Extraction

I will ask you to count how many good teeth you have.

So you now know how many good teeth you have.

Did you notice something?

For the vast majority, the number of good teeth FAR outnumbers
the bad.

You have far more good teeth but it's the bad teeth that get all
of the attention. One bad tooth can cause us so much pain that
we forget about all of the good.

So it is with life.

One bad relationship and we think all men/women are bad.

One bad experience with a member of a different race. religion
or culture and we think all who are different from us are bad.

A company can have a thousand employees and we can have one bad
experience with an obnoxious employee and we think the whole
company is bad.

One bad apple doesn't spoil the whole bunch but it will
eventually spoil the whole bunch if you don't remove the bad
apple. Infection spreads.

Some things you have to extract to keep it from spoiling the
whole bunch.

My friend had to get his two front teeth extracted to prevent
further pain and to even prevent the spread of infection to the
rest of his body.

Extraction of things in our lives is often necessary but seldom
pleasant.

He had to be sedated, strapped down, and numbed.
He still hollered.

Eagles fly high but have you ever noticed eagles don't have a
lot of stuff strapped on their backs.

Some of us haven't reached the heights that we are destined to
reach because we haven't extracted some things.
It's too much on our backs and in our spirits.

You know what things they are.

As plain as I am writing this and as clear as you can see these
letters, you know what things in your life need extracting.
We all have them.

Extraction hurts but the continuing pain of decay hurts even
worse and for much longer.

I counsel quite a few people.

More often than not, they will have major problems by the time
they schedule counseling. As I listen to their situation I can
often see things or a different perspective on the thing that
they cannot. Many are helped through counsel.

Even though I can often see things that they cannot, most of the
stuff that they need to change, THEY ALREADY KNOW!

"I know I need to do this"
"I know I need to change that"
"I know this is wrong"
"I know I shouldn't feel this way"
"I know I should leave this relationship"
"I know this is not good"

"I know I should. . . "

Many already know the things in their life that need to be
extracted.

So do you.

The problem is not the knowledge in many instances.
It's the pain of extraction.

Pulling anything with deep roots is a problem.

The closer anyone is to the child and the further they are from
maturity, the more sedation, straps and numbing they will need.
A child will even endure the pain for months or years until the
tooth eventually falls out from the decay.

Often we endure the pain far longer than necessary until it
falls out and has nearly knocked us out.

Learn the lesson of extraction.

For though we may have far more good teeth,
This is a lesson we all need to know.

MountainWings.com is about helping lift you over the mountains
of life.

Sometimes what you need is not really a lift.
You just need to remove some things.

Just as a hot air balloon is mired to the ground with sandbags
often so are we.

It's not that we don't have the wind to fly,
we've just got too many sandbags.

Some need to be extracted and then we can fly.