Just Plant

I was watering the flowers on my front porch this morning and this is what greeted me. Isn't it beautiful? This is a Plumeira flower. My father-n-law gave this plant to me when we were in Florida on Spring Break. At the time he did this, these were just a few sticks. He told me to put them in some soil, water them and they would grow. At the time I was thinking "sure". Because not only did I not think this would work, I also had to fly back home with these sticks. When we did get home, I kind of forgot about them for a couple more days. When I finally did think about planting them, I needed to get potting soil, so there went another day.

Finally I got them in a pot and set the pot on the front porch. I kind of put it in the corner because, hey, it was just sticks and I didn't want anyone to see it and think I was crazy for trying to grow sticks. I did keep watering them though, just in case. Finally I saw just a bit of green at the end of one of the sticks and now look. There are leaves and gorgeous flowers, on these sticks, and they really look beautiful.

Spreading the truth about Christ and the salvation and peace that comes from him are kind of like planting these sticks.

Everywhere we go we present ourselves as something. If we are grumpy, gossipy, stand offish or just plain mean. We are just like the sticks out of dirt. Nothing good  can come from this. People will walk away and not want anything to do with us.

But if we present ourselves as peaceful, loving, giving and kind, we plant ourselves in the soil of relationships, because we will be the kind of people others want to be around. As relationships grow we can be the picture of Christ and others will want the same beauty that shines from within us. God can use us to bring the message, of Him, to the folks around us. Blessings abound and beauty grows in hearts and lives.

1 Corinthians 3:6-8

6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God was causing the growth. 7 So then neither the one who plants nor the one who waters is anything, but God who causes the growth. 8 Now he who plants and he who waters are one; but each will receive his own [a]reward according to his own labor.

I know this may sound too simplified or even goofy to some of you, but it works. You never know what will grow from the seeds of friendship and love. God is amazing and can use even our smallest attempts.

If I hadn't have put those sticks in the dirt, even though I had doubts that it was worth my time, there wouldn't be a beautiful plant sitting on my front porch right now. 

Being a gardener is not always convenient or even easy. It takes hard work and even faith in what you plant. The beauty of this flower is, of course, a blessed reward. But the beauty of God changed lives, and friendships made, is even better.


Blessings!

On The Road To the Right Path!

Psalm 19:7-8

The Message (MSG)

7-9 The revelation of God is whole
and pulls our lives together.
The signposts of God are clear
and point out the right road.
The life-maps of God are right,
showing the way to joy.

We were on Hwy 78 getting ready to get on I-95. We were two women who had been on the road for 12 hours and on top of the world thinking we had made it this far from Indiana and surely nothing else could go wrong. 

You see we had already had a head light go out in Pennsylvania and had this good Samaritan at a muffler shop replace it for free. God had already gotten us through that by putting us where we needed to be at the time we needed to be there. So we figured we had had our mishap and nothing else could go wrong.

 We wanted to be in Rhode Island in two more hours and could not see any reason why we couldn't. We were thinking we could do this next leap onto the next highway without any trouble whatsoever. But we were wrong. We were rolling along when the next thing we knew, we could see the road we wanted. But there was a problem. We had not seen the exit we should have taken, in the midst of all the traffic, and now there was this cement barrier between us and where we needed to be.  We could see the right road. It was right to our left but it seemed we had missed our chance to get there and we started to panic.

The traffic in New York at 10:00 at night and our rush hour traffic in Indianapolis, after work, are the same, tons of cars. Where were all these people from? Why weren't they home in their living rooms?  

Well anyway, we kept driving but kept looking for a way to pull off and figure out how to get back to the exit we had missed. Now this was the middle of New York and getting off to go back could have gotten us really lost so I am glad we never found a way to do this.

It was then that we did what needed to be done. I prayed. Donna prayed. We remembered who was really in control and if we let Him He would lead us to where we needed to be. So even though it seemed we were not where we were supposed to be, going along with God made it right because the next thing we knew the barrier opened up and we could move over onto I-95. 

Life seems to be like this. We can see the road we are supposed to be on but the busyness of life has moved us past the exit we were supposed to take. We think we are totally lost with no way to get to where we need to be but that isn't true. Our loving heavenly father wants to open up the barriers that seem to be blocking our path and get us going in the right direction.

So many of us think that we can do life on our own but we spend so much time looking for a better road, that we forget to depend on the one who sees the correct path ahead.

Don't do like we did. Don't get off tract and panic before you pray and let God show you where you need to be.

Blessings!