As I tended my flowers in the early morning sunshine I thought about how amazing they really are, and how little I can do for them if they are planted in the wrong place. I water and fertilize them, dead head and weed them. Yet, I can't make them flourish if they are planted in the wrong place.

I had two potted plants flanking either side of the patio steps. One is gorgeous lush, blooming and hanging over the edges of the planter blooming with wild abandonment, the colors exploding from the container. You can see it from afar and it radiates color and vitality. The other, while getting the same treatment from me, didn't get the sunshine because it's in a shady location. I had planted it with flowers that need full sun for optimum results, and set it in a shady location. (Yah, duh) They are alive but lack luster, very few blooms and scrawny little plants, leaning to the right seeking the sun. One look at them and you can see they are struggling and in need of more help then I can give them.

Smiling and shaking my head I moved them to a sunny spot, confident now that they would be fabulous once they were exposed to the sunshine. I couldn't believe it taken me so long to clue into the reason for the struggle. I know the next few days I will have to pamper them just a tad as the transition may put them into a bit of shock.

I couldn't help but relate to the plants in the pot...there was nothing wrong with the plants, or the pot they were planted in. Everything they needed to thrive was supplied to them, there was only one problem...Location, Location, Location!

I couldn't help but think of all my forum friends, (especially cupcake, and locklady...) We were full sun flowers, some of us were set in the shade being tended by humans, doing all the right things, and thinking they are doing whats best for us...weeding, fertilizing (naturally with goat manure ) and watering us, and protecting us from the full hot sun, get we struggled, stretching towards the sun. We had all we needed except the one thing we can't thrive without...Full Son. (no filtered version will do)

Too many head gardeners see their plants struggling to reach the sun never realizing without being totally exposed to the Son with no shadows to protect us we will never reach our potential, by filtering the "Son" they remove the very thing that is vital to our existence. Sometimes a change in location is just what we need. Once we move into the Full Son we will bloom and grow with wild abandonment, overflowing our containers with color and life.

All of us here are in different plants in different pots and locations, some content in the shade, some stretching for the sun, some in the shocking transition stage, some beginning to bloom, while others are thriving...let's remember where ever we are we are all growing together, and all have the same Son, without whom we would parish.

We can bloom where we're planted, but to move into the "Son~shine" and bloom profusely is pure joy.
...not everyone is a shade plant!

Love,
~grace

Grace, although I think the anology has some good points, I don't see it as comprehensive of Christian life, and neither could I find it's base grounded in Scripture. And I also don't agree with your implications.

No anology can give a complete accurate picture of Christian life, but imagine a flower planted out in a patch of weeds, or grass. Most likely the weeds or grass will take over, and the flower, if it blooms at all, will not be seen. However, that same flower, planted strategically in a flower bed of lots of other flowers, doesn't stand out from all the rest of the flowers so much, but is healthy, strong, etc. and when watered, fed, and weeded by the caretaker of the garden (Jesus), is a beautiful sight to see. But a Master Gardener, if He finds a flower out in a patch of weeds, will dig it up from it's roots, and find a strategic place in the flower bed for it....

Have a good day.

Thanks Grace, for your thoughts.
TR you seem to be kinda missing the point and yet in some ways are condensing and saying exactly wht Grace is trying to point out. Many of us spend years stuck in some out of the way place, feeling like we are banging our heads against the wall, not prospering spiritually, feeling caged, dried up, wilted, squashed, cornered, pressured to fit a mold God did not create, trying to give our all to be what God wants us to be, and yet held to the conformity of man, not The Son. Then suddenly we are able to be set free and find the Son in our face, lighting our world, blooming where we have been replanted and becoming a joyous person.
I have a sister-in-law that moved from one H cong/state, to another H cong in another state. The transformation was truly incredible. I know a number of other H in similar situations that have seen incredible change. Unfortunately for some reason we have not been able to move to that other place where we could grow. But God has put us in another place where we are. The difference is undescribable. There is definitely much merit in being replanted by the SON.

Love and prayers, Locklady

"and weeded by the caretaker of the garden (Jesus), is a beautiful sight to see."


What TR REALLY meant to say is this: "weeded by the caretaker of the garden(Our Chruch, or Our People) is
a beautiful sight to see.

Very beautiful post Grace, very, very nice. I had two Hybrid Teas(church members) giving me trouble, had light leaves(not dedicated to the church) and veins showing(definite rebellion to the ministers teaching), This is
an indication of lacking iron and/or magnesium,(lacking love for the church), so I proceeded to mix up epsom salt and liquid iron,( put them on repentance) and watered that in,, in three days they responded with viberant dark leaves(they came around to "our" way of thinking) and stated blooming a week later, providing georgous roses.(became excellent followers of our church).

Jas 1:17* Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.


God doesn't have to hide the truth, neither withhold full disclosure.

Good points, TR, but what do you do with the parable of the tares in your analogy? Matthew 13:24-30.

>>Good points, TR, but what do you do with the parable of the tares in your analogy? Matthew 13:24-30.<<

Christ's parables were directed towards the Pharisees, not the Holdemans.

Besides, in Holdieland, St. Paul's instructions on church discipline (and pretty much anything else) trump those of Christ...

TR, like Locklady says you actually are on the same line of thought as I am, however you missed the part were we can "do" all the right things with our power but while filtering the light of Jesus in our lives we will not grow and thrive. I'm not saying that without the fertilizer the water the weeding we would grow but the combination of the two give great results.

BTW TR, there is no need to get all defensive, I hadn't even thought H church or ex scenario till you were going on about not standing out but blending into the garden with all the flowers that look the same.
LOL honestly TR, You cracked me up! Haven't you seen the beautiful wild flowers blooming in the mountain meadows, or the tropical jungles with the striking exotic blooms? They must be the "other flowers" that just haven't been exposed to the one true garden. (just kidding you...)

I was thinking more along the lines of trying to be someone your not, or like locklady said feeling the pressure to conform to the environment we are in.

If you want Biblical backing for my analogy you may want to go read about Jonah. He wasn't prospering where he was, and God wanted him somewhere else. He struggled for sometime if I remember right....

" He wasn't prospering where he was, and God wanted him somewhere else."


There is one cetain thing, If your going to go with God, you can't stay where you're at.

TR; I think it is a matter of semantics... and maybe some understanding or view of ourselves. As I just said to Doug elsewhere; compared to God, we are sinners with blighted lives. We are "sinners" saved by grace, but will not be perfect till the resurrection.

To repeat, Menno Simons, one of my mentors says: "Death is but to cease from sinning". We can rest and "bloom brightly", but ONLY in the sunshine of God's love; Jesus Christ.

Thanks Grace; for your great inspirational insight.

>>I have a sister-in-law that moved from one H cong/state, to another H cong in another state. The transformation was truly incredible. I know a number of other H in similar situations that have seen incredible change. Unfortunately for some reason we have not been able to move to that other place where we could grow.<<

So what are you saying here,Locklady? If you could have moved to an H church where the atmosphere was different and you would have been better accepted then you would have been open to staying in? Since some of us can't move but if there's problems and we leave the church then how is all this...something about this thing of some places being easier to live in doesn't seem right. I know it's true because I hear this a lot about other places. It's too bad a one true isn't more consistent. Downright irritating,actually.

cupcake a couple yrs ago we were going thru a very trying time when Our family was deemed severely lacking in social skills and even though we had several children in VS units and our D and SIl were the house parents of a unit, our son was not allowed to go to the unit of his choice, which was decided 3 days before he was to be there. the minister that was in charge of that unit had absolutely no clue what was going on at all and he knew our entire family and was fine with what had been previously planned, even our home minister in charge had no clue what had happened. The minister in charge of that unit told our children that the best thing we could do was move from this place to somewhere else because, he said, "even Christ was not accepted in his home country." Unfortunately moving does not seem to be the option God has chosen for us right now, nor does it seem to be the one for a lot of other folks.
I just wish some OTVC folks would realise just how far true Christian love and consideration would go and actually go out of their way to get to know some of those going thru some of these struggles and find out where they are coming from and realise how so many of them actually have the same struggles and trials in life and stop making a life style a God that must be lived in order to be saved. Some of those folks from the outside would have some true spiritual insight to give if they were given a chance