My next-door neighbor has a flowerbed of perennials that have been expertly planted to bloom in waves beginning in the spring and ending with the first freeze. My family and I enjoy watching the groupings of flowers as they each get their time to shine. It warms my heart to know that the Master Gardener made a point to bring us such delicate and intricately crafted beauty. My mind could not begin to comprehend the beauty of the intricacies he’s woven into each of us. But somehow, I often forget that it is at his pace that life moves and growth occurs.
“You are a beautiful flower planted where God wants you, but you are trying so hard to grow that you are pulling your roots out of the ground. He wants to nourish you right where you are. Rest assured you will grow and flourish at his pace. He’s got you.”
A precious friend shared this word with me many years ago when we were in college. I was doing all the things I “should” such as: serving, praying, going to church multiple times a week and so on. But still, I struggled with feeling behind in many ways. I remember the rolling thoughts of, “I should have already learned this by now!” The issue rooted in this line of thinking is that it assumes God doesn’t have my best interest at heart and that I know better than him. It also aims my focus right on myself instead of him. Yikes! Thankfully, he didn’t leave me in that cycle of thinking. He shared the truth with me through my friend to look back on. When that image comes to mind, I feel such peace in surrendering myself to the Lord. It reminds me that he is in control and that it’s not my job to set a timeline for myself or anyone else. It is my job to trust in him and remain in him. As Paul urges us in John 15:5, “Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing.” What a wonderful truth to cling to and to set me straight.
Over the years the feeling of being behind has crept in cunningly in various forms. It has barged in first thing in the morning as a worry that I did not get enough sleep and now I’m feeling behind on tackling my day. Other times it rears its ugly head in the form of comparison. And sadly, it pops up with my children as I want them to hit milestones on time or preferably early. Ugh. I know in my heart that these are all tricks the enemy uses to dishearten me and distract me. And I also know that I do not want to pass this thought process down to my children or inadvertently put them under the stress of meeting my false expectations for them.
The truth is that I’m not behind and neither are you. He is the Creator, the Timeline-Maker and the Pacesetter. If I’m abiding in him then there’s no need worry, toil or strain. The verbs he asks of us are much more peaceful. We are to remain in him, surrender to him, obey him and love as he loves. His word points me right back to his peace and joy of knowing he holds the master plan. Ephesians 1:4 says, “Even before he made the world, God loved us and chose us in Christ to be holy and without fault in his eyes.“ He has a plan for each of us to bloom at his pace just as the flowers bloom each year in their own time.
We want to thank D’Anna Coleman for sharing this post.