The saying goes, “One bad apple can spoil the bunch.” The text was created to simply mean that a single bad influence can ruin what would have otherwise been good. I did a little research and according to an article on google, one bad apple really can ruin the whole batch. One apple past its prime lets off ethylene gases, causing all the fruits to rot. Sorry for the visual!! Have you ever let one incident completely ruin the whole experience? Has life served you with a few rotten apples?
Why is it that we tend to focus on the negative instead of the positive? We make one mistake and we are done! One negative word paints an ugly picture of our credibility and we simply let go of our dreams thinking we can never get past this hurdle!


Life is extremely hard and sometimes we get knocked down, but we have to find the strength to get back up. We have to find a way to see the forest through the trees (thanks Brad for never letting me forget that)!! It’s so hard to filter through a mass of detail to see the bigger picture. That mass of detail (the betrayal, heartache, disappointment, failure) keeps us bogged down, keeps us in pain so heavy we cannot move forward…forward to the future He has promised. Isaiah 43: 18-19 says, “Forget about what’s happened; don’t keep going over old history. Be alert, be present. I’m about to do something brand new. It’s bursting out! Don’t you see it?”





Today, I received some extremely gratifying news that I will be able to pursue an opportunity that I once thought was forever taken from me. For the past 8 months, I have let “one bad apple” determine the path that I was taking. I kept going over the “old history” so to speak and kept serving myself the “bad apple”. A few weeks ago, I received possibly the best advice I could for my situation. My wise friend said, “We all have days we are not at our best. I’m the “KING” of not my best. If not for the day of not my best your journey may not be on the right path now and the lives you touch and influence would not be as significant as they are. God has a plan for you and spending it in that particular class room was not the ultimate plan but just one small part of it. Or was it small? It is time to move on and help so many others with the truth.”


The truth is my season of pain was also my season of exponential growth. I fell in love with God and He transformed a superficial relationship into a real one….a tangible one! I put all my trust, my fears, my feelings in Him. He was my rock, my anchor, the source for all my needs. Now, I am able to pick myself back up and continue on the journey before me.


So what is life serving you? Are you satisfied with the bad apple or are you hungry for more?


Love in Christ,


Nichole