"Bloom where you're planted."

God has planted us in the best soil that we may grow as He desires us to grow. He has the beautiful end result in mind and he gently plants and prunes and waters to bring about the result he's fashioned us for. The environment, the climate, the nutrients in the soil. He knows our deficiencies. He alone knows what His creature is capable of and gently coaxes us towards that end. All by Him. All for His glory. He desires His gloriousness to shine through every facet of us in all it's radiance.

I'm starting to catch glimpses of a bigger picture, seeing how my life, my husband, my child, my circumstances, my surroundings, my joys, my longings can all help to shape and sharpen and mold me in the character and person that God has designed for His child to be. He knows what delights me most. He knows the things that are hardest for me. He gives me tastes of his greatest wonders and he lets my heart ache so that I'll be strengthened by grace.

Seeing only with eyes of flesh I may contentedly bask in the sun but grumble at the flavor of the rain.
But God is the master craftsmen. God is the Potter. He designed the perfect life to fit me into that I might flourish in the gifts he's given me. Also the perfect environment to train, shape, purify and purge away sin. He delights in me. Each circumstance I can accept as an opportunity for God to disciple and mold me.

In the last weeks and months I've found myself more and more deeply discouraged by my insecurities, my criticalness, and my short-comings. I resent the circumstances that draw these ugly things out into the light. I would much rather be seen as an angel and never know my sin or have others see and be hurt by it. God has been showing me that these circumstances are gifts from his loving hand to bring Light to each and every place of my heart so that it is made pleasing and beautiful to Him. Seeing there is purpose in each situation brightens my spirit and gives me strength and hope to accept all that God places in Andrew's and my life from His hand. The hand of the Lord in whom we can trust with every fiber of our being.

"For you, Lord, have made me glad

 through Your work; 

I will triumph in the works of Your 

hands."

Ps 92:4