Grow where planted – how to enjoy where you are right now

Are you frustrated where you are and just don’t understand why your life isn’t getting better?
Do you want to grow where you’re planted? Are you embracing what is in front of you? Let’s dig in and find out how to grow where planted!

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A little back story…

My husband and I were in a stable job and had just had a baby! We lived an hour and a half from any family. Soon we realized we wanted to move home closer to family. We prayed and long story short my husband quit his well paying career and did an entire job change. For that job change we ended up moving on the other side of the country! Keep in mind here, we did this job change in hopes to move home closer to family. So you can imagine to our surprise that we ended up further away from family!

Fast forward, I had a miscarriage. Then six months later we found out we were having another sweet baby. I soon found myself battling depression and anxiety. I starting seeing a counselor and eventually we realized the importance of being close to family even more. So we left. Yup, we sold our house. Sold at least half of everything we owned, packed up the u-haul drove across the country and moved in with my parents. And this is where our story begins about growing where planted and sometimes it’s in the rocks.

How do you grow where planted when you’re in the rocks?

So when we moved back home we hadn’t lived in the area in at least 12 years. We didn’t want to purchase in an area we weren’t familiar with so my parents offered for us to live with them while we figured it out. We took them up on the offer. My husband was working from home and we weren’t sure how long that would last. We knew when we moved home we would be with my parents at least a year, but probably two. (Yes my parents are actually nice enough to let us live with them that long). We ended up living with them for three years and we all still talk and have a relationship too!

Keep growing

Now we were home, but my depression wasn’t gone and we were still in such a weird limbo. Especially since we moved home with out securing a job for my husband. (Wait until I tell you what happens). I kept going to counseling and ended up finding a really great Christian counselor. She really helped me on my healing journey. We started trying out churches and eventually found one where we wanted to be planted. We started getting involved and making friends. At this time my husband was working from home but working A LOT of hours! I found some friends who were really amazing in helping me stay focused on the Lord while I was walking through this journey.

Through this journey the Lord was inviting me in to trust Him. He was taking my shallow roots and spreading them deep into the ground so that when the winds blew I could stand. Jeremiah 17:7-8 says, “The person who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence indeed is the Lord, is blessed. He will be like a tree planted by water; it sends its roots toward a stream, it doesn’t fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green. It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit.”

So what happened with my husbands job…

The Lord miraculously let him keep his job even when we moved. It wasn’t a remote job, but because of COVID it became remote. He did find another job, so there was not one day without pay, there was no lack.

That is the really cool thing about God, he doesn’t just give us what we need, he gives in abundance. He works in abundance. He works from abundance. John 10:10 says, “A thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy. I have come so that they may have life and have it in ABUNDANCE.” The word abundance relating to God is found through out scripture!

Thinking about the story of Joseph, God allowed him to go through horrible situations and be planted in many situations where he probably didn’t want to be in order to refine him to be the King he needed Him to be. I would presume Joseph struggled with pride. I can assume this because he would always tell his brothers about how he was going to be king and would tattle tale on them, Genesis 37. If you aren’t familiar with how crippling pride is, I highly suggest the Awe of God book by John Bevere. Keeping in mind that Joseph probably struggled with pride, we can see how God stripped him of pride by allowing him to go through all the things he did. AND HE WAS BETTER FOR IT!

How do we grow where planted when the enemies are many.

Psalm 92:10-15 “But you have made me as strong as a wild ox. You have anointed me with the finest oil. My eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies; my eyes have seen the downfall of my enemies; my ears have heard defeat of my wicked opponents. But the godly will flourish like palm trees and grow strong like the cedar of Lebanon. For they are translated to the Lord’s house. They flourish in the courts of our God. Even in old age they will still produce fruit; they will remain vital and green. They will declare, “The Lord is just! He is my rock! There is no evil in Him”

When we are planted in God’s word and His Spirit we are under His protection. The Bible also talks about being planted in a church. As we fellowship with fellow believers we are able to flourish and grow in God. If you need help finding a biblical church and don’t know what the Bible says it should be, listen to this video.

Joseph constantly was being tested and enemies were often around. His own brothers sold him to slavery, but wanted to murder him! Youu could say his enemies were many starting right in his own home and that he was planted in many situations that were not ideal.

How to grow where planted when you are where you don’t want to be

How many of Joseph’s trials do you think he wanted to be where he was? Probably not many. But he was willing to grow where planted! How often have you found yourself in a place where you were planted and didn’t want to be there? Have you ever stopped to ask what can I learn from this or what is the Lord trying to teach me?

It took me 4 years or probably more to ask those questions when I was being faced with hardship. I was able to learn I was serving fear (anxiety) instead of trusting that my Lord had my best interest in His heart. I was depressed because I was constantly worried about the what if’s, the rejection that I had to face or had faced in my life.

We often envision strongholds of the enemies as some type of creepy looking demon and it probably is, but those have names. Names such as fear, rejection, bitterness, envy, jealousy, etc. When we can look at the spiritual root of what is causing us to feel all of these emotions and name them, then we can start to ask questions like what is the Lord trying to teach me.

Dig in

When we start digging in spiritually and figuring out why we are planted where we are, then we will start getting answers. The digging in part is usually painful. It is can be difficult to grow where planted. This part is often lonely because no one wants to do the work, it looks like this sunflower where there are many people who look like they’re standing working on their spiritual walk, but few really are.

This is the part when people tend to not deal and look for other options other than looking in the spiritual mirror. When we renew our mind, read the Word daily, God will put a blanket of peace over us and start to gently show us why we are planted where we are. He will open up His arms and say come here daughter, I have been waiting for you.

Think of your child when they get upset and they won’t talk or open up because they are so upset, then we come in to comfort them and provide them peace and then they start to open up and tell us what’s wrong and allow us to help them. I envision something similar when we run to God. You want your child to come running to you with their hurts and their struggles and when they don’t it hurts us to see them struggling on their own, all we want to do is guide them and help them. The Lord is the same way, He wants to help us and guide us and His ways are so much better than ours, even when we don’t understand.

When we grow where planted, we can often see the flowers that are among us.

Challenge

Dig in, roll up your sleeves and seek God. Really truly surrender everything to Him. I remember sitting outside and the sunlight opened up and just shone on me and I could feel the warmth and love of God and I just started crying my eyes out and praying and asking God to strip me of all the yuck and replace it with all His goodness.

The Holy Spirit is a gentlemen, He started slowly one layer at a time revealing to me all the things the Lord wanted to strip out of me. It was difficult, I often felt alone and I am so thankful the Lord took me through it all. I am a work in progress as we all are and will forever be until we reach Heaven, but I am so thankful that the Lord is gracious and just and forgiving. If you need a first step it would be to make sure you are serving the Lord, then read your Bible daily I really like the CSB and NLT versions, find a bible based church and find fellow believers to grow and commune with. And of course, grow where planted!

I would love to pray for you!

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If you are interested in other things I write check out my post about homeschooling here.