The Weeds, the Flowers, and the Roses

By Tandra Hayes Bentley

As we go through lifes challenges and phases, our strength and faith in the Lord will begin to manifest great power within. The Holy Spirit will lead you to understand the goodness of the Lord. The Weeds, the Flowers, and the Roses is a story of lifes experiences, endurances, and trials, which are necessary to transform us into the people God wants us to be. He wants us to let our light shine in the midst of it all. I pray that The Weeds, the Flowers, and the Roses will help to encourage somebody, anybody that you can make it and you are important. God will always be right there to protect you. You have to have a plan if you want to accomplish your goals. Just keep on keeping on because no one has arrived yet! My book was written out of strong love, strong hurt and pain, strong will, and shows how God gave me strength to endure it all.

For with God nothing shall be impossible. Luke 1:7

I hope you enjoy reading this book. I pray that it is uplifting to you as it has been to me. God bless you! Amen.

He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good: and what doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love Mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God? Micah 6:8

Thank you, Lord. Love, Tandra

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Jan 9, 2015
• ISBN: 9781490863597

Tandra Hayes Bentley

I live in Louisville, Kentucky with my wonderful husband, Mr. Lawrence Bentley, together we have 7 children, and nine grandchildren. We ask God to continue to keep a fence around all of you. God Bless you all and we give the Highest Praise, Hallelujah! I’m happy and have enough confidence to say that I’m qualified to write this book based on not only my life but also life in general. People, situations, circumstances, conditions, and our relationship with God are all what life’s really about. Our lives and songs are all picked from our gardens, which grow through phases. We all need God’s Grace and Mercy, the tools that allow us to maintain beautiful gardens, that is, happy and fulfilling lives. “The Weeds, The Flowers, and The Roses” are the seasons we go through. I’ve experienced enough events, situations, miracles, and blessings, and I have written about them so they would be recorded and official. I want to leave my footprints in the garden; I want my book to be a positive Generational Blessing that gets passed down. Philippians 4:13 tells us we can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us. I want my children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren to take this torch. I want them to become strong and wise in their love for Christ and to step out on faith! In 2 Timothy 1:7, we read, “For god hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” So spread your wings, fly like eagles, and know you are somebody and you are special. God bless you all. I love you forever. Hallelujah and Amen! [e-mail]

Book preview

Copyright © 2014 Tandra Hayes Bentley.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

Good News Translation® (Today’s English Version, Second Edition)

Copyright © 1992 American Bible Society. All rights reserved.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

1663 Liberty Drive

Bloomington, IN 47403

www.westbowpress.com

1 [phone]

Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-4908-6360-3 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-6361-0 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-4908-6359-7 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2014922335

WestBow Press rev. date: 01/05/2015

Contents

Special Thanks

From the Author

1    This Morning When I Arose

2    Black Queen: I Wore the Crown

3    Father, Can You Hear Me?

4    Our Daughters

5    Go to the Throne, Not the Phone

6    Watch How You Treat People

7    Dealing with a Disobedient Child

8    Safe in His Arms

9    Am I My Sista’s Keeper?

10    Women of the Bible

11    I’m Still Standing

12    Be All You Can Be

13    Every Day Is a Day of Thanksgiving

14    Owing a Bible Won’t Help Your Marriage—Reading It Will

15    Spear Throwers

16    I Want to Read the Bible, but I Don’t Understand It

17    Life is Just Like a Board Game—When We’re Finished, It All Goes Back in the Box

18    Friends, Family, and Friction

19    Self-Destruction

20    Stand By Your Man

21    Ten Reasons I Tithe

22    God Favors Me

23    What Is Your Heart Full Of?

24    Let Jesus Calm Your Storm

25    You Can Run, But You Can’t Hide

26    Attitude Can Mean Altitude

27    I’m Living My Life as if It’s Golden

28    Broken and Blessed

29    Live, Laugh, Love

30    There’s No Place Like Home

31    Still in the Garden Praying

32    You Say, God Says

33    Bag Lady

34    Let’s Sow a Seed—A Harvest Plan

35    Here and Now

36    Life Is Too Short

37    What Have You Done for Somebody Lately?

38    Awareness Award

39    Forgive and Try to Forget

40    How Big Is Your Mustard Seed?

41    How to Make a Dollar out of Fifteen Cents

42    Your Happiness Is Your Responsibility

43    Don’t Talk, Just Listen—Use More Wisdom

44    Praying and Fasting: Deliverance and a Healing Weapon

45    I Need Just a Little More Jesus

46    It’s Friday, and You Ain’t Got No Job

47    Red Light, Green Light

48    Diamonds and Pearls

49    Family Violence

50    Why Are You Still Limping?

Author Biography

Special Thanks

To the almighty Jesus Christ, for His love, protection, countless blessings, healing, and for planting the seed of the fruit of the Spirit in me.

To my lovely husband and my family.

To my photographer, Ty Lockhart. This book cover is amazing! God was in the midst of this. This pose expresses all my feelings while in the garden—the good, the bad, and the ugly. It explains The Weeds, the Flowers, and the Roses. We never planned to take this pose, but God knew what was needed, Ty Lockhart [phone]

To WestBow Press and Gwen, Joel, Martin, Alex, and everybody else who helped in this process. God bless you all, and thank you.

To all my family and friends who gave me encouragement and support and showed their talents, thank you too. To all who helped in the prayer that it took, thank you.

I used the King James Version of the Bible in this book. Thank you, God, for wisdom, knowledge, and great Bible scholars to help me, amen.

From the Author

The Weeds, the Flowers, and the Roses

Weeds

The weeds represent hurt, pain, trouble, sickness, bad choices, getting a divorce, losing a job, or having problems with your children. They can even mean that God isn’t ready to promote you yet. When we think of weeds, we usually think of ugly, withered plants that have to be pulled out of our gardens to make room for flowers.

We also can think of weeds in a religious sense in that they can enhance our spiritual and religious growth, because some of us tend to pray more when things aren’t going too well rather than praying continually. Weeds are very important; they are life’s educational experiences that help us grow. Experience, which is a good teacher, represents beauty.

Flowers

Flowers represent being young, experiencing all of life’s adventures, and growing and maturing, phases we go through while we’re on our Christian journey. The flowers also symbolize significant cultural events such as births, marriages, holidays, graduations, illnesses, milestones, and death. This tradition has existed in many cultures throughout history and continues today. Flowers represent beauty.

Roses

Roses represent our grown-up, well-seasoned selves. We have learned to handle life’s problems and situations through prayer, knowing God has all life, including us, in the palm of His hand. Roses are big and beautiful; they represent goals that we have achieved in our service to God. We know God is real and created everything. We know the Lord and trust totally in Him. We have arisen to this stage in life, and our roses represent beauty.

I dedicate this book to the Lord, who has always been on my side. He is awesome, wonderful, and excellent. He formed me in the womb, and I’m very grateful for His decision. I want to make Him proud of me. Whenever He takes me back, I want Him to say to me, Job well done.

I dedicate this book to my parents, Marvin and Barbara Hayes, for being such beautiful parents. Neither of you ever told me no; you have always given to me whatever I wanted and needed for my family and me. I’m very grateful for and to you both, and I love you. It’s a blessing to have you as my parents. My stepmother, Kim Hayes, has always supported me in every way she could. She sets the bar for stepmothers rather high, and she always shows me love.

I dedicate this book as well to my children. Bam, my firstborn, always remember what God has bought you through. Remember to put Him first in your life, and know God will never leave you or forsake you. Best wishes and much success in you music career. My style is different; I understand your conversation, and I know it’s real and true. I respect your feelings, and your music sounds good.

Ebony, my spoiled child, God blessed you with a beautiful voice, so please use it and let God know you’re thankful for it. Best wishes to you on your journey to and through college. I’m so proud of you. God will never take you where He won’t be. He’s watching. LOL!

Lee Lee, my anointed one, continue to sing praises unto the Lord, and He’ll take you places you’ve never been. Minister Lee Lee, go on, put it down, it’s time.

My grandson, Gucci Bam, the apple of my eye, we’re going to keep praying. And thank you, Jalessa, for my grandchild.

To my soul mate, my best friend, my prayer partner, my husband, Mr. LB, seasoned and humble. Just when I thought God had forgotten about me, I learned that He had not! Perfection takes time. LOL! I’m thankful for our union God has abundantly blessed. Every time we turn around, He blesses us again, amen.

To my siblings and in-laws, God bless all of you. I love you all.

To my coworkers, the entire family court crew and the supervisors—we are family, and you all rock. God bless you.

To my church family, King Solomon Missionary Baptist Church, and my pastor, the one and only Rev. Dr. Charles Elliott Jr. Blessed, anointed, gifted, talented, seasoned, and loved, thanks for all you do! To the others pastors in the pulpit, God bless you. To our Sunday school department, all of us are doing amazing things to continue to educate