Most people love the thought of being gifted and having the ability to do something great, but we don't smile so brightly when we are placed in the refining processes of life. But what happens to a seed if it's not planted? Jesus said, "Very truly I tell you, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it reamins only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds" John 12:24. ...
No matter who we are, where we are in life, or where we've come from, we must begin to appreciate the ugly stages of our inception. When we allow the Lord to shift our mindset, we begin to see that everything that has ever happened to us happened for a reason. If we look back at the sprout that pushed itself through the ceiling of dirt above it, we discover reasons behind our adversity that were previously invisible and unimaginable but now are suddenly apparent and miraculous when we arrive at the fruit-bearing stage." -T. D. Jakes Crushing
