Notes by La'Rue

My mom and I used to watch this tv show called Mountain Men, on the Discovery Channel. It follows the lives of three mountain men living off the grid, who hunt, fish, sell fur and firewood to survive. Although I can’t imagine why anyone would want to live in the wild, every week I looked forward to lying on the couch in the den, waiting for the show to air, because those three men were so intriguing to watch. If you’re familiar with the show, you might not find it the least bit interesting, or see why I would take to a show as that one, but I found it to be rather interesting watching how they lived their everyday lives, without electricity, running water, groceries, and the essentials needed to survive. I often chuckle when I think about it, because my upbringing didn’t differ much from their current lives (i.e. the absence of necessities). While I haven’t seen the show in awhile, I’m pretty sure my mom still watches it.

When I think of the MM (Mountain Men), I remember them cutting down trees in hopes of chopping and selling firewood to make a profit, and warming their tiny cabins. I can picture them examining the tree’s color to see if it was any good and inspecting its branches, to see whether or not they were dead, prior to cutting them off. Reason being, a living tree should not have dead branches, because they can spread poisonous insects, that causes harm to the tree. My thoughts immediately took me to John 15:1-8. The scripture informs us that “God is the gardener and Jesus is the true vine. Every branch in Him that bears no fruit, the Father cuts off.”

How many dead, fruitless branches are trying to hold onto, although God has cut them off? They serve no purpose, but because they’ve been a part of you for so long, you feel it’s meant for them to be there. However, they’re not. Letting go is never easy, but it’s the best thing you need to do. Besides, you can go the rest of your life holding on to dead attachments, praying and hoping one day they’ll fall off, or you can cut them off! Don’t let poisonous people be the reason you go from good to bad.

Until next time my NOTE takers!

Deetra La’Rue