Blooming and Being

I am a Missouri girl--uprooted and transplanted by God to Cleveland, Oklahoma. This is my second transplant to OK. This transplant came in September 2014. When the uprooting first began in August 2014, I was a little resistant. I cried and tried hard to keep my roots intact there in Missouri. It was home and I was near family. Ultimately, I submitted to my husband's leading and allowed myself to be moved to a new garden. 

I decided then to make the best of the situation and bloom right where God had planted me. Growing and blooming where God plants you is the only way to exist. The term "blooming" sounds a little arrogant  doesn't it? After all, it almost sounds like I am saying that I am always pretty and fragrant and standing out in the garden like a bright shining star in the sky. Not true!! I am certainly not always those things. I don't always stand out in my garden. My garden being the area of Cleveland. I don't show forth my beauty ---the beauty of Christ as a pretty flower might stand out in a flower bed. I don't always smell nice--sometimes my sinfulness stinks up my bloom. Sometimes I even go dormant and refuse to grow or bud or bloom at all. Sometimes it is ok to go dormant, to recooperate and regenerate so that I can grow back stronger and bigger and prettier than before. I must not let myself be dormant longer than God intends though. 

I can not bloom without God's help. He has a plan and stages of growing and blooming specifically for me. I must allow Him to prune and weed around me. I must seek nourishment from His Word and allow it to fertilize me and help me to grow and bloom. He has the power to zap me and do it but God doesn't usually work that way. He prefers some work from me, too. Just as a flower or plant has no say so about where they are planted by the gardener, neither do we have a say so (if we are surrendered to God's will) about where we are planted. We must just grow and bloom as good as we can right where we are planted.

Now, I'd like to address the idea of the being in my title. A rose cannot be a lily, nor a petunia a marigold. Each flower will grow and bloom to be what it was meant to be. I have no idea what flower I am in God's eyes. I do not believe I was blessed by Him with very many talents---certainly I wasn't blessed with the ones I wish I were --such as singing or music. However, I was given organizational skills, some teaching skills, and some creativity and cooking skills---these are my few talents. I must use them to glorify God. With these talents I seriously doubt I am a rose, which is so often the favorite of many for a flower garden. Whatever flower I am, I must bloom and be that flower! I cannot be a rose if I am to be a petunia or a lily. There was a time in my life when I was more than likely an impatient! Working with an autistic boy named Josiah trained me differently. I still can lean that way about some things, like wanting things to happen instantly but when dealing with people and kids especially, I have become much more longsuffering and tolerant. 

This was just a humerous little devo to remind you to bloom where God has planted you and to become the bloom He intends you to be!