Growing Where You're Planted

By Pat

My house backs to the woods, which I have always enjoyed. It gives us more privacy, plentiful birds, and more opportunity to view God's majesty in the changing of each season through the beautiful leaves. And as a gardener, it's very convenient for tossing away things I have pulled out of my flower beds.

I happened to notice recently as I looked over my fence that a patch of daylilies I had thrown out had taken root and were growing beautifully, right where they landed. I couldn't remember for the life of me how long ago I had thrown them there, but there they were, strong and lovely, and looking as though they had been planted there on purpose.

I was so amused! I am very particular about the dirt in my flower beds. I buy special soils with certain nutrients to aid the growth and ensure the health of the flowers I plant. I add peat moss. I water, weed and worry over them all summer. And yet, there was that daylily plant, looking just as healthy as could be in the untreated dirt of the woods.

I often wait to do something the Lord would want me to, thinking that the timing is off, conditions aren't perfect, knowledge is lacking. I want the soil I am planted in to be just right. But those are lame excuses when I am asking God to help me to grow. I can grow in any condition, any circumstance, any time, no matter what I am planted in. God doesn't wait for perfection; He creates it. All we need to do is allow Him to nurture us, and He provides everything we need to grow, bloom and thrive for His kingdom. All we need is the honest desire to follow the Lord, and the rest is up to Him.

"Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers. But his delight is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers." (Psalm 1:1-3)

Pat is a good friend who is passionate about her faith and her family. She works from home supporting a family business, and loves to read, write and garden when she can, and spends every spare moment with her grandkids.