Dirty Water

By

B.J. Knefley

Did you know that if you throw dirty water on plants they continue to thrive? If you throw your soapy water from washing the car on the flowers, they too will continue to thrive. Why is that? You’d think that it would have a diverse affect or that you’d kill them, but you don’t. Instead, they continue to grow and thrive. We on the other hand do not.

When people are put down or otherwise demeaned what happens to them? Do they thrive like the flowers, or do they wither up? Chances are we don’t thrive, in fact just the opposite. We are creatures who look for affirmation and praise. We look to hear good things said about us. We don’t do well with the anger of other people or their words. Feelings hurt, we tend to withdraw and shrivel up and wilt like a dead flower. Why don’t we have the same resiliency as a plant? Is our nature such that we aren’t designed for course or abrasive events, circumstances, or people? When they throw their dirty used water on us why do we shrivel up and die?

We are created for relationship. We don’t do well alone and isolated. Oh, we might like it for a while, but we want companionship even it’s an animal like a dog or cat. The problem is hurt people hurt others. It’s a vicious cycle, and one that’s hard to break. We need to learn to let that dirty water that others throw on us to roll off our backs. We can’t allow it to control us and otherwise pull us down. We have the ability to say no to the message that’s being spoken and then refuse to own what’s being said. The more that we do this the greater opportunity we have to grow and thrive.

Life isn’t always easy. Bad things happen to great people. How we respond to those bad things is important to our overall well-being. We forget that we have the power within us to reject those things that are designed to pull us down. Whether it’s the words of people or the circumstances of life, like the flower we can choose to thrive despite the events. Think about it.