Things will Still Bloom

I want to be the type of friend—and have the type of friend—who encourages and speaks words of life that are grounded in God’s truth for any moment. And even when I find that type of encouragement online, it’s a gift. Sarah Molitor is a Bible-believing, Jesus-following wife and mother (of seven kids she homeschools) who finds joy in encouraging others for any given moment. It’s amazing how in our world people are lacking yet looking for community, and they will take it any way they find it. We need godly community. So when you find a community like Sarah’s that points you to Jesus, stay there! It’s what we need because Jesus is what we need. I’m so honored to welcome Sarah to the farm for some encouragement today…

Guest Post by Sarah Molitor

It was mid-July, and I hadn’t yet planted our little vegetable gardens that I normally start at the beginning of June.

It seems so silly, but this bugged me—no matter how much my husband, Tim, tried to let me off the hook.

It was something that really didn’t take much time, yet I still hadn’t fit it in.

I started to guilt myself about all the times I could’ve done it and had instead chosen to do something else.

“There is an art to letting things go and being okay with that. “

By this point, I just wanted to say “Whatever” and pick it up the next year. There is an art to letting things go and being okay with that. 

But there is also something in my personality that can’t just forget about something so easily. My tendency is to pack it all in and make the most of every day, to keep up with traditions and things I’ve done in years past.

Over the last couple of years, though, I’ve been learning about seasons and shifts—that I can let certain things go and start when I start. Sometimes letting myself off the hook is healthy.

Still . . . I wanted my garden to grow!

And as I stared at those garden beds, wishing they would plant themselves, my husband said, “Just start, Sarah. Why does it matter when? You aren’t too late, and things will still bloom.”

Things will still bloom.

Wow, that hit me.

Here I was a month and a half late to planting seeds, and I figured it was too late for anything to happen—yet my husband saw it differently. My seeds would just bloom a little later than other people’s. Things will still bloom.

There have been many moments in my life when I felt like I wasn’t blooming while everyone else was.

I’m betting you’ve felt that way too.

Friends are getting married, yet you are still single. Babies are being born, yet you are struggling to conceive. People are finding community in churches, and you are still searching for where God wants you to land. Other marriages seem to be thriving, and for some reason you’re just not in sync with your spouse right now. Does all of this mean you are too late to bloom?

Absolutely not.

As a parent, I’ve also noticed my kids blooming at different paces. Every child does things at their own speed, yet as a culture we are consumed with milestones. Are they rolling by two months? Sitting up by six months? Crawling by eight months and walking by twelve months? Why is your child not saying 57 words by 19 months?

“If we rush the process and try to blossom too soon, we may wither away just as fast. Before blooming, don’t you want to know that your roots are stable and strong?“

This isn’t to condemn milestones; this is to condemn the idea that every single thing in life has to be a competition.

It’s easy to get caught up in a race to bloom without even realizing it. But the reality is we are all made uniquely in God’s image, and no two people are alike. So, sure, milestones are great, but they shouldn’t be the ultimate marker or goal in life.

Living for the Lord should be our aim.

Heaven should be our aim.

Just because you haven’t blossomed yet doesn’t mean God hasn’t planted things in you for His glory. He sure has (see Psalm 139:14), and maybe right now is a season of more planting. Maybe it’s a season of growing deep roots. Maybe it’s a season of hiding under the soil, completely protected until it’s time to come up and blossom beautifully. If we rush the process and try to blossom too soon, we may wither away just as fast.

Before blooming, don’t you want to know that your roots are stable and strong?

You might feel like you are too little too late, but don’t believe that lie.

Whether in friendships, marriage, or parenting (or anything else for that matter), we are allowed to change our minds, shift gears, try something new, and even leave behind some old ways of doing things. It’s okay to realize, Hey, that worked well for me last time, but this time I’m going to try something different and see if it’s a better fit.

We don’t want to be flaky, but we do want to make sure that whatever season we are in, we are effectively living out God’s purpose for us. Otherwise, we are dragging things in from the past and trying to make them work for the present. Square peg, round hole. They aren’t always going to work.

We have to start again and trust the Lord that the starting over will result in a fresh blossom in our lives. And God is likely to teach us something totally different with each new beginning.

The comfort of it all is that, as we desire and yearn for more, God is faithful.

Our lives will be filled with many blooming seasons. They will also be filled with many seasons where blooms aren’t visible, but growth is still happening. Both are needed, and both are healthy. So don’t guilt yourself into quitting something before you even have a chance to start.

Because, chances are, things will still bloom.

Let’s walk forward into this week asking the Lord to show us the areas where He wants to work.

Pray that He would prune back any areas of our lives that aren’t serving His Kingdom.

And then let’s thank Jesus that He is faithful to tend to our hearts and grow us in a way that is far better than what we would’ve done ourselves.

“Forget all that—it is nothing compared to what I am going to do. For I am about to do something new. See, I have already begun! Do you not see it? I will make a pathway through the wilderness. I will create rivers in the dry wasteland” (Isaiah 43:18-19).

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