Healthwise, 2019, has been a bad year for me and many others. I suffered from the flu in January, which, according to the doctors at the ER, hit earlier than usual this year. I have had a plethora of  viruses and extreme allergies… I still was eating fairly healthy – but when I do not feel good, I eat out more.  Is chicken noodle soup considered healthy? And it was much to my chagrin, about a month ago, I had an ear infection and for the first time, in six months, they finally gave me antibiotics and Prednisolone… yuck!

Now, I am really trying a lot harder at eating healthy and clean and remembering to take my supplements: Omega 3’s, multivitamins, Probiotics, Digestive Enzymes, VitaminD, and L-glutamine.

I wonder if the zombie apocalypse will start because there are a plethora of viruses and extreme allergies in one year. People will just keep getting sicker and sicker…

Hmmmmm…..? (Pondering the Possibility) –

But… thats not what I wanted to write about.

I’ve been thinking a lot about the word – “crushed.” 

You hear it a lot… I crushed my workout. I have a crush on somebody. I feel crushed.

I read a quote the other week that said, ‘One day someone who knows what it took to survive, and yet to come out sweeter and wiser, will appreciate the oil that the crushing of your past produced…” 

Well… that got me to wondering, what things have to be crushed in order to produce something even better. Olives bring oil. Grapes produce wine. Diamonds require pressure and heat to become something valuable.

The crush of a grape gets the juice flowing. It’s the first step before it becomes a fine wine. How does a grape get crushed… foot treading is one the old school ways to crush a grape. (Ever feel like you’ve been trodden on?) 

Olives, first, need to be cleaned. The stems, leaves, twigs and other debris must be removed. Then they are washed in water and then crushed into a paste. Crushing the olive is done with stone mills and metal tooth grinders. (Ever feel like you’ve been chewed up and turned into a paste?)

Diamonds require pressure and heat. They are formed 90 to 100 miles below the surface of the earth. And regardless of what people say – coal has too many impurities to be formed into a diamond. (Ever feel like the heat is just too intense?)

2nd Corinthians 4:8-9 – We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair;  persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. 

We may feel trodden on and chewed up and the heat may be intense… But crushing, pressing, and heat isn’t the end for the grape, olive and diamond.  It isn’t for you either. It is a way of preservation. It is a way to get what is most valuable – the oil, the wine and the precious jewel.

Remember: You are loved. You are strong. You are valuable.

I want to be a grape… Wine gets better with age. 

Thanks for reading….

Always,

Positively, Debbie.

Just in case you want to reference the formation of diamonds – which, is really, quite fascinating : https://geology.com/articles/diamonds-from-coal/