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At The Picket Fence with Vanessa Hunt

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November 11, 2010

Bloom Where You’re Planted!

See this little bean plant.

DSC05581 

It may look like an ordinary bean plant to you.  But it represents so much more.  See, this is my girl’s bean plant.  Germinated and planted from a dried out bean hanging out in a half open package of beans purchased a year ago from the grocery store.  Who knows how long this little bean has been sitting around in a bag of other dried out beans waiting to be thrown into a pot of water, cooked and eaten.  That’s what this bean had been reduced to.
But my daughter had bigger aspirations for that bean.  She picked that one special bean out of the many because SHE knew the real purpose for that bean; and in her tenacity she set about revealing what really lay deep inside the core of that little legume. 
This is one of the many things I love about her, she doesn’t know that you “can’t” grow a plant from a dried out, withered up bean meant to be cooked and eaten.  That even the freshest bean is not meant to grow in fall, outside of planting season.  She laid that little bean between wet paper towels, and tended to it faithfully.  Giving it sunlight and keeping it damp…and it sprouted!
Then she placed that little bean in a pot and stuck it here
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in the kitchen windowsill.  Where it was given sunlight, and water, and good soil.  And would you know that bean plant GREW!  It grew BIG!  And even more amazing…it grew new BEANS!
DSC05582 
It created new life!  Didn’t it know it was dried out? Didn’t it know it was October? Didn’t it know it was in a pot and not in the ground?  Didn’t it know it was on a windowsill in a house? Didn’t it know that dad had knocked it over and damaged it’s  stalk?  Didn’t it know it wasn’t where it was supposed to be?  Where it thought it should be?  Didn’t it know it wasn’t in the perfect environment or the ideal situation?  Didn’t it know it had been hurt and broken?  Didn’t it know that things weren’t “right”?
Or maybe it did. 
And it was going to bloom anyway.  Right where it was.  In spite of it’s circumstances.  In spite of feeling dried out and useless.  In spite of being in a temporary place and not really “home”.  In spite of having been broken and tied back into place.
See God has a purpose for the bean.  It is supposed to grow and produce new beans.  Produce fruit.  That is it’s purpose.  And that is ours. To grow wherever we are planted.  To germinate what God has put in us.  To thrive in all circumstances.  To persevere through the dry seasons, through the times when we feel we are just one of the masses and have nothing special or unique about us.
God said in scripture, ” For I know the plans I have for you…. plans for welfare and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11 
God has a plan for you.  He created you with a purpose.  If he created even a little bean to fulfill it’s purpose how much more does he care about YOU!  No matter where you are or when you are in your life. 
Have the faith of a child, that God will do as he promised.  At the beginning of time, he created the bean and promised it would become a plant and produce fruit.  He promised you, his special creation, will also produce fruit in your life, if you will just let him grow you where you are and when you are right now!  Be a fruit bearer.  Be like the bean plant..just doing what God purposed it to do….to grow beans.
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Be like my daughter’s bean plant.
Forget about your surroundings. Forget about how temporary it feels.  Forget about the season not being right in your life.  Forget about the people who tell you “you can’t” “you shouldn’t” “you are dried up”  “you have nothing to give”, the people who have “broken” you… and bloom as God intended you to.  Right here.  Right Now. Right where you are planted.  
All my love to you,
from a fellow “bean plant” trying everyday to bloom where she’s planted.

Leave a Comment Filed Under: Devotionals, Good Thoughts, Simply Sundays

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I've been watching our cherry trees bloom for 12 y I've been watching our cherry trees bloom for 12 years now and every year I ohhhh and ahhhh over the blossoms like it's the first time I've ever seen them. I gush and I take photos (that look exactly like the ones I took the year before and the year before that) and I make my family come outside and look at them with me which you know they just LOVE to do. 😉 I think that is one of the main reasons why I love spring so much. On the one hand, it's predictable and yet, on the other hand, it still feels like such a surprise after the long months of barren branches.

And yesterday, as I was staring at the gorgeous blossoms for the umpteenth time, I couldn't help but think that I hope this is how I feel when our lives return to some semblance of normalcy.

I hope that the predictable feels special and that the typical feels anything but. I hope that I ohhh and ahhh over the simple things I've realized I've taken for granted. And, most of all, I hope that feeling doesn't go away for a very, very long time! 💗
Are you living with great expectation friends? Bec Are you living with great expectation friends? Because He is risen!

Happy Easter from my home to yours!
Lemon bars all ready for tomorrow! It’s going to Lemon bars all ready for tomorrow! It’s going to be a different kind of Easter for sure but some things don’t change. Have you been baking and getting ready for tomorrow? What’s one thing on your menu that you have to have every year?
If this is Good Friday, why doesn’t it feel so “good”? It all seems backward doesn’t it?

What could be good about the unspeakable pain he suffered? What could be good about the shame and betrayal?

Easter Sunday is so joyful, bright and cheery. Shouldn’t that be the day we call “good”? It just feels so much better!

But, I don’t know how to rejoice over His resurrection, unless I have felt the pain of His death. I have realized that in life the sweetest victories are the ones which were realized after a pain-filled journey.

And, so it is with Good Friday. I know there will be victory over death, but I can’t skip ahead in the story.

Jesus knew what was coming. He knew what he would experience. And he knew why he would go through it. He did it for me. He did it for you.

Do you know that? Have you felt it down in the very core of your soul? 
Sometimes it makes me squirm a bit. Why would anyone do that for me?

Well, because, I can’t do it for myself!

There is nothing I can do to earn that kind of love and mercy.

That is why it is called GRACE.

His grace is freely given. We don’t have to pay for it. He paid the price for us already.

Do you remember that movie from years ago called “Ransom”? A couple’s young son was kidnapped and the parents went to hell and back trying to find him and pay the “ransom” demanded by the kidnappers.

Well, Jesus is our “ransom”. (1 Timothy 2:6) His life was the payment.

Why is it called “Good Friday”? Because that wasn’t the end of the story….
.
…It was just the beginning!
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Where are things collecting in your house right now?
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I SO needed this reminder today from the new book ‘Adore’ by @sarahagertywrites.

Adoration isn’t just sitting at His feet gazing longingly with stars in my eyes. It’s bringing my fears and my sorrows and gray roots in my hair that desperately needs to be colored and my messy house and all of the things that threaten to send me over the edge right now and laying them down before Him, soaking up His word and His presence so that when I stand back up, I am changed for having spent the time adoring the ONE who is... Healer, comforter, peace-giver, deliverer, redeemer.

What do you need to bring to Him today? I’ll share mine in the comments and I’d love to hear from you too!
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If you don’t absolutely HAVE to make a decision right now, I want to encourage you to wait until life gets back to normal. If you are finding yourself over-analyzing relationships and family dynamics, I want to encourage you to remember that everything seems more dramatic when looked at under a microscope. And, let’s face it, being homebound with our loved ones non-stop makes us all feel like lab rats in an experiment.

If you are tempted to quit a job, start a business, start homeschooling permanently, stop homeschooling permanently, move to a new city, buy a farm, quit pursuing your dream, join a commune or make any other major life decision just…wait. Because, if it is in fact the right decision, it will be made even clearer once our lives return to their ‘regularly scheduled programming’. Instead, in this strange season, let’s all just take a deep, collective breath and let it out slowly, releasing the anxiety that threatens to overtake us. Let’s help each other maintain some perspective and not slip into a posture of over-thinking every little thing in our lives. Let’s remember that the enemy of our souls would love nothing more than to use this time when things feel dark to manipulate us into thinking that aspects of our lives are worse than they actually are.

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If you’re able to find flour in the stores (for the love people please stop overbuying!) and you’re doing more baking at your house too you need to add this apricot bread to your list of new recipes to try!

Normally I’d point you to my blog for the directions but I’m going to do you a solid and leave the full recipe in the comments.

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