Optimist Roundtable 11/11
By Martha Sykes
“No good tree bears bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. Each tree is recognized by its own fruit. A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of” (Luke 6)
In this passage, Jesus was trying to tell His disciples that every life bears fruit. No matter what, He is reminding them ( and us) that our lives influence people by the way we live. A bad character will show through and influence people and a good character will do the same thing. As humans our character can be formed buy the things that we value and prioritize in our lives.
Twelve year old Preston Sharp was shocked when he visited his grandfathers grave. There were many graves of veterans in that cemetery. Preston noticed that many of the veterans’ graves didn’t have flags on them. So Preston begin working on jobs and started a Facebook fundraising page to raise money to put flags and flowers on every veteran’s grave in his local cemetery. And every week, no matter what the weather, young Preston went to the cemetery and decorated every grave he could. He got so many donations and inspired many other volunteers to join him so then he began decorating other cemeteries around town, and then spread the work two other towns. In three years time, Preston Sharp and his volunteers had decorated 65,000 graves. As volunteer Fred Loveland said, “ It’s amazing! What he’s doing brings them out because they can’t believe a young man in this country is doing what he does.”
Preston‘s commitment to honor our veterans drew other people to also act on their values and priorities. Preston Sharp’s life, even at a young age, is bearing good fruit.
Followers of Jesus are called to live a fruitful life, and Jesus defines it pretty clearly for us. In John 15, Jesus says, “ you did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit-fruit that will last..”
What we store in our hearts determines the fruit that we grow. Think about our veterans this week and think about the love and commitment they had
(or have) in their hearts to make our country what it is today.
As we think about our great United States, let us pray that there will be more of Jesus’s love in our hearts to bear more good fruit than evil fruit in the future.
