Bloom Where You Are Planted

 

A Post from John…

 When I first read this phrase, it struck me with the thought that the place where you and I find ourselves in this vast world has been ordained by God’s sovereign will. It may be in a major city with millions of people, or a very rural town with people few and far between. It may be in a different country with mountains all about or even in a flat, dry desert region. Countless possibilities. It’s where God has ‘planted’ us and His good intentions are for us to prosper and thrive where ever we find ourselves.

Now thinking back with me to what we learned in elementary school… once a plant is ‘planted’, it begins to grow and mature as it is fed and watered. In time, it begins to produce flower buds that will shortly ‘bloom’ and produce fruit, the very fruit that will contain the seeds that will produce more plants of its kind.

To me, this is a wonderful visual showing the goodness of God. His intentions are for us to not only be content wherever we find ourselves but also to help and encourage those around us. How do we find the desire, strength and ability to be a help to those we come in contact? How do we effectively encourage one another? The answers comes in the choice we make in the source of our ‘food and water’.

If we choose to ‘feed and drink’ on impurity, hatred, discord, jealousy, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy… the ugly things people do in this world… we will produce ‘bad fruit’. But if we are ‘feeding and drinking’ on love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control, we will produce ‘good fruit’.

So, BLOOM WHERE YOU ARE PLANTED and with God’s help, choose to produce ‘good fruit’, that you may help and encourage those that come into your path where ever you live.