Hello my treasured friends! I hope you are enjoying and embracing this week, as the days go by. I am hoping this last week has been a good one, but if it has been anything but, I encourage you to take a break and step outside your door, to witness the vibrant colors surrounding you, or at least the first signs of Spring beginning to pop up around us. Sometimes simple pleasures such as this, can help you get refreshed and back on track. It helps to just take a few minutes from life's challenges, and enjoy the positive beauty happening around you. You might have to look hard or take a drive to see it, but it is beginning. If you are in a colder climate, just know it is right around the corner waiting to greet you :) As a matter of fact, I can relate a bit, to those of you in colder areas, as we have traveled from the San Diego area, seven hours to Mammoth Lakes California. Here temperatures are still cold enough, and snow is everywhere. As we are out and about the next few days enjoying nature, I will be looking diligently, to see any signs of Spring making its way through the blanket of snow.
If you love the process of blooming, I invite you to refer back to my last post titled Spring Is In Full Swing. I have tried to document the joy of spring all around the area I live, in the San Diego area, located in So Cal. I can't tell you enough, how I have been in awe of the colors that are springing up everywhere. Spring has Sprung, and there is something new and beautiful to see daily. This remarkable process parallels our journey of growth, and how beauty is revealed as we discover and develop ourselves. We can see this more clearly as we grow and venture forward, pushing through apprehension, fear, complacency, being stuck, and more. Just imagine if a flower was apprehensive to burst through the soil and reveal it's beauty, it would never be able to accomplish its potential and bless others. How similar it is for us. If we stifle who we were meant to be, or what makes us feel complete, look at the effect that has on ourselves and others around us. We were meant to shine bright as the scripture tells us in Matthew 5:16 In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
How do we accomplish this, you ask? We can uncover some answers, just by studying the process of blooming. Think about the life of a flower, which starts as a seed or bulb. There is a natural God given programing deep within it's DNA to push through adversity and spring up, as the season progresses, and the sun shines upon it. The seed get its strength by growing up and out of the soil, drawing energy from just the right amount of sunlight and the nourishment it gets from the soil. It feeds off the water ordained by God, which falls from the sky. It is a natural process that happens, I consider a gift from God. All that seed needs to do, is allow itself to go through the process, and not fight it, when it is being supplied by the elements it needs to grow. I consider this a gift, because if the right combination is not present consisting of the warmth of the sun, the water that is gifted to us from our creator, the insects that pollinate when it is time, and more we would not have the beautiful outcome this process produces, as we enjoy flowers, fruits, vegetables, pants, shrubs, and trees. This process is all in perfect timing and can not be rushed. You can not command a bud to bloom if the adequate amount of time has not been allotted. It is not as easy as snapping your fingers. We are much the same way. It takes time and a consistent effort, which creates new habits. If we reach out and embrace the positive elements that are supplied to us, grab hold of them, and allow progress in our lives; there is such beauty that can come from this as time goes by. There is a process of transformation that is set in motion, which begins to activate, as we go with the flow of this process.
Many times change and growth are not comfortable, but can have an amazing outcome. Sometimes having some adversity in our lives, is what get's our attention and activates this process. Pressure causes growth and as a flower makes it's way up through the soil, it gains strength. Recognizing we can't do it on our own and realizing we need nourishment from outside sources, is half the battle. I believe our Heavenly Father can supply the sources needed to activate growth and change, we just need to be open, and embrace it. Many times something needs to happen on the inside to get our engines started. Often there is some reprograming and healing that need to take place as God provides His Holy Spirit to work in our lives. Asking and seeking Him through prayer is the best place to start, and the perfect place to activate change and freedom. What do you have to loose? Many times we find our greatness through trial and error. It is in the journey, that our best discoveries happen.
As we apply these principles in our life, we can also look at scripture as being an excellent source to learn from and anchor ourselves to, as we walk through life and embrace change and growth. Scripture is the "word of God", and "the word" has been described as a metaphor in "seed," the "soil" is used to describe "our heart." We see this in The Parable of the Sower in the Holy Bible in Matthew 13 verses 1-23. You can also read about The Parable of the Weeds, and the Parable of the Mustard Seed from the same chapter in verses 24-46. There is so much that can be learned by digesting these scriptures and parables; they have insightful life application attached to them. I will include a link so you can read about the seed that has been sown and snatched up by the birds, the seed that has fallen on rocky places where it did not have much soil to grow, the seed that fell among thorns and choked out it's growth, and the seed that fell on good soil and produced a crop https://www.biblestudytools.com/matthew/13.html
As I was reading in a book this morning written by a lovely friend I met at a seminar, named Laura Lopez, she quoted a scripture in The Holy Bible that helped give her assurance through a rough time in her life when she unexpectedly lost her 21 year old son. The book is titled, What Do I do with This Pain, and I highly recommend it if you have gone through anything similar to this in your life. She tells her story and gives first-hand loving principals on how you can get through something as life changing as this, and come out stronger from it. It is her personal experience on how to keep living when someone you love dies. The scripture she quoted which I thought went so perfectly with this post is from Proverbs 30:5 "Every word of God is flawless; he is a shield to those who take refuge in him." I will include a few resources to this book.
As I come to a close with this post on Seeds, Growth, and Blooming, I feel as if I am going to continue on this subject as God leads. There will be more enlightening and life applying information to come in future posts. I encourage you to keep moving forward and being proud of yourself for the efforts you are putting in or are beginning to implement today. Why not, what do you have to loose? There is no better day than today! We can't get this day back. Let's try and make it second nature to grow and push ourselves out of our comfort zone. The more you do it and practice it, the easier it will become. It takes a lot of effort to go from a dormant seed into a sensational blossom. Let's draw inspiration from what the trees, flowers, and plants endure and push through, to bring beauty and enjoyment to all of us. How much more of an impact can we make on others as we develop ourselves :) I am attaching more of the evidence of Spring and the vibrant signs of new life all around us.
Let's be a reminder to one another, to look at each day as a gift, taking one step forward in the right direction, to grow in knowledge, wisdom, personal development, and adventure.
"Leave your simple ways behind, and begin to live," Wisdom spoke today (Proverbs 9:6)
(I went to the park and look what I found. This picture looks enhanced but is the real deal!)
(A neighbors garden of Snapdragons)
(Our first Daffodil's are blooming :)
Circling back from prior posts:
I promised this wonderful community that I would keep you posted on our Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow Tree. Just yesterday it produced it's first few blooms right before we left for our trip. What a gift The Lord gave me, as He knew how much it would bless me, to see the first few blooms of my favorite tree, Mike planted for me in 2019. Now I can bless you with it! Look in the top right corner of the picture below. In a few weeks this amazing tree will be filled full of dark purple blooms which will turn into a violet color, then progress to white; signifying Past, Present, and Future. The fragrance it produces will be sensational as well. It will change and evolve in it's season of blooming, just as we will do, if we continue to push forward on our journey of growth :)
We met some amazing people on the snow covered trial, as we hiked up to Lake Mary today, on Sunday in Mammoth Lakes. We hiked for a while with Gilda and her precious Tahitian Pup Ganj. They were on the trail at the exact same time we were, so we had fun getting acquainted while we hiked for a while. Then we met Jim, Molly, and Matthew as we continued our hike. They said they were hiking to the waterfall that was covered in snow, to ride down on their snowboards. We just so happened to see them snowboarding as we were hiking back to the car, so I videoed them for fun. Crazy thing is, an hour later Jim and his wife Christy ended up being sat right next to us at a restaurant we went to on our way home. What are the odds we would run into them again!? We overheard them telling the waitress about snowboarding down the waterfall today, and we let them know we were the ones on the trial earlier. We all couldn't believe we ended up seeing each other again. I was able to send them the videos I took on my cell, and they were thrilled. God connections are amazing! It is so cool when things like that come together. There are some really neat people out there!
(Lake Mary Waterfall covered in snow in Mammoth Lakes, CA)
Thank you for spending some of your valuable time with me today. I encourage you to leave a Comment and let me know how you are pushing through and stepping out of your comfort zone into your best self. I am calling it The Grow My Know Challenge. I am so proud of you! Keep up the great work and enjoy the process! Always remember, a diamond could never be formed, without the pressure it has gone through.
If you would like to know more about who I am and my vision, you can click on the "About" section to learn more. As you choose to spend some of your valuable time on this site, I would like to invite you to click on the "BLOG" tile to see all of my posts, as only a few are shown on the front page. If you are encouraged by what you see, I invite you to "SUBSCRIBE" to this Blog if you have not already done so, and you will receive notification via email when I publish a new post. I have added additional information in the BONUS, Food For Thought, and Scripture and Quote sections as well.
I will continue to keep you all in my prayers. Have a lovely rest of your week.
God bless you my friends,
Jen
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