneath and damaged or devoured by pests.
So let's look at the flip side of this. Why do plants thrive?
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Let's look at what makes them thrive. So we've looked at all the ways that they
maybe are failing to thrive, but let's look at why they thrive.
And the Bible tells us in Psalms 1, 2 to 3, but whose delight is in the law
of the Lord and who meditates on his law day and night.
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That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither,
whatever they do prospers.
So here's one of the perfect examples of where the Lord uses plants to teach
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his children how to prosper in him.
So picking this verse apart, we see that if we are in his law, if we are in his word.
If we meditate on his word and his goodness and who he is day and night,
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We will be watered by his word, which therefore will create fruit because we've
been watered properly, because we are day and night in his goodness,
in his word. We are meditating on him.
We are by his streams of water.
We are then, it's going to be an equation. We will then produce his fruit in season.
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Our leaves will not wither and we will prosper.
I see this as a promise.
I really do see this as a promise that God has made.
If we do these things, and we can't earn this prosperity, but we can surrender
ourselves to him in order to receive the prosperity that he promises.
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We will receive his fruit. This doesn't mean everything will turn out perfectly the way we want it.
This does not promise perfection in our minds, but this promises his fruit, his prosperity.
So let's clarify that.
All right. So why do plants fully thrive?
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Let's expand on that. So they will thrive if they're watered properly.
They will thrive if they're living in the right amount of light or the right form of light.
They'll thrive if they're given soil with nutrients
the right nutrients the right
kind of soil for their plant they'll thrive if they are protected from harsh
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climates and from from damaging or if they've experienced healing from damage
this is where kind of the pruning process is necessary for certain types of plants and trees.
They are thriving if they're being kept free of pests.
They're thriving if their soil is draining properly and they're not being flooded
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or washed out or washed away.
And plants thrive if they... Okay, so have you ever seen like a succulent that's
put in kind of a shade area that really needs full sun all the time?
What happens to it? Or maybe it's just a seedling that you planted.
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So there's this process where you'll see a seedling actually become what's referred to as leggy.
And it basically means it is trying so hard to find the sun,
but it's not getting it, that it just starts to grow upward instead of outward.
And it grows super, super tall, super fast, because it's really trying so hard to find the sun.
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So it's shooting up, using all of its energy to shoot upward.
It kind of reminds me of the Tower of Babel.
We're trying so hard to just reach the sun that we're going to just use all
of our energy and this upward motion to get to heaven.
Like, let's just all go this upward way and then we'll reach it.
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But really, that wasn't purposeful, was it?
So being leggy means that you're probably weak on your immune,
your root system, not your immune system. You're probably weak on that too.
So being leggy is you're weak on your root system often and just shooting straight up instead.
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And the plant doesn't thrive the way that it's intended to because it's using
all of its focus and all of its energy on the wrong goal where it really needs
to thicken itself self so it can withstand more watering and more wind and all of those things.
So the leggy plants actually don't do as well.
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So let's go back to one of my favorite verses, and that is in John.
I am the vine, and my father is the gardener.
He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that
does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
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You are already clean because of the word I've spoken to you.
Remain in me as I also remain in you.
No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine.
Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
I am the vine. You are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you,
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you will bear much fruit.
Apart from me, you can do nothing.
If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that's thrown away and withers.
Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.
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This is to my Father's glory that I bear much fruit, showing yourself to be my disciples.
Now, this is actually a song from childhood.
And I'm not going to sing it for you because that's not my gifting.
But it's a beautiful song. And my dad used to sing it to me.
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And it's just really such a beautiful reminder of this concept of abiding and
that when we are abiding to the source, which is really Jesus, he's the gardener.
When we're really abiding together, fruit is made. Fruit grows.
But the second that we are apart, it doesn't. Now, Now, fun, not so fun story.
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We went camping a couple of weeks back over, I think Memorial Day weekend.
And I just planted a lot in my garden and it was all starting to establish itself. It seemed fine.
The plants weren't teeny tiny and we were watering it up until our trip.
Well, we went on our trip. I didn't have anyone water it. I knew it was going
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to be kind of rainy that weekend off and on.
So I'm like, you know, I'm not going to worry about it. I think it will Well,
rain just fine and it will be fine for two days. It's totally fine.
I come home, everything is completely dead, like dead as a doornail, dead.
And it is such an unfortunate representation of what this verse is saying,
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because apart from me, you can do nothing.
These plants still needed the gardener, who was me, to be there. and I removed myself.
Now, this is the reverse understanding because I'm not saying God's removing
himself, but as the gardener in my story, I left. So the plant was removed from the gardener.
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So when we choose as people, as God's children, to remove ourselves from his
gardening, from his pruning, from his watering,
from his abiding, when we take ourselves away, we are literally.
Telling ourselves and anyone around us that basically we are a branch just sitting
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on the ground, ready to be thrown into the fire and burned.
And I know that's not what we want to do. I know that's not what I want.
I don't ever want to remove myself from the Father. So, golf story,
since I brought up my dad and talking about branches that are loose on the ground.
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So in golf, if you've played before and if you know the rules, you know that you can.
You're allowed when you are getting ready to hit your ball, if your ball is
sitting right next to a stick and you know, well, if I hit my ball,
I'm going to hit this stick trying to get my club to the ball,
you are allowed to remove what is referred to as a loose impediment.
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That means it's a loose object on the ground that's usually natural.
Maybe it's a piece of trash that's blown or something, but it's something that's
not attached anymore to the earth.
So it's like a stick or some leaves that have blown there or a clump of grass
or a pine cone or whatever it is.
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It's something that has loosely fallen onto the earth right next to your ball,
whether before or after the ball landed there, you're allowed to pick that loose
impediment off, kind of clean the area around your ball, and then you're allowed to hit the shot.
Well, what is not a loose impediment is something that's fully attached to a
tree next to you. So maybe your ball landed right next to a bush.
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You can't bend the branch that's still connected to the bush.
You have to hit the ball as it lies. In other words, you can't change the circumstance.
You have to just try your best to hit it while it's kind of tucked under this
branch or bush or tree or whatever it is.
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So when I think of these branches that are picked up and thrown into the fire I just think of this,
this branch that's a loose impediment and it's just in the way in the way of
really hitting the ball and getting good contact with the ball and so it's just
kind of that funny part of the the verse that I always picture me bending over
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to where my golf ball is and picking up the branch that's in the way. And it's just loose.
It's doing no purpose and it's nothing. It's pretty much trash.
And when we are choosing to not abide with the Father, when we are choosing a different course,
when we're abiding with things that are not godly, that are not of Him, that are not biblical,
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that are going against His word, anything in the culture that is not aligning
with Him, When we are choosing that, we are choosing to basically be a loose
impediment. We're just chucked on the ground.
The wind's blown us off the tree and we're good as trash or tossed in the fire.
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Guys, I don't want that for my kids. Do you want that for yours? I don't think so.
I want to teach our kids to be attached to the vine.
I want him to cut off every branch in me that is useless.
So I want every bit of my life that doesn't have anything to do with him to
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just fall away so that I can be more fruitful for him.
Now, if you go back to the very beginning of season two, I will tell you,
friends, how God gave me this picture this year of actually two years ago.
And he said, hey, if you want space in your life to do my work,
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you've got to clean up your act.
You've got to clean your life up.
And that didn't even mean like what I was spiritually doing,
because that was already really directed toward him.
And I was really trying to stay on course with, you know, spiritual,
my spiritual walk with the Lord felt sound, but it was like,
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if you want to do more work for the kingdom,
if you want more space in your life, if you want more time to be able to do
the things that I've set in front of you to do, you need to have less clutter in your life.
Like really clean up your priorities, less things that are not intentional.
And I actually, just the past couple weeks, I've been doing a lot of things
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that I've been doing that I've been doing that I've been.
Made a big decision. Some of the work-life balance kind of things that I was
doing, I actually was able to do that.
And God gave me a very clear understanding of one thing that I was doing from
a work perspective that needed to fall off my plate.
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And I was able to make that happen been recently.
And man, it kept me up at night because I didn't want to give that part of my life up.
I really didn't. But guys, now that that has been pruned off of me,
and man, ask me the story.
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I'll tell you it specifically, but I'm not going to share it on this podcast.
Cast, but it was one of those things where I physically and mentally did not know how to pull it off.
I don't know how to prune this. I don't know how to cut it off myself,
but God told me it's going to need cut.
And let me tell you, I did surrender it to him. I still told him,
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hey, I don't know how to do this, but he made it happen.
He really, truly made it happen. And there have been other significant times,
other relationships I've had, other things in the past that I knew needed to
go, and I didn't know how to prune them.
But you know what? It is not the plant's job to prune its own branches.
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Think about it. It's not the plant that prunes itself.
There are certain trees that kind of like the bottom part as it grows,
the bottom part kind of like withers off or breaks off. So I guess you could argue that.
But in the big scheme of things, most plants do not prune themselves.
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Most of the time it takes a gardener to do the pruning.
And I think what's beautiful in a couple of my stories that I have as a testimony
to this concept is that I always knew there was something dead on there that needed to go,
but I didn't know how to do it.
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And God has always made a way.
I think He knows that I'm so strong-willed and that I'm a perfectionist and
And I'm like, gosh, I just don't know the right way to do this.
And what if I cut it off the wrong way?
And what if that, you know, the burning the bridge concept? And what if I hurt
someone by doing that? What if I just, God, I don't know how.
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And he has always met me there. And he's always been like, it's okay,
hold still, let me get it for you.
It's like a child in a splinter. Like, hold still, I'll pull it out.
I'll pull out the splinter.
I'll help you. It's okay. Let me get it.
So He is the vine and we are the branches.
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If we remain in Him and He remains in us, we will bear much fruit and apart
from Him, we can do nothing.
And whatever we ask or wish, it will be done for us.
And here's the kicker. It's not because it's something that we want.
Verse 8 says, this is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit,
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showing yourselves to be my disciples.
This is a very clear picture of how we give in and surrender to the Lord and let Him disciple us.
We have to let some of these things fall off.
And so I don't know what's in in your kids' lives, maybe what is in your life,
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but there's always something.
I think if we are growing in an upward-outward progressive motion,
if we are growing in a way that is full of growth and prosperity, if we are trying to...
Bend toward the Father, there's going to be something in our life we can find
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that we can pray for Him to help us prune.
And we don't have to, I feel like in like the church language world,
like the Sunday school world, I feel like this is always preached like it's
this harsh thing, like, well, what do you need to give up?
What do you, you know, kind of this like idea of Lent or you need to sacrifice this thing.
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And I think it can look like that, but we know we have no condemnation in Christ.
And so I think oftentimes what this really looks like is handing those pruning
shears over to the gardener and saying, God, take away what you need to take away.
Prune what you need to prune. Steer me in a different direction.
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Guide my life by your word. And if we are truly seeking after him,
I think that those things that need to fall or be pruned or cut off or removed
from our life in order to thrive with him and seek that prosperity and that
fruit that we need to grow,
I think that will become a peaceful experience.
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I think it will become something that we just fall into place where we understand
like, okay, this is where God wanted me.
And there's that peace that surpasses all understanding when we surrender that
to him and we hand that over to him and we die to ourself and we say,
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God, draw me closer to you.
Grow me like one of your plants. Prune me so that I can thrive and you know
exactly where to cut and when to cut, and the right timing,
and how to water me again, and how to keep me from being all stressed out.
If you prune a tree when it's not a good time to prune it, let's say the tree is sick,
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and you start just going on a pruning spree, and you're like,
oh, we need to trim back all these branches and the tree's already maybe experiencing
some sort of pest disease or some sort of trauma,
then the tree might actually die because you're pruning it all at once and all
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the stress, all the things are happening all at once.
And so God knows the timing and the seasons that things need to happen.
And so I think that's another piece of it that we We give it over to Him because
He's the Master Gardener and
He knows our life and He knows our needs and He knows timing of things.
And it's in His perfect timing that we can trust Him to take care of us and
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to prepare for us the right nutrients and the right things that we need and
the right watering of His Word.
So how do we grow then? Guys, how do we grow?
We talked about this pruning topic, but how and why do we grow with the Lord?
Let's compare it back to what we first talked about with plants.
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We grow when we are watered by the Word.
We grow closer to Him when we are living in his light and being the light.
His word calls us the light.
And I think there's a lot of artificial light in the world we live in.
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There's a lot of shiny objects.
It's easy to be attracted to light, but it's also easy to be attracted to the
artificial light and not the true living light of Christ.
We grow when we are planting ourselves in rich soil with life-giving elements
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and nutrients around us.
We grow, friends, when we choose to guard our hearts and guard our minds.
We grow when we receive healing from trauma and forgive or maybe experience forgiveness.
We grow when we remove harmful people and harmful things from our lives or let
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God remove that from our lives for us.
I think environment and the people we surround ourselves with is so important.
He tells us over and over again to be yoked with him and not yoked with people
that are are not in line with how we believe. Now, can we be friends?
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Can we be neighbors? Can we love on people?
Yes. Do we need to be yoked with them? No.
We grow when we let false ideologies fall off and wash away to lower ground.
We have no room for those in our root system.
And sometimes we must fully change our environment in order to be closer proximity. to the light.
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Friends, I think it's such a beautiful thing that God gave us so many clear comparisons between.
Who we are in Christ and how we can grow and how we can prosper and how we can
grow fruit and be a blessing and glorify him in this world.
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And how much we can look at a simple plant, just a simple plant,
how the basic science, I'm not even talking about like real, real science.
I'm talking about basic science, like here's your leaf and your stem and your
roots and the soil you're in.
Just really, you can start from the very simple understanding of a plant and how it's grown.
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But if you really dig into the inner depths of the science, the deeper level
level of understanding of why a plant thrives or doesn't thrive.
And if you just meditate on that for just a period of time, like the Lord has
brought in front of me for this today, it's just incredible.
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So I want you to really think on this, and I want you to use this as an example in teaching your kids.
It wouldn't take much, but going outside, looking at a handful of plants,
whether you're in the city or in the countryside, grab a plant,
look at it. Maybe it's a plant you have inside your home.
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Really observe it. Observe why it's thriving or not.
Guys, I've got a lot of examples of plants in my home right now.
My husband keeps reminding me of all the ones that are not thriving.
And I just get busy. I get busy and I don't tend to them as I need to.
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Oh my goodness, I am a human gardener and our father, the true vine,
the true gardener. Oh my goodness.
Jesus is not too busy to tend to your withering leaves.
He is not too busy to help prune you. He is not too busy to water you or to
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move you to better soil. oil.
He loves you so much, and He will just hold you right in His big,
wonderful hands that are pierced for His glory and for your salvation.
And He will tend to you, and He will heal you, and He will bring you back to life.
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So if you feel like you are just withering or not persevering or you're weary,
don't lose heart because in due season we will reap.
Do not grow weary of doing good for in due season we will reap if we do not lose heart.
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Friends, grab a hold to the gardener today. Hold a little hand in your house
and teach them what the gardener is capable of.
He is wonderful and he loves you more than you can even imagine.
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This is a perfect episode to let you know about my latest project in children's
book release called Misunderstood, A Girl with a Promise the World Forgot.
It is a compelling story of the rainbow personified as a feminine character misunderstood.
A refreshing retale of the true history of the rainbow and how its colors came to be.
(38:48):
It is a reclaiming of God's promise to all creation and his children,
reflecting back to Genesis and the flood.
Without rain, we don't have rainbows and without the rainbow,
we wouldn't have this special promise. this.
Turn every colorful page to see how misunderstood gives the reader a much needed
reminder of who she really is.
(39:10):
She is a girl with a promise the world forgot. You can pre-order now on the
treehouse storyteller.com in paperback and hardcover for the little ones in your life.
So go order and be prepared to pray over the seeds of truth you are planting
with misunderstood. understood.
Head on over to thetreehousestoryteller.com for more products,
(39:31):
artwork, photography, and encouragement. See you next time.
Music.
(00:04):
Hey, you're listening to The Treehouse Storyteller. Meet me in The Treehouse
for God-shaped storytelling.
Treehouse Storyteller is where we can come together as messy parents seeking
Jesus together and raising kids to love Him too.
If you aren't scared of addressing cultural issues head-on and finding a deeper
understanding of the biblical worldview to share with your children,
(00:28):
then you've come to the right place.
I'm not afraid to be transparent and tell all of
the juicy details sails our children are being chased by
the world and it is our job to be well equipped and know not only how to lead
our flock but successfully send our arrows out into the world one day to build
the kingdom so snuggle up by the fire or soak up the sunshine with those earbuds
(00:50):
in and meet me in the treehouse for some biblical storytelling storytelling.
Music.
Hey guys, welcome back to the tree house.
So much has happened since uploading my last podcast episode.
We are already at episode 33.
(01:12):
How in the world did we get to 33?
Oh my word. Okay, so the other big thing that happened is this little thing called Misunderstood.
I just launched my second children's book.
If you follow me on Instagram, you're probably getting blasted with posts and images of my new book.
(01:38):
It is called Misunderstood, A Girl with a Promise the World Forgot.
And I have been so excited to share this with all of you and to share it with the world.
It is really a reclaiming of God's rainbow, the story behind why he created
the rainbow in the first place, and all of the promises that it holds that are straight from God.
(02:00):
It is definitely a book to have in your arsenal. It's endorsed by people like Heidi St.
John, Lucas Miles, Walt Heyer, who we just had on the podcast.
Heidi was, I don't have her episode in front of me, but back early episodes in season two.
So I am just thrilled. We also have an endorsement from Rebecca Bershwinger,
(02:24):
dear friend of mine, and several others.
So really cool to share that with you guys.
And I am just excited that it is finally out there.
Here's the thing. It is not on Amazon yet. It will be in the future,
and I will give you a heads up when that actually happens.
(02:45):
But right now...
It is only found through me at thetreehousestoryteller.com.
So be sure after you're done listening to this episode that you head over to
the treehouse, click the link below in the show notes if you don't know where
that's at, and we will get you a copy.
We have a hardback, a paperback.
(03:07):
Guys, there's t-shirts, there's stickers, there's a whole line of misunderstood
products that I'm so excited to share with you. and just enjoy that.
Let me know what you think. I'd
love to have a review and just hear your feedback and hear your stories.
Since I have pushed out this book and kind of launched it, I have had the pleasure
(03:31):
of hearing the most amazing stories of why this book is so necessary in today's culture,
whether it's a family member struggling with gender identity or or the pride community,
and the way that it's influenced maybe your children, or a school, or a classroom.
(03:52):
And I've just heard stories about people's neighbors, and people's friends,
and just the need to bring them to Christ, and the need to show them the true story of God's rainbow.
And so if that is you today, pick up a copy.
The paperbacks are $15.99. The hardbacks are $26.99, and we'll get that shipped to you right away.
(04:17):
Grab a t-shirt, grab some stickers.
So fun. So anyways, let's dive into today's episode. Our topic is about plants.
Now, if you guys have been around for a while, you know that I'm kind of a sucker. Ha!
No pun intended there, but I really am. I am a sucker for anything that is a
(04:38):
garden analogy, a plant analogy.
I talk about it way more than I actually can put to use, but you know the old
saying, those who can do, those who can't teach. Yay.
So I feel like I am a terrible gardener at times.
I came from parents and grandparents that had beautiful gardens,
(04:58):
wonderful, lush, beautiful flowers.
My grandma had beautiful roses all along her back fence line.
And then she also was incredible with tomatoes.
She has transferred that down to my dad.
I have taken on tomatoes. I feel like they're kind of easy in the climate that
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we live in, but I know they've got their problems in other areas with pests
and the worms and all sorts of things that can attack tomato plants.
But today, we're not going to sit here and talk about my failures in the garden,
but instead we are going to talk about...
What it looks like to be like a plant.
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So stay with me. It's going to get fun. All right.
So what does it look like to be a healthy plant?
So we're going to just kind of talk about the analogies. And this is just a
fun thing that the Lord walked me on a journey one morning. It was maybe a month ago.
And he's like, just showing me all of these analogies and all of these comparisons
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between human life and plant life.
And I'm not talking about human life as we live and breathe,
but instead from a spiritual perspective,
how our spiritual walk, how our spiritual growth aligns with plant life and
what makes a plant grow and what makes a plant thrive.
So we're going to kind of like break that down.
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And I think using plants, we see it in the Bible over and over and over again. Jesus uses plants.
The Old Testament uses plants.
I mean, it was the agriculture in front of the culture at the time.
And so it made so much sense to compare people to trees or plants or a field or a crop or a soil.
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And the Bible is so rich with all of these comparisons and all of these analogies
and parables and stories that we take from plants.
And I think it also translates super well...
For us parents to be able to show children a plant and show them basic science
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or biology of a plant species or the way that it grows and use that as a parable,
use that as a story that's very simple and that's very easy to understand and to visualize.
And I think God gave just such a simple, I mean, we are made from dirt.
We are made from the dust.
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And so what better way to explain how we are, who we are, who we are to become,
how we grow, than to use our very foundational level and starting from the dirt up.
Okay, so when we look at what does it look like to persevere?
Because I think plants are a true representation of perseverance.
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Plants either thrive or they fail.
And so I was kind of thinking about the comparison of those two concepts.
And so we're either going to just completely waste away, wilt and die, or be destroyed,
or we're going to thrive and nourish and flourish and have fruit and abundance
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and all of the blessing of the growth, right?
So Galatians 6, 9 tells us, and let us not grow weary of doing good for in due
season, we will reap if we do not lose heart.
Oh my word, that's so much plant language wrapped up into one little tiny verse.
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So let's break it down so let us not
grow weary so that's acknowledging
that this life is going to
have times where we're tired but God's instructing us let's not grow weary of
doing good for in due season so there will come a time we will reap if we do not lose heart heart.
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Guys, I think in parenting, I think in mothering, I think just in this life
in general, it's so easy, especially the season that we're in.
We're in an election year. Everybody hold on.
We will grow weary if we don't follow this.
So let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season, we will reap if we do not lose heart.
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Guys, let's not lose heart. Let's join Join this community together and wrap
our arms around each other, either physically or just here,
you know, just representing this group, this body that we are listening.
I mean, some of us are on the other side of the world. Let's not lose heart
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of the season of life we're in. So what does this look like?
So let's look first at what it looks like to not grow weary as a believer.
So if you're not going to grow weary, maybe you are pushing into obedience and pursuing Christ.
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I know that's something that I've really pushed into more.
Maybe that is spending more time in the Word or just spending time in the Word,
period. Maybe you're in a season where you haven't been in the Word.
Let's get in the Word so that we don't grow weary. I think that's like number one.
Maybe we need to be praying without ceasing because we are called to always
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be praying without ceasing.
Maybe we need to really take that to heart and take that serious.
Let's let other people pray over us. Maybe that's me. Maybe that's a close friend.
Let's let other people pray over you.
Let's let other people speak life into you. But I say this one carefully because
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there are a lot of people with a lot of opinions that don't deserve that role in your life.
And so be very choosy and very mindful and very prayerful of who you let speak life into.
Make sure the life there or what they're speaking into you, the words that they
have have over your life are God-edifying, that are God-glorifying,
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that align with scripture.
If they don't, then that's not the person you want speaking life into you.
Let's be clear with that one.
All right, here's our first comparison. So why do plants grow weary?
Or maybe just say, why do plants stop growing?
Well, let's think of it. So they, plants, stop growing if they're not given appropriate light.
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Maybe they're not living in the light. Maybe they're shaded too much.
Maybe there's a covering over them that's not allowing them to see the true
light or to receive the light.
Maybe they're dried up because they're not watered properly.
Maybe they're in bad soil. soil maybe they've
experienced some harsh climates or
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they've been damaged maybe they've been
stepped on or trampled maybe they've
been exposed to pests maybe pests have
come in and started to eat on their leaves and cause destruction and damage
and a disease to start maybe they've been flooded out maybe their soil isn't
well drained enough and they've been just flooded and washed too heavily with
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the wrong amount of water.
Maybe their roots have rotted.
Maybe their root system has been eaten from the underneath and damaged or devoured by pests.
So let's look at the flip side of this. Why do plants thrive?
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Let's look at what makes them thrive. So we've looked at all the ways that they
maybe are failing to thrive, but let's look at why they thrive.
And the Bible tells us in Psalms 1, 2 to 3, but whose delight is in the law
of the Lord and who meditates on his law day and night.
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That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither,
whatever they do prospers.
So here's one of the perfect examples of where the Lord uses plants to teach
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his children how to prosper in him.
So picking this verse apart, we see that if we are in his law, if we are in his word.
If we meditate on his word and his goodness and who he is day and night,
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We will be watered by his word, which therefore will create fruit because we've
been watered properly, because we are day and night in his goodness,
in his word. We are meditating on him.
We are by his streams of water.
We are then, it's going to be an equation. We will then produce his fruit in season.
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Our leaves will not wither and we will prosper.
I see this as a promise.
I really do see this as a promise that God has made.
If we do these things, and we can't earn this prosperity, but we can surrender
ourselves to him in order to receive the prosperity that he promises.
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We will receive his fruit. This doesn't mean everything will turn out perfectly the way we want it.
This does not promise perfection in our minds, but this promises his fruit, his prosperity.
So let's clarify that.
All right. So why do plants fully thrive?
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Let's expand on that. So they will thrive if they're watered properly.
They will thrive if they're living in the right amount of light or the right form of light.
They'll thrive if they're given soil with nutrients
the right nutrients the right
kind of soil for their plant they'll thrive if they are protected from harsh
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climates and from from damaging or if they've experienced healing from damage
this is where kind of the pruning process is necessary for certain types of plants and trees.
They are thriving if they're being kept free of pests.
They're thriving if their soil is draining properly and they're not being flooded
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or washed out or washed away.
And plants thrive if they... Okay, so have you ever seen like a succulent that's
put in kind of a shade area that really needs full sun all the time?
What happens to it? Or maybe it's just a seedling that you planted.
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So there's this process where you'll see a seedling actually become what's referred to as leggy.
And it basically means it is trying so hard to find the sun,
but it's not getting it, that it just starts to grow upward instead of outward.
And it grows super, super tall, super fast, because it's really trying so hard to find the sun.
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So it's shooting up, using all of its energy to shoot upward.
It kind of reminds me of the Tower of Babel.
We're trying so hard to just reach the sun that we're going to just use all
of our energy and this upward motion to get to heaven.
Like, let's just all go this upward way and then we'll reach it.
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But really, that wasn't purposeful, was it?
So being leggy means that you're probably weak on your immune,
your root system, not your immune system. You're probably weak on that too.
So being leggy is you're weak on your root system often and just shooting straight up instead.
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And the plant doesn't thrive the way that it's intended to because it's using
all of its focus and all of its energy on the wrong goal where it really needs
to thicken itself self so it can withstand more watering and more wind and all of those things.
So the leggy plants actually don't do as well.
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So let's go back to one of my favorite verses, and that is in John.
I am the vine, and my father is the gardener.
He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that
does bear fruit, he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.
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You are already clean because of the word I've spoken to you.
Remain in me as I also remain in you.
No branch can bear fruit by itself. It must remain in the vine.
Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
I am the vine. You are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you,
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you will bear much fruit.
Apart from me, you can do nothing.
If you do not remain in me, you are like a branch that's thrown away and withers.
Such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned.
If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish and it will be done for you.
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This is to my Father's glory that I bear much fruit, showing yourself to be my disciples.
Now, this is actually a song from childhood.
And I'm not going to sing it for you because that's not my gifting.
But it's a beautiful song. And my dad used to sing it to me.
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And it's just really such a beautiful reminder of this concept of abiding and
that when we are abiding to the source, which is really Jesus, he's the gardener.
When we're really abiding together, fruit is made. Fruit grows.
But the second that we are apart, it doesn't. Now, Now, fun, not so fun story.
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We went camping a couple of weeks back over, I think Memorial Day weekend.
And I just planted a lot in my garden and it was all starting to establish itself. It seemed fine.
The plants weren't teeny tiny and we were watering it up until our trip.
Well, we went on our trip. I didn't have anyone water it. I knew it was going
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to be kind of rainy that weekend off and on.
So I'm like, you know, I'm not going to worry about it. I think it will Well,
rain just fine and it will be fine for two days. It's totally fine.
I come home, everything is completely dead, like dead as a doornail, dead.
And it is such an unfortunate representation of what this verse is saying,
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because apart from me, you can do nothing.
These plants still needed the gardener, who was me, to be there. and I removed myself.
Now, this is the reverse understanding because I'm not saying God's removing
himself, but as the gardener in my story, I left. So the plant was removed from the gardener.
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So when we choose as people, as God's children, to remove ourselves from his
gardening, from his pruning, from his watering,
from his abiding, when we take ourselves away, we are literally.
Telling ourselves and anyone around us that basically we are a branch just sitting
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on the ground, ready to be thrown into the fire and burned.
And I know that's not what we want to do. I know that's not what I want.
I don't ever want to remove myself from the Father. So, golf story,
since I brought up my dad and talking about branches that are loose on the ground.
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So in golf, if you've played before and if you know the rules, you know that you can.
You're allowed when you are getting ready to hit your ball, if your ball is
sitting right next to a stick and you know, well, if I hit my ball,
I'm going to hit this stick trying to get my club to the ball,
you are allowed to remove what is referred to as a loose impediment.
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That means it's a loose object on the ground that's usually natural.
Maybe it's a piece of trash that's blown or something, but it's something that's
not attached anymore to the earth.
So it's like a stick or some leaves that have blown there or a clump of grass
or a pine cone or whatever it is.
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It's something that has loosely fallen onto the earth right next to your ball,
whether before or after the ball landed there, you're allowed to pick that loose
impediment off, kind of clean the area around your ball, and then you're allowed to hit the shot.
Well, what is not a loose impediment is something that's fully attached to a
tree next to you. So maybe your ball landed right next to a bush.
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You can't bend the branch that's still connected to the bush.
You have to hit the ball as it lies. In other words, you can't change the circumstance.
You have to just try your best to hit it while it's kind of tucked under this
branch or bush or tree or whatever it is.
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So when I think of these branches that are picked up and thrown into the fire I just think of this,
this branch that's a loose impediment and it's just in the way in the way of
really hitting the ball and getting good contact with the ball and so it's just
kind of that funny part of the the verse that I always picture me bending over
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to where my golf ball is and picking up the branch that's in the way. And it's just loose.
It's doing no purpose and it's nothing. It's pretty much trash.
And when we are choosing to not abide with the Father, when we are choosing a different course,
when we're abiding with things that are not godly, that are not of Him, that are not biblical,
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that are going against His word, anything in the culture that is not aligning
with Him, When we are choosing that, we are choosing to basically be a loose
impediment. We're just chucked on the ground.
The wind's blown us off the tree and we're good as trash or tossed in the fire.
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Guys, I don't want that for my kids. Do you want that for yours? I don't think so.
I want to teach our kids to be attached to the vine.
I want him to cut off every branch in me that is useless.
So I want every bit of my life that doesn't have anything to do with him to
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just fall away so that I can be more fruitful for him.
Now, if you go back to the very beginning of season two, I will tell you,
friends, how God gave me this picture this year of actually two years ago.
And he said, hey, if you want space in your life to do my work,
(25:11):
you've got to clean up your act.
You've got to clean your life up.
And that didn't even mean like what I was spiritually doing,
because that was already really directed toward him.
And I was really trying to stay on course with, you know, spiritual,
my spiritual walk with the Lord felt sound, but it was like,
(25:33):
if you want to do more work for the kingdom,
if you want more space in your life, if you want more time to be able to do
the things that I've set in front of you to do, you need to have less clutter in your life.
Like really clean up your priorities, less things that are not intentional.
And I actually, just the past couple weeks, I've been doing a lot of things
(25:56):
that I've been doing that I've been doing that I've been.
Made a big decision. Some of the work-life balance kind of things that I was
doing, I actually was able to do that.
And God gave me a very clear understanding of one thing that I was doing from
a work perspective that needed to fall off my plate.
(26:19):
And I was able to make that happen been recently.
And man, it kept me up at night because I didn't want to give that part of my life up.
I really didn't. But guys, now that that has been pruned off of me,
and man, ask me the story.
(26:39):
I'll tell you it specifically, but I'm not going to share it on this podcast.
Cast, but it was one of those things where I physically and mentally did not know how to pull it off.
I don't know how to prune this. I don't know how to cut it off myself,
but God told me it's going to need cut.
And let me tell you, I did surrender it to him. I still told him,
(27:02):
hey, I don't know how to do this, but he made it happen.
He really, truly made it happen. And there have been other significant times,
other relationships I've had, other things in the past that I knew needed to
go, and I didn't know how to prune them.
But you know what? It is not the plant's job to prune its own branches.
(27:27):
Think about it. It's not the plant that prunes itself.
There are certain trees that kind of like the bottom part as it grows,
the bottom part kind of like withers off or breaks off. So I guess you could argue that.
But in the big scheme of things, most plants do not prune themselves.
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Most of the time it takes a gardener to do the pruning.
And I think what's beautiful in a couple of my stories that I have as a testimony
to this concept is that I always knew there was something dead on there that needed to go,
but I didn't know how to do it.
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And God has always made a way.
I think He knows that I'm so strong-willed and that I'm a perfectionist and
And I'm like, gosh, I just don't know the right way to do this.
And what if I cut it off the wrong way?
And what if that, you know, the burning the bridge concept? And what if I hurt
someone by doing that? What if I just, God, I don't know how.
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And he has always met me there. And he's always been like, it's okay,
hold still, let me get it for you.
It's like a child in a splinter. Like, hold still, I'll pull it out.
I'll pull out the splinter.
I'll help you. It's okay. Let me get it.
So He is the vine and we are the branches.
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If we remain in Him and He remains in us, we will bear much fruit and apart
from Him, we can do nothing.
And whatever we ask or wish, it will be done for us.
And here's the kicker. It's not because it's something that we want.
Verse 8 says, this is to my Father's glory that you bear much fruit,
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showing yourselves to be my disciples.
This is a very clear picture of how we give in and surrender to the Lord and let Him disciple us.
We have to let some of these things fall off.
And so I don't know what's in in your kids' lives, maybe what is in your life,
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but there's always something.
I think if we are growing in an upward-outward progressive motion,
if we are growing in a way that is full of growth and prosperity, if we are trying to...
Bend toward the Father, there's going to be something in our life we can find
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that we can pray for Him to help us prune.
And we don't have to, I feel like in like the church language world,
like the Sunday school world, I feel like this is always preached like it's
this harsh thing, like, well, what do you need to give up?
What do you, you know, kind of this like idea of Lent or you need to sacrifice this thing.
(30:28):
And I think it can look like that, but we know we have no condemnation in Christ.
And so I think oftentimes what this really looks like is handing those pruning
shears over to the gardener and saying, God, take away what you need to take away.
Prune what you need to prune. Steer me in a different direction.
(30:49):
Guide my life by your word. And if we are truly seeking after him,
I think that those things that need to fall or be pruned or cut off or removed
from our life in order to thrive with him and seek that prosperity and that
fruit that we need to grow,
I think that will become a peaceful experience.
(31:10):
I think it will become something that we just fall into place where we understand
like, okay, this is where God wanted me.
And there's that peace that surpasses all understanding when we surrender that
to him and we hand that over to him and we die to ourself and we say,
(31:32):
God, draw me closer to you.
Grow me like one of your plants. Prune me so that I can thrive and you know
exactly where to cut and when to cut, and the right timing,
and how to water me again, and how to keep me from being all stressed out.
If you prune a tree when it's not a good time to prune it, let's say the tree is sick,
(31:58):
and you start just going on a pruning spree, and you're like,
oh, we need to trim back all these branches and the tree's already maybe experiencing
some sort of pest disease or some sort of trauma,
then the tree might actually die because you're pruning it all at once and all
(32:19):
the stress, all the things are happening all at once.
And so God knows the timing and the seasons that things need to happen.
And so I think that's another piece of it that we We give it over to Him because
He's the Master Gardener and
He knows our life and He knows our needs and He knows timing of things.
And it's in His perfect timing that we can trust Him to take care of us and
(32:46):
to prepare for us the right nutrients and the right things that we need and
the right watering of His Word.
So how do we grow then? Guys, how do we grow?
We talked about this pruning topic, but how and why do we grow with the Lord?
Let's compare it back to what we first talked about with plants.
(33:09):
We grow when we are watered by the Word.
We grow closer to Him when we are living in his light and being the light.
His word calls us the light.
And I think there's a lot of artificial light in the world we live in.
(33:31):
There's a lot of shiny objects.
It's easy to be attracted to light, but it's also easy to be attracted to the
artificial light and not the true living light of Christ.
We grow when we are planting ourselves in rich soil with life-giving elements
(33:52):
and nutrients around us.
We grow, friends, when we choose to guard our hearts and guard our minds.
We grow when we receive healing from trauma and forgive or maybe experience forgiveness.
We grow when we remove harmful people and harmful things from our lives or let
(34:18):
God remove that from our lives for us.
I think environment and the people we surround ourselves with is so important.
He tells us over and over again to be yoked with him and not yoked with people
that are are not in line with how we believe. Now, can we be friends?
(34:39):
Can we be neighbors? Can we love on people?
Yes. Do we need to be yoked with them? No.
We grow when we let false ideologies fall off and wash away to lower ground.
We have no room for those in our root system.
And sometimes we must fully change our environment in order to be closer proximity. to the light.
(35:06):
Friends, I think it's such a beautiful thing that God gave us so many clear comparisons between.
Who we are in Christ and how we can grow and how we can prosper and how we can
grow fruit and be a blessing and glorify him in this world.
(35:28):
And how much we can look at a simple plant, just a simple plant,
how the basic science, I'm not even talking about like real, real science.
I'm talking about basic science, like here's your leaf and your stem and your
roots and the soil you're in.
Just really, you can start from the very simple understanding of a plant and how it's grown.
(35:52):
But if you really dig into the inner depths of the science, the deeper level
level of understanding of why a plant thrives or doesn't thrive.
And if you just meditate on that for just a period of time, like the Lord has
brought in front of me for this today, it's just incredible.
(36:13):
So I want you to really think on this, and I want you to use this as an example in teaching your kids.
It wouldn't take much, but going outside, looking at a handful of plants,
whether you're in the city or in the countryside, grab a plant,
look at it. Maybe it's a plant you have inside your home.
(36:35):
Really observe it. Observe why it's thriving or not.
Guys, I've got a lot of examples of plants in my home right now.
My husband keeps reminding me of all the ones that are not thriving.
And I just get busy. I get busy and I don't tend to them as I need to.
(36:57):
Oh my goodness, I am a human gardener and our father, the true vine,
the true gardener. Oh my goodness.
Jesus is not too busy to tend to your withering leaves.
He is not too busy to help prune you. He is not too busy to water you or to
(37:19):
move you to better soil. oil.
He loves you so much, and He will just hold you right in His big,
wonderful hands that are pierced for His glory and for your salvation.
And He will tend to you, and He will heal you, and He will bring you back to life.
(37:39):
So if you feel like you are just withering or not persevering or you're weary,
don't lose heart because in due season we will reap.
Do not grow weary of doing good for in due season we will reap if we do not lose heart.
(38:02):
Friends, grab a hold to the gardener today. Hold a little hand in your house
and teach them what the gardener is capable of.
He is wonderful and he loves you more than you can even imagine.
(38:24):
This is a perfect episode to let you know about my latest project in children's
book release called Misunderstood, A Girl with a Promise the World Forgot.
It is a compelling story of the rainbow personified as a feminine character misunderstood.
A refreshing retale of the true history of the rainbow and how its colors came to be.
(38:48):
It is a reclaiming of God's promise to all creation and his children,
reflecting back to Genesis and the flood.
Without rain, we don't have rainbows and without the rainbow,
we wouldn't have this special promise. this.
Turn every colorful page to see how misunderstood gives the reader a much needed
reminder of who she really is.
(39:10):
She is a girl with a promise the world forgot. You can pre-order now on the
treehouse storyteller.com in paperback and hardcover for the little ones in your life.
So go order and be prepared to pray over the seeds of truth you are planting
with misunderstood. understood.
Head on over to thetreehousestoryteller.com for more products,
(39:31):
artwork, photography, and encouragement. See you next time.
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