Scented

Not too long ago,I missed an event which I was really looking forward to. A breakfast meeting with a group of professionals.Favorite handbag-check, matching white high heels-check- best dress-check.

But why?

I enjoy making my own fresh juices at home and so this evening,I decide to make the usual juice-carrots, beet root,ginger,pineapple.Some habits I have picked last few years have turned the corporate girl to a homely-kitchen loving girl (mum is forever smiling).

I just forgot to omit one tiny ingredient.

So later in the evening am double checking on my outfit and decide to ask my sister for her opinion.

Oh lawd! she exclaimed almost fainting the moment I got close to her.

Apparently, I was smelling like a garlic refinery!

This reminded me of my Indian desk mate in primary school. He was bright,very good in math and so the wisdom of the teachers?We would be paired up as desk mates to compete better.

Boy oh boy!Wouldn’t Sidarth be reeking of garlic every morning! Killed all my teenage attraction much as I thought he was a little cute.

Raw garlic has a suffocating smell the benefits not withstanding. I wonder if his mum had this as a strategy to keep her son not thinking of girls!The girls clearly had to flee to the hills except for “yours truly”. I had no option to endure and so ensured I beat him in the exams as my way of revenging.Lol!

……….Years later, here I am taking the same concoction as my Indian desk mate.

Well, I only do so when I intend to  be indoors next day but I forgot! It goes straight into your blood and decides to get out through all the pores on your skin as sweat after cleansing your system.It therefore doesn’t matter how many times you brush your teeth or how much you douse yourself with favorite perfume.

“Lord let me wake up smelling like lilies“, I prayed before I slept.

Fun fact from Dr.Mum(our family self-made doctor). Garlic is the best natural hypnotic, makes one sleep like a baby.

So you guessed right.I overslept and woke up when the event was starting!

And for sure, as much as I still couldn’t smell myself, I remembered my childhood friend.No way would I be let into the hotel .Maybe they would have called security on me instead.

Did you know that at times what’s going on inside only becomes known to others when we open our mouths to speak?

Luke 6:43 “For a good tree does not bear bad fruit, nor does a bad tree bear good fruit. 44 For every tree is known by its own fruit. For men do not gather figs from thorns, nor do they gather grapes from a bramble bush. 45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil [i]treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.

A tree doesn’t eat its own fruit that it bears. A mango tree will bear mangoes but they will be eaten by others other than itself. That means the tree cannot judge itself as to what kind of fruit it has borne. Also, a mango tree will not bear pineapples or apples. It can only reproduce its own kind.

What kind of fruit do I bear? Do I make people faint when I open my mouth to speak? Like my garlic episode. Do I build or do I tear down with my words, do I make people flee with the stench of my mouth. Is it pretentious words I utter that others can see through or am I genuine when I say a word to someone.

Almost always, we will speak what is overflowing within us. At times, that is the best judgement of character someone might be using on us.

Having a place we turn to every so often puts a check on us,on what overflows from us. It’s the place where God by His Holy Spirit will water us such that we are bearing fruit in the first place.

What we take in that hidden place of comfort also contributes to what we overflow with. Thus, one way of ensuring we are bearing the right fruit is watching what we are letting our inner man absorb. Are they thoughts of defeat, do we listen to negative talk all day or do we feed our inner person with what is building us or what is beautifying us from within.

Sift what you take in.Deliberately,choosing to put a guard on what we look at, discussions on social media or TV.

In my case, had i had omitted garlic from my juice, I would have had an otherwise wonderful time at the breakfast meeting new people and looking like a million dollars. I wouldn’t have been concerned with going beyond giving someone a smile and making them unconscious on saying hello!

What might be good for you might not be okay for everyone. And so it’s important to know those times when we need to be in a closet with God. The time when we are taking in the garlic and all those things our spirit man needs which are best done in a secret place with God.

Actually, the juices are magic to any one’s body generally. So while some might have a nasty taste or have a pungent smell, they do wonders.

In the same way, we need to discern when God needs us in a closet with Him when He feeds us with what our inner man needs and not what we really want.That way we will be overflowing with Himself from what He has deposited in our inner man in secret.

When you stay in a place with a sweet fragrance, you will carry the scent with you when you leave.When you are able to dash back into that quiet place in God, you will inevitably carry his fragrance along even when you leave.The garlic will have worked on your inner man and you start glowing with His goodness instead.

No doubt you will be breathtakingly scented.Overflowing with a sweet fragrance like that of lilies and not reek of garlic :-).

_{Photo by Jabari Timothy on Unsplash}