Saturday, May 15, 2010

Bloom Where You Are Planted



















1 Chronicles 4:10 "And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me! And God granted him that which he requested."

I am really reminiscing on this one, it goes way back to the late 70's.  Let me start at the beginning, hope you have time, we had gotten saved in 1974, about two years later my dear husband was called to preach.  Well he started praying, *long before the prayer of Jabez was ever written in a little book* and this verse he claimed, 1 Chronicles 4:10, he surrendered his all to the lord, and ask him to enlarge his coast, to give him the mission field he wanted us to serve in, to give him the strength to carry out any assignment the lord would give.
We lived in Jacksonville, FL at that time, January 1 1980 God called us to Miami, FL. I sure did not want to go there, but being the obedient wife, and obedient child of God I held in my feelings. We packed our my belongings, our children, and away we went.
Bound for a new ministry, a new life, with all new surroundings.

Well I wish I could tell you I was happy, because we were in the lord's will, but I was not, I kept praying oh God why did you send us to this strange land. Of all the places, to a place we did not speak the language, and the people were different than I was used to. Well After a couple of months, and a very bad battle with a virus, I surrendered my will to God also. Anywhere he would send, I prayed lord use us, and let us be a blessing to others. I had finally settled in, started working with the youth, and we had a good life going. I was started to get rooted again, in my little garden of life. Then one day my dear husband said I feel a strange drawing to the west, and we giggled and he said, is that you lord saying, *Go West Young Man, Go West* well strangely enough a pastor called from Colorado, wanting us to come and be assistants Pastor with him, and youth director. Well we packed up, giving away more of our belongings and away we went to the Rocky mountains of Colorado, well some strange things were happening in this church, and we only stayed there about 10 months, then defeated and broken we came back to FL, we had to stay with friends, and start from scratch once again. By now I am getting tired of moving, and tired of being in others care, and just plain tired of living the life of a preacher.
Shame on me, I never was vocal about this, but just keep harboring ill feelings for some, and even for my husband, that was dragging me all over.

We did get back on our feet, he went to work as a Superintendent on construction, and God worked it all out for us to buy some land, and put a home on it. Now finally I had my own home, I could relax  and just serve the lord with all gladness, and things would be all hunky dory, WRONG...
I actually felt like I was being planted, and I was growing, and I was doing all the things I wanted to do, *Now tell me does that statement look right to you?* Kinda looks like that statement in Isaiah made by Satan huh. Well that was most of my problem, I was not blooming where I was planted, I was shriveling up, and ready to drop my leaves.

My dear husband had to have back surgery, WOW now what am I going to do, that my first thought, how will we survive now, well in case you do not know, we serve a very big God, who is very capable in caring for his children,  He did, we never missed a meal, we never missed paying a bill, and I fell on my face one night after I came home from the hospital from seeing my beloved, and ask God to take that selfish streak out of me, to replace it with a giving Spirit, of love and kindness, to take the bitter feelings I had away, and to replace them with a worshipping heart to God. I got up different that night. God took care of us, always had, and he always will, not long after that my husband became a Pastor, we were trying to plant a church in Georgia, well God planted us, and honestly I seen myself bloom as never before, I was becoming what God wanted of me, He has the lead in my life, and my dear husband follows him, as I follow my husband, happily and gladly serving God where ever we go.
Now my dear friend, let me ask you to search your own heart, are you following God obediently and not holding back any thing from him, he want to use you, he wants to make you bloom like the finest rose in your garden. Let him, yes  just let go and let God.

God bless you today, lots of Hugs, Barbara♥

17 comments:

*Reading Between the Lines* said...

Barbara,
Thank You for that post!
God truly is in control, if will let Him.
Yes, we should bloom where we are planted...
but, my aren't we stubborn people.
I want God to be in control...I just have to get out of the way...
Love you,
Nancy
aka Mommy 2

Barbara said...

Oh we are so much happier too when we are letting God do his work in and through us, instead of doing it our way, praise God that we do learn eventually, hugs

A Gardner's Cottage said...

Hello Barbara,

I love this post as I so gently needed the reminder to bloom where I am planted. So often I tend to bloom, but not like God wants me to. I just planted 6 flats of flowers this afternoon and want them to grow and show off. What a great reminder they will be.

All glory to God!

How was that chicken dinner?

Aliene said...

Barbara, I enjoyed reading about some of your life. I really want to bloom where I am planted. God has planted us where we are and we want to be the best laymen that we know how. We feel we have a responsibility to pray for our pastor, his family, all of the staff of the church. Especially for our youth that Satan won't get a strong hold on them. I feel now in our senior years that we have much to do with the Lord's help.

Jan said...

Wonderful to read your testimony, Barbara, how many of us are as obedient as you are?
Glad you have your own home and are so happy as the years go by.
Thank you for your beautiful comment and I do hope you will join me on Simple Joys.... it will be open all the time with a new start on Saturday.
Love and Many Blessings - Jan

Glennis said...

Bloom where your planted, that right but not always easy. So glad you are where your meant to be now, it makes a big difference. I am also where I am meant to be, I think, life is just lovely when its all going nicely and God is in control.

Karen said...

Wonderful testimony! I want to bloom for the Lord...but I know all the beautiful flowers have to arise from the dirt and be fertilized before their true colors will show...

Lynda R Young as Elle Cardy said...

great post. I've been doing a lot of searching lately also. I kept wanting God to direct me somewhere. In the meantime I stood still. I forgot to actually trust Him enough to simply move forward.

Joyce said...

I too have learned to bloom where I am planted. We've moved a lot in our married life and I think we all have a choice as to whether we will be miserable or will we find contentment 'in whatever circumstance I'm in'...thanks for sharing your story here. Have a nice week!

The Red Brick Farmhouse said...

What a wonderful testimony, Barbara! I so want to "Bloom Where I Am Planted" and be the person God wants be to be. I want my light to shine for HIM!

Let go and LET GOD!

Blessings~
Laura

Lori said...

What a beautiful post about being obedient even when we don't feel like it.
Thanks for commenting on my blog. If you didn't, I would have never found you.

HOPE said...

Hi Barbara..thank you so much for the encouraging comment and new friendship. I believe I have visited your blog before and might have left a comment.

I'll be back to visit..

Blessings and Blooming!!
HOPE

Dee said...

Barbara thank you for openly and honestly giving us a peek into your life of being the wife of a pastor. A couple of my friends are pastors wives and it is not an easy journey. Just as a pastor is called by the Lord, I feel the wife is also called by the Lord to be the pastors wife. I believe you do have to learn to be content where you are to get a bloom on your flower. I think you are dear Barbara a blooming bouquet.

Barbara said...

Awe Dee I so agree with you, when the man is called the wife is also, and usually God touches our hearts before he even calls our men. It is very difficult moving from place to place, it was not as bad when my children were young, but now grown and married and away leaving all I loved behind was very difficult at times, but I am truly adjusting and God keeps me up close to him, that makes it all possible. If I were not snuggled against the Saviour's chest(like John) oh I could not go on at times, he is my life, my way, and definitely the inspiration to live by. Look what he did for me. ♥

Camille said...

What a beautiful post of surrender to the LORD! How precious that HE brought you to the place of submission to HIS will for you! May the LORD use you day by day in the life HE has you living! :)

Lovely to "meet" you! Thanks for stopping by my blog and leaving a sweet comment. The LORD is so good to us, isn't HE?

Blessings,
Camille

Tales From My Empty Nest said...

Thanks for visiting, Barbara. I always love new visitors. And you are a Southern gal, as well. Love & blessings from NC!

Nishant said...

I love this post as I so gently needed the reminder to bloom where I am planted.
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