The wheat, barn and chaff.
“The highest result of education is tolerance.”
The wheat, barn and chaff... Are we conversant with this in the Bible? I believe many of us should, because it's in Matthew chapter three. I love spending my time reading the word of God every morning because I learn a lot from it. The Bible is a guide to how we should live our lives and what to do and not do.
While reading this chapter yesterday morning, my eyes caught this and I held onto it till the end of the day, and was also cautious of what I do throughout the day while reminiscing on that particular portion. You will agree with me that there is nothing in this world that isn't explained in the Bible and from it, we get life's inspiration to move on.
The three concepts are like a proverb. The wheat is the believer, the barn is the kingdom and the chaff is the unbeliever. That part is talking about what will happen to the wheat which would be kept in the barn which is the kingdom of God while the chaff would be destroyed with unquenchable fire.
While still going on with my day, I watched a video on YouTube that talks about those things we should never tolerate in our lives. I tried matching the words from the Bible up with the video to come up with something inspiring and I got something out of it by racking my brain. Trust me, a writer does a big task in relating every story or word in the Bible to life in general.
Now, let's see it this way; we would take wheat to be beans. You know when you are picking your beans to be cooked or you are trying to peel off the white one from the chaff when you are preparing bean cake, you do away with the dirt in it and throw them away. The wheat (the good part of the beans) are kept in a barn (perhaps in a big bowl or pot to be cooked) while the chaff (those you want to throw away) since they are of no use.
Bringing it down to relate with life and ourselves, we would be talking about the chaff (things you shouldn't tolerate) you do not want to allow in your barn (life, heart or mind) because you want the wheat (good habits) to be tolerated.
With this in mind, I will be sharing some things we should never tolerate in life. I used “we” here because I am included and to make our lives great and successful, we need to do away with them in our lives.
Toxicity: This is number one on the list. We all know what toxicity is and how it affects us negatively. Toxicity can take many forms in our lives; emotional, physical and mental factors which causes us to slow down instead of progressing. Toxicity is like having a friend or something bring you down from doing the best thing.
We all have those friends that are negative and no matter what we do, they will bring us down. We can live in a toxic environment, stay in a toxic relationship and even be addicted to bad habits which bring toxicity to us. All these would bring us down and draw us back instead of moving forward. This should never be tolerated in our lives. So, whatever we can pinpoint as being toxic in our lives, it's better to remove them from our barns because they are chaff.
Dishonesty: Trust me, dishonesty is a form of betrayal. How do you feel when someone lied or betray you? Especially if it comes from someone you ever trusted. It's always so painful and it could affect us emotionally, physically and mentally. There is a need to desist from dishonesty from people and even to ourselves especially, because so many times, we are our enemies when we keep doing things that hurt our feelings.
We should never think we could change someone because we would only be lying and deceiving ourselves and when our expectations aren't in line, we tend to get disappointed.
Naysayers: A person who keeps doubting or criticizing you is a naysayer. This also brings toxicity into our lives because no matter what we do or say, they will still deny us or even doubt our abilities. When we do not have someone ready to have our back and appreciate every win in our lives, then we would always see ourselves as failures. Naysayers are chaff that shouldn't be allowed into our barns.
Excuses: The best thing in life is to be able to admit some things and take responsibility for everything that has happened and stop giving excuses. Excuses will only draw us back and we should try to always avoid them. No one will kill us if we admit our errors because a person who gives excuses will only try to justify his or her wrongs and not accept the truth or say it.
Time wasters: Being time conscious pays and no matter who they are in your life, never allow time wasters because every time wasted with the wrong person should instead have been used wisely doing productive things. Time wasters are chaff that should never be tolerated.
There are many more of those things we shouldn't tolerate and I will be glad to hear from you in the comment section.
Thanks for your time.
Image by Tranmautritam from Pexels
I think that's the lesson I learned this year. Sometimes the people around us could be the most cruel person ever.