Wednesday, August 3, 2011

This is my first post; so, please be gentle.

So, I have decided that since I follow so many other people's blogs and have made some random posts on FB over the past few months that have generated some buzz, now might be the time to start my own blog.  I don't know that I'll have anything anyone will want to read, but I have some stuff to say and some things to share and I'd like to hear from any of you that might like to participate.

Life in our house got a big jolt on the last Monday in April.  I cannot say what exactly, and only a few very close people know the details, but it has really rocked my world and has put a kink in the way things have run in this house ever since.

But before I go on, I feel I must give a few details about myself.  I've been a Christian since I was 8 years old.  That being said, I kinda "took a break" for a while, (probably from the age of 12 to the age of 20) in that I was not exactly behaving in a way that would convince anyone that I was a believer.  I graduated high school in 1992, entered the Navy in January 1993, got married in October 1993, had my first child in April 1994, was sent to Fort Meade, MD in October 1994, and somewhere during late-1994 to early 1995, I was introduced to Severn Covenant Church by a person I worked with and it has been my earthly spiritual home ever since.  To be quite honest, I'd say that aside from a few very distinct decisions made during my early years, my life as a Christian didn't really start until we started attending Severn Covenant Church.

I spent a lot of time while I was in high school attending a church in Texarkana, TX (where my parents live), feeling like there had to be more to being a Christian than just "getting my ticket punched" and hopping on the Jesus-train.  I mean, seriously, what's the point of being a Christian here on earth if it doesn't change your life. Right?  Well, I knew there had to be something, but I was getting it, wasn't finding it, didn't know where to look for it and didn't have many people who could tell me at the time.  Not that I was asking, mind you, because it was easier, as a teenager, to complain than it was to do something about what I was feeling.  (Sometimes, it still is......)  Then, I found Severn Covenant Church - or rather, I was led there.  That's when things really started to sink in for me.  That's when I started to really get hold of the notion that being a Christian was not about just getting my ticket punched, but about having a relationship with Jesus Christ that called me to a deeper level of commitment than I had ever thought possible.  Suddenly, I was surrounded by people who lived and breathed this stuff, like their very lives depended on Jesus Christ himself.  Little did I realize then, that I would come to think just as they did.

Now, fast-forward to April 2011.  I've grown up a lot since then, spiritually and emotionally, and I've had my own moments of realization that God was "it" - the end-all, be-all and that nothing gets done without Him and His say-so, but it wasn't until April 2011 that that particular kind of faith began to be tested, or rather my family began to be tested so that my faith (and that of others in this house) began to be purified.  Accusations have been hurled at this family that we cannot answer for sufficiently enough to please anyone - a kind of "Catch-22" situation in which we can do absolutely nothing but say the truth and let the chips fall where they may, trusting that God will place each individual chip right where He needs for it to be in order for the rest of our lives to go the way He has planned them to go.  In other words, our very lives depend on Him right now.  And what a scary place it is!

And so, this blog is my attempt at dealing with this issue in a way that I hope helps others see that there is always something to hope for, and there is always light on the other side of the darkness.

Right now, you may be asking:  "Why 'Bloom Where You're Planted'?"  And why the breezes-and-blooms in the URL.  Well, I'll tell you.  My husband and I got sent away from the Fort Meade/Severn Covenant Church area for a while and while we were gone, I realized that I was missing my friends back here terribly.  It was hard to get my bearings because every place I went, every church I tried, suffered in comparison to SCC.  When I finally stopped feeling sorry for myself and got around to asking God what He wanted from me where I was at the moment, the message I got was to bloom where I was planted.  In other words, do what you are supposed to do right where you are instead of complaining about not being where you want to be.  Harsh words, but they carried weight.  Once I stopped complaining and started being obedient, my outlook brightened.  I still wasn't "at home" in SCC where I would've loved to have been, but I was making friends and growing in God and things were looking up.  Figuring out how to do that is a crucial skill for a military wife.  You can't live your life at your last duty station.  Likewise, I couldn't live my life at my last church either.  I had to keep moving forward regardless of where I was.  So...that's why the "bloom" part.

As for the "breeze" part:  It's about faith too.  About 4 years ago, I was with the kids @ the park and it was about as hot as it has been here the last few weeks. My youngest, 3 at the time, decided it would be a good idea to pray for breeze. We got a little, but it stopped. So, he decided that we should pray for more and that it would continue until we left the park.  We did, and it did. God is faithful, no doubt.   I had been thinking about that incident and wondering how I could feel the breeze in the situation we are in right now.  And the scripture I got was this:   


Psalm 34:15-20. 


15 The eyes of the LORD are on the righteous, 
and his ears are attentive to their cry; 
16 but the face of the LORD is against those who do evil, 
to blot out their name from the earth.

17 The righteous cry out, and the LORD hears them; 
he delivers them from all their troubles. 
18 The LORD is close to the brokenhearted 
and saves those who are crushed in spirit.

19 The righteous person may have many troubles, 
but the LORD delivers him from them all; 
20 he protects all his bones, 
not one of them will be broken.


Now that I've explained the breezes and blooms, I hope that I have not bored you all too much into not wanting to continue on with reading my posts.  I pray that they will be a blessing to you and that you too will find the ability to bloom where you're planted and that a gentle breeze will blow softly on you while you are in the midst of your own hard times.


In Him,
Rabbit's Bunny

3 comments:

  1. This comment has been removed by the author.

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  2. Rabbit's Bunny -
    Thank you for this. I've been doing some searching for several years now and I think I just got my wake-up call. I too am in the same boat that you were in. When I lived in Phoenix I fell in love with a church, and have been searching for it ever since. I think if I were to go back today, it would not be the same church I knew, there is a different pastor, people I was close to moved - but I still couldn't stop searching for 'my' church.

    Bloom where I am planted. It's perfect!, it's a light bulb. I know here is my home, this is going to be my home. Bloom where I am planted.

    Thank you for this, you have no idea what this has just done for me.

    Jamie.

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  3. Jamie,

    I am so happy to hear that you enjoyed the post. Blooming where I am planted is something that I've had to do and have often struggled with every time we've moved. And since my husband is in the military, well...you can imagine how many times I've had to bloom. I spent the bulk of my childhood thinking that one day "my" life would start. One day, when I get out on my own, I'll... Then, I was out on my own and it was "one day, after the kids are older..." Then it was "one day, after my husband retires and we settle down some..." I finally came to the realization that all the time I was saying "one day," my life was going on without me. What I was doing was my life, and what I was doing was wasting it by waiting for something else, something better; and, I didn't even really know what that was. I decided enough was enough. What I am called to do is live right where I am the best way that I can trusting that God has me there for a reason. That's all any of us can do. And if we feel we somehow missed God, all we have to do is pray and ask Him to show us how to correct it, and He will be faithful to answer us as to how to course-correct. The thing about course-correction, though, is that you actually have to be moving in a direction, any direction, to be able to correct that direction. So, keep on praying, and keep on moving, and if you are being led by the Holy Spirit, trust that God has you moving in precisely the direction He wants you to go, and if you aren't He'll let you know that too.

    Thanks for the encouragement. It's nice to know that someone other than my mom and sister has found me. Regardless though, this was going to be out there, in cyberspace, waiting for someone. I'm glad you found it!!!

    Have a great day, and God Bless.

    Keep blooming,
    Patty

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