It's Not What's Around You, But Who Is Within You That Allows Growth

 

It's not what's around you that determines your growth and survival of hard conditions, it's what you're rooted in.

It's WHO is within you that keeps you and makes all the difference in how you live through the hard things you encounter.

Ephesians 3:17-19 reminds us with, "so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; and that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which surpasses knowledge, that you may be filled up to all the fullness of God".

What grounds you determines your growth. 

When a plant is rooted it may still find a way to grow and bloom in the most unpleasant situations.  So it is with us as we find our roots anchored in Jesus.  John 15:4 tells us, "Abide in Me, and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me."

It's Jesus within you that will make the difference of how you see your hardship and find strength to navigate it.  It is He within you where you find unexplainable peace and wisdom in the midst of hard and unexpected situations.

It's so easy to blame circumstances and other people for the hardships and difficult circumstances and relationship drama that we find ourselves in.  While what is happening around us matters and affects us it doesn't have the final say or verdict on our growth.  It only has that power if we allow it to define us.  The greatest influence is within our own hearts.  What is within our hearts reveals and determines the growth of our souls or the lack thereof.

Yes, people have a responsibility for their actions, but so do we.  We have the power to choose.

John 15:4 tells us - "Abide in Me and I in you.  As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in Me."

Take a moment to sit with Jesus.

Learn more of who He is.

Choose His greater truth.

Grab God's words of truth and don't let go when you're in the darkness and even if you don't feel it.

It will still change you and your perspective.

I'm not going to deny or overlook that it's much easier to bloom when the circumstances around us are good, fertile, and the right conditions.  But we all know that life hands us the unexpected, what we didn't want to live out, and even in those times we can learn to bloom and thrive when we are connected to Jesus because He tells us that He wants to fill us with Himself.

When a plant is rooted, it may still find a way to grow and bloom.  So it is with us, as we abide and stay with Jesus, we will find a way to bloom.

So, if you find yourself stuck or maybe living in repeated and unhealthy habits, check your connection to the One who loves you.  Your behaviours and actions will follow your focus and connection.

The Realities of the Rose

Perspective. 

If I had a conversation with you about the rose, I wonder what you would tell me.  What do you think of or see when you see a rose?

Do you see the rose?

Or do you see the thorns?

Would you say, "I would not want roses in my flower garden, they hurt!"  Or would you say, "I love roses in my flower garden, they smell so good?"

Both are present. Both are a reality. 

Some days I see the rose and then there are those days and moments when I see the thorns. The truth is, some days we need to grieve the 'thorns' because they hurt.

But what we focus on affects our experience and the outcome.  Our behaviour will follow what we focus on.  If I dwell on the fact that there are thorns and let that consume me, I likely will not have roses in my flower garden.  

What I choose to focus on does not deny the presence of the other.  Just because I focus on the beauty and enjoy the scent of roses does not negate or deny the reality of the thorns.  

What I choose to see will make all the difference in how I view the rose.

So it is with my circumstances, my hard, my what-I-would-not-choose in my story. I have a choice on what I dwell on.  What I dwell on will affect my behaviour and the choices I make.  

Dwelling on the negative and clinging to what I want life to look like will cause me much stress, worry, and added pain.

Choosing to look for the gifts that are present, releases the endorphins that lower the stress of the pain and impact on my body.  

Releasing control, surrendering to the story I am in is accepting the thorns on the stem of the rose.  As I accept, surrender, release, call it what you want to the 'thorns'; I become more more aware and appreciate the gifts more deeply along with the hardship of the thorns.

To focus on what I am feeling due to how life's trauma and hard impact me is important and helps me to choose to focus on God and what I learn about Him and life along the way.

Choosing to stay with God, the Life-giver, will make the difference on how I process all that crosses and walks with me on this journey of life. 

To focus on one does not deny the existence of the other but it does change and alter the course of my day.  Actually, to deny one you will deny the other.  To deny the truth of the thorns in many ways affects the truth of enjoying the flower.  A greater awareness of the thorn gives way to a heightened enjoyment of the flower.

Oftentimes it's the fragile dance of living with both but putting a greater weight on one.

To acknowledge what hurts, my anger, my disappointment but then shifting my concentration to Jesus, opening up to the possibilities that just may lie within the hardship. Owning the hard and how it hurts can give space and way to healing in ways that just may surprise you.

The Value and Language of Tears

Tears.

Psalm 56:8, "You have taken account of my wanderings; put my tears in Your bottle.  Are they not in Your book?"

Tears give voice to the emotions we feel deep within our hearts and souls, whether it is a conscious thought or a subconscious one.  Sometimes we've learned to squelch the feelings that rise to the surface when we experience a happening or what someone says to us.

What happens is stored within us unless we give it space to be and it finds its way through us to healing, whether it's a hard and painful emotion or a joy-filled emotion.

Then another thing may happen to us and it adds to what is stored within us - a word spoken, a death, a rejection, being overlooked, an ache and longing, you name it; and the tears come.

When they come, in all our vulnerability, we often turn our faces, brush our cheeks to hide their trail.

Why do we so often turn our face to shield the trail of tears that leave their shiny mark on our cheeks?  In some ways we feel, maybe shame that they are present.  We may feel exposed, naked, and vulnerable as the tears leave our eyes and trail down our cheeks?

But tears are seen and cared for by God.  Tears are important, so important that God collects them and puts them in a bottle.

There is space for tears and they matter.  What causes them matters. I picture God gently holding the bottle, tracing the trail of tears and carefully and gently guiding them into the opening.  The He writes about it.  He may name them or maybe He writes what we say and name as we pour out our hearts to Him along with the tears.

Tears tell us that something and/or someone matters a whole lot.

Tears are the language of grief.  They speak of weariness.  They hold the ache of unmet longings and desires.  They mourn for the ones we love who have gone on to their eternal home.  They leave their trail as we laugh hard.  Tears fill our eyes as we witness joyous reuniions and moments.  Tears of repentance soften our hearts.

Tears are healthy.  They was our hearts, souls, and minds, cleansing us from the toxicity of stress and pain, again and again.

Tears are a language.  The next time tears come, listen to what they are telling you and treasure them just as God does.  Listen to the voice they are saying and give space for them, allowing their cleansing and healing work to take place.