Contentment

Isn't it true that we often learn lessons from unexpected sources?

Every other Sunday evening we have church at the nursing home where my dad is a resident. The service has grown and as it grows we find ourselves growing.

This ministry is dear to our hearts and so are the residents who attend.

I won't use names, but I want to thank one of those residents( should he happen to read this). For the last couple of months he has joined us and ministered with his musical gifts. He's an amazing soul and God is really using him. He's blooming where God planted him!

We would like to believe that God always plants us in the best possible place. Wouldn't it be wonderful if that were the case? But we're not always going to be planted in the perfect spot, with perfect conditions. Take a look outside. There are flowers growing in soil that is so poor, you wonder how they can thrive. Dandelions are a great example. They grow in cracked sidewalks, they pop up in a gravel driveway, they sprout in soil that is mostly clay. I'm sure the dandelion would love to be a petunia, planted in a flowerbed, nurtured, watered, tended. Instead they sprout up and do their job. They're called weeds. They're sprayed with herbicide, pulled from flower gardens, tossed aside.

But they bloom where they're planted.

They're determined, sunny little flowers with a great purpose. They have more vitamin A than broccoli and when they turn to seed they attract birds to our back yard. They cover bare areas where grass can't grow.

Last night a sweet resident made a comment about being where God wants him to be and being content until God takes him home. He explained that God has given him this good home and he is thankful. This man has peace that truly surpasses all understanding. God put that peace in his heart and an acceptance of his circumstances that is hard to understand. Before our service he saw that I had a lot to carry and thought it might be heavy and that maybe he could help. During our service he got up to ask the young woman cleaning the dining area if he could help her. After the service he told me about his prayer life and how he always talks to God before he goes to bed. And he never has a hard time sleeping. He sweetly asked me if I could show him his room, because he couldn't remember where it was.

But he doesn't forget to be pray and be thankful.

Bloom where you're planted, even if it isn't where you want to be. Find God's purpose for putting you there AND BLOOM.