Week after week my husband and I sat on the family pew, wanting to leave but never feeling a peace about doing so. We loved the people, for it was the church I grew up in and the church my husband was baptized in, however there was a restlessness in both of us. My husband was a pastor but at the time didn’t have a church to serve in so we were trying to find a place to fit in back at our home church.
Bloom where you are planted. These words kept coming to my mind as I visualized the magnet I had on my refrigerator. It had a place of prominence on the large, black appliance because we have lived in so many different places. I’d long ago made up my mind that no matter where I was and no matter what the circumstances I would be content and live life to the fullest. God was telling me to do the same thing concerning our church.
We were already singing in the choir so to bloom we looked for opportunities to teach and we were given a Sunday School class to lead and then both my husband and I were asked to teach Bible Studies. For years we taught others and continued to grow spiritually.
After awhile my husband was contacted and asked to supply preach at a nearby church. We left the family pew and for three weeks served at another church. It was as if we were pulled out of the ground and placed for a short time where needed just like I sometimes pull up a blooming plant out of my flowerbed and put it in a container to be placed on my kitchen table where it was needed for a special occasion. We looked at the three weeks as an assignment from the Lord and for a short time we were planted and we continued to bloom.
We never made it back to the family pew. My husband was called to be their interim pastor and then their full-time pastor. Bloom where you are planted—it’s more than just a magnet on my refrigerator, but something I try to do no matter where I am. God has a plan for our lives, and we need to trust Him—always being content where we are and giving Him our best no matter what the circumstances.
Are you blooming where you are planted at this moment?
“But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly, . . . for I have learned to be content in
whatever circumstances I am,” (Phil. 4:10, 11 NASB).
photos courtesy of morguefile.com
That’s a great story Beth. It’s easy to look at small opportunities as not important, but I love the application of blooming in the small opportunities since we never know what God will do!