Bloom!

Hey Y’all – Hello- I am so privileged to be able to be with you this month talking about “Bloom, Where You Are Planted.”
I know God has a purpose and a plan for each of us ladies. I am so excited to share with you what I feel like God put on my heart for you.
I want to talk about when we are gardeners. Right? I love to garden. Don’t tell my mom though because she likes to pretend that I never like to garden, but I really do.

Anyway, when we plan, we have to plan to garden! We have to plan that we are going to spend our time in the yard. So, we want to get all of our tools, we want to be ready, right?
We have on specific pants that we might wear, or we have our gardening gloves, we have boots we wear, all of those things when we are planning to spend a day in the yard. Somebody might have a knee pad to use; I know I need a knee pad so that I can walk after I garden. Lol. Anyway, sometimes we need pruning shears, because our bushes might need to be cut back.
Regardless, we have to plan where we are going to plant. If we are planting seeds, we have to know exactly where that is. We have to plot it out, we need an idea and a plan. All these things, that we choose to do in the yard, we have to have a plan.
If we are planting seeds, we have to have a specific type of soil, if you have a plant that has roots attached to it, you have to dig a deep enough hole so that the roots can grow down. You know, sometimes they need to be in sun! Somsometimes they need to be in the shade. All of these things are important to make sure that the plant that we have spent time, energy and our finances on, grows and blooms wherever we choose to plant it.
In the same way, God KNOWS that each of our hearts are specific to his desires, right? If we have set ourselves apart for the Lord, and we have said,
“Ok God, I want you to come and be the gardener of my life. I want you to truly have my full heart, so that I can be put where you think is best.”
So often we say that, but we don’t really understand what that means. Often, we will say,
“God, we want you to do what you want to do in our lives.”
But then, when it comes time and God says ok this is what I want you to do, we are kind of like the thorny branch on a rose bush and kind of prickly about it, maybe. Or we don’t, you know we just say I am not going to do that, or it just kind of makes us feel uncomfortable.
I imagine it’s the same, for a plant that is already rooted in a pot, and then we say, “you would be best planted in this flower garden over here with flowers and plants that are completely different from you but you will grow together and really flourish in this same flower garden.”
Or you have seeds that you know specifically need the sun. So you dig the dirt out in the ground so that you can in turn (you know have a seed that is deep enough, or I am sorry a hole that is deep enough for the plant to grow. All of these things are similar to when we ask the Lord, “God, put us where you want us to be.”

When we submit our lives to the Lord, we often times don’t really understand fully what we are saying, (or maybe we do) and we are all gluttons for punishment. I am just kidding! But I think sometimes, when we truly understand what it means to “bloom” um…it is a process, just like planting, just like gardening!
The actual definition of bloom is, that the roots are actually the livelihood of what is being planted. So I want to go quickly to Romans 12:1, let me get there real quick.
In Romans 12:1 it says,
“Therefore, I urge you brothers, in view of God’s mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God, this is your spiritual act of worship.”
So when we surrender our lives to God as a holy sacrifice, we are saying, “ God, I honor you and I will do whatever it is that you call me to do.”
Not all of us are called to be in ministry, not all of us are called to not be in ministry. Some of us are called to be mothers, some of us are called to be stay-at home -moms, some of us are called to be working-at home -moms. And you know, working-At home moms we work outside of the house and inside of the house, right? Because, we all know being a mom is a full-time job. But some of us are called to do marketplace ministry which is super important because we need to be able to build relationship with the community in which we reside. Then in turn we can show the love of Jesus to them and in that, have that opportunity to be able to share Jesus with them.
Some of us are called to do positions inside the church, like me right now. If you don’t know, Sal and I and the girls, we have moved to North Carolina. I am currently the Children’s Pastor on staff and that’s not something that I ever thought in my life that I would do!! But I have submitted my heart and my life to God, and I said, “Lord whatever it is that you choose for me to do in this season, I will obey.”

So, I want to talk about in Jeremiah 17, what it talks about. You know we are talking about gardening. We are talking about planting and we are talking about how, if we allow our hearts and our lives to be living sacrifices, acts of worship unto God; that we will allow our roots to grow down deep wherever the gardener, (God) chooses to plant us.
In Jeremiah 17 verse 7 it says,
“But blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in Him. He will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes, its leaves are green and lush. It has no worries in the year of drought and never fails to bear fruit.”
How wonderful that we would bear fruit all the time. Now we all know that when plants are planted correctly, and that they get sun and water or shade and some type of fertilizer, that their roots will in fact, grow down deep. And they will bear fruit.
It is one of my favorite times of year in the Spring! When we have done all of the work to plant, and we are able to see the fruit of our labor. It’s very similar in our lives when we choose to allow God to plant us, to be the gardener of our lives and put us where HE chooses.
See in the same way ladies, how we know what the plant needs, God knows what we need. Now there may be seasons of pruning, that is what a good gardener does, it cuts back the old to leave room for the new growth. And that’s where I want to talk to you real quick in the next couple of minutes. I am talking about “Blooming, where you are planted.”

So, a little bit about me. We have had a great journey in our marriage. We have been married for 19 years. But in that time there have been lots of different callings and lots of different seasons. It was our choice and MY choice in those moments, to allow God to do what He wanted to do in my life, so that I could ‘Bloom’ in those seasons.
So often, like many of you know from me sharing at the women’s conference, we were church planters in the city of Detroit, Michigan for about 8 years. Now the beginning of that season was beautiful and our roots grew down deep. It was because we allowed God to plant us there and letting our roots grow down deep, that when the hard season came and it was time to leave there, our roots were still down deep within the Lord and in His word.
See, we need to be very careful that when we are planted by God, that we also allow our roots to grow deep. It’s not just in the place that you are in, but in your “relationship and maturity in Christ”. If we don’t have maturity in Christ, when seasons come, we won’t be like those trees we read about in Jeremiah. And our leaves will be rotten. They’ll dry up. Our roots will dry up and we will not bear the fruit that God intended for us to bear.

So, no matter where you are today, no matter if you’re starting a business, um…no matter if you’re in a new position, no matter if you’re in a season of sickness; I know a lot of us have had a lot of sickness the last couple of years because of COVID. Maybe you even feel like you’re in a season of isolation.

I want to encourage you today to allow God to be the gardener of your life. In this moment, no matter where you are, close your eyes and say,
“God, please help me to ‘bloom’ where you have planted me.”

Because in every season of life there is a different calling, in every season of life God can choose to call us to work at Starbucks like I did. To be a pastor’s wife, like I was, like I am, to be a pastor, like I am. To be a stay-at-home mom, like I have been, to be a parent of a college student, which I am. All of these things are part of my journey and part of where God chooses to plant me. And it’s my choice to have my heart turned towards God so that I can receive the nutrients that I need from His word. So that I can grow deep roots because I need his WATER, I need his LOVE and I need my obedience to be able to allow for the fertilized ground that he has planted me in to give me nutrients. Why? So that I can become who it is that he wants me to be.
Every season of life ladies, like Spring, Summer, Fall or Winter, it all brings new challenges. It all brings new joys and then prepares us for the next season. So, wherever you are today, I want to encourage you. Be like this tree in Jeremiah 17:7, and allow your roots to grow down deep so that you can “Bloom Where You Are Planted.”
Thank you for allowing me to share with you today, I am so grateful to be a part of the Women of Western Europe. I love ya’ll, Talk Soon.