Imagine if you will a tiny apple seed.  Think about the great potential that little seed has.  All it needs is the right surroundings, environment, nutrients, and sunlight.  With these proper necessities, that tiny little nothingness of a seed can transform into a huge majestic apple tree.  What happens when you give an apple seed nutrient dense soil, water, and then sunlight?   That tiny seed begins to sprout.  But before it can sprout UP, it must send its roots DOWN.  Once the tree starts to grow, what is it that supplies the tree with its vital needs?  What is it that keeps the tree grounded and unwavering?  Without roots, there would be no tree.

I once heard it explained that your health and prosperity are dependent on your 'roots'.  So often we are looking at our 'fruits'.  We see ourselves producing scrawny, limited, bitter tasting, or even ugly fruits and we tend to blame it on something other than ourselves.  This puts us in a situation of affect.  We feel we have no control over our own fruits.  We tend to focus on these fruits instead of looking more closely at our roots.  Sometimes we’re even afraid to look at our roots.  We may not want to face all the stuff we have buried so deep that no one else can see.  We then start to look at other people’s fruits.  This typically produces two different feelings.  One, jealousy:  “How’d THEY get such perfect fruits?”  Or two, pride:  “Look at those fruits; mine are WAY better than theirs”.   If we could instead make a conscious effort to find the good in our own fruits as well as other people’s, we would be able to allow others to produce even better fruits.  In turn, our own fruits will prosper.  Writing in metaphors can seem a bit silly at times, but I really want you to get this point.  What we must remember is that the flaws we may be seeing in other people are more than likely the same flaws we ourselves are dealing with.  How wonderful would it be if we lived in a world of building up the fruits of others.  That way we could begin to take responsibility for what we were creating, and we could begin to change it into something we actually liked.

Gather up your courage and take a good look at your roots.  Are you grounded in love and gratitude for yourself and others?  Are you replenishing your supply of proper nutrients?  Are you keeping your root surroundings clean and toxin free?   Free not only of chemical and environmental toxins, but of toxic relationships, toxic emotions, and other toxic personal environments.  Are you allowing the proper oxygenation to your roots via physical movement and emotional and spiritual enhancement?  Are you getting enough clean water and sunlight?  Are you staying aware of your physical and emotional surroundings?  Do you easily allow yourself to change with the ever adjusting seasons?  If you can continue to answer these questions positively for yourself, you will undoubtedly see the beautiful fruits of your nourishment.  We all deserve to have perfect fruits; I believe that is how our Creator designed us.  If we all work to individually clean up our roots and their surroundings, we will all produce the fruits we desire and we can then share our fruits with each other.  Clean roots and beautiful fruits yield a better environment for us all!