Imagine A Tree




Imagine a tree that is without branches: no life, no fruit, everything around it looks like death. What would you do with that tree if it were in your yard? Most would get rid of it. Now imagine that someone had decided to tend to it, water it, plant beautiful flowers around it and fertilize it. It would then start to blossom: a branch, then green leaves and fruit, all due to someone nurturing it. I was a dead tree who most people would have chopped down, but the Lord saw me as someone he could rejuvenate. He started to water, sow beautiful seeds and fertilize my heart. My name is Monique Kettle. I am 30 years young. My addiction was gambling. It made me so crazy that I lost my business, my home, my car, my storage unit, my integrity, my hope, myself, and my relationships. In Haggai 1:6 I am described, “Ye have sown much, and bring in little, ye eat, but ye have not enough, ye drink, but ye are not filled with drink, ye clothe you, but there is none warm, and he that earneth wages earneth wages to put into a bag with holes.” That is truly the woman I was. I was brought to me knees through my behavior in all occurrences. I knew I could no longer go on as this woman because I am having a baby and the curse of addiction had to be eradicated. As 1 Corinthians 16:15 states, “When I was a child, I spake as a child; but when I became a man, I put away childish things.” Today I am a new woman of Christ and through that I am able to “Love thy neighbor as thyself”. Before now I was unable to love myself, so no one around me was being loved either. Today I am as Jeremiah 17:8 says, “For she shall be as a tree planted by the waters, and that spreadeth out her roots by the river, and shall not see when heat cometh, but her leaf shall be green and shall not be careful in the year of drought, neither shall cease from yielding fruit.” I would like to thank the Lords for my salvation, my family for their undying support, and my mentors and teachers that loved me as my own family would. I would like to give special thanks to Pastor Tim & family. God Bless