Bloom Where You are Planted

Bloom where you are planted.  When I was growing up, my mom had a plaque hanging in our house that said this.  Just recently, I have really been contemplating what it means.  Bloom where you are planted.  Be content with what you have.  Enjoy the moments and the days that you are blessed with.  Most of us are always looking for the next thing.  We say things (if only to ourselves) like “ When I do this, then life will be complete.”  When we were little, it was most likely looking ahead to something like driving….man when I can drive….. then when I graduate, then when I get married….then when I have kids….. and then when the kids are gone….

There is a part of us that longs for more.  More of something.  We don’t really know how to bloom where we are planted.  It doesn’t come naturally to live right here where I am today.  I want to be more organized, more patient and kind.  I want to  get so many things done.  Yes I’ve said this before.  I’ve thought about it and blogged about it and complained about it.  But today is different because I’m not just here to harp about how I need to change.  I am actually looking to change.  I’m thinking about how I can change and really overcome the idol of organization and perfection.  I don’t want to just talk about blooming where I am planted.  I really want to do it.  I don’t want it to become an idol in itself, but what I want to do is seek God daily, recognize the season of life that I am is and count my blessings. 

When I was single, I longed for the day that I was married.  I love to minister to single ladies now because looking back I see how precious those days were, just me and my savior.  I don’t regret any of how my life has turned out, I wouldn’t go back to being single, however, there were precious days of singleness where I was so close to the Lord.  But I didn’t see that when I was single.  I was too busy wanting to be married.  Marriage has added a different dimension to my relationship with God.  There is a sanctification that comes with marriage.  As my sister told me before I got married, “Marriage is a mirror, where your faults are all reflected.” I have grown more spiritually and recognized sin in my life in a way that I never did when I was single.   Children have brought even a deeper level of sanctification.  I have learned the depth of my selfishness and lack of patience.  I never thought I would be mean to my children.  But sadly, there are days (more than I care to admit), that my agenda is more important than my relationship with my children.  Yet I know that God is shaping me and refining me through my children.  When I step back and reflect, I am amazed at the beauty of each season of my life.  But it is hard in the middle of a season to see the beauty.  It is usually only after it is passed that I look back and say, man I wish I would have….. So here I am in my season of marriage and parenting.  And I am looking to find the beauty.  I am seeking to bloom where I am planted rather than looking ahead to something else or being mad that I’m here. 

At church yesterday we were in the middle of a worship song, and I had to take my son out to the nursery.  It interrupted the “worship experience” for me.  I was tempted to look on stage at the worship team at one single girl in particular and think “she has no idea how special this time is.”  But I stopped and realized that I am that same girl that has “no idea how special this time is.”  I have no idea how special this time is.  It may not be like it was when I was single.  It’s not supposed to be.  I may not get to worship uninterrupted.  I may not get hours in the word of God like I used to.  My relationship with God doesn’t look the same as it did when I was single or without children.  But it’s not supposed to.  Just because it is different, doesn’t mean that there is something wrong.  This doesn’t mean that I come up with excuses to not spend time with God.  It just means that I need Him now more than ever.  I want to have hours with the Lord, reading his word.  Instead I have hours with the Lord, caring for my children.  What we see as an interruption, is a moment to praise the Lord.

I am learning to be thankful for what I have instead of looking at what someone else has.  I am learning to look at what really matters instead of my own agenda.  I am learning that I know nothing about having an eternal perspective, but I am praying that God will change my heart of stone into one that is concerned with glorifying God in every moment, instead of glorifying myself.