Grow Where You are Planted

When I got to church this morning, I dropped off the family and got ready to pick up two adorable boys and their mom so that they could come to church.  On this morning, my son William (16), asked if he could accompany me. We had gotten to church early which was good because we had to drop off some chicken and stuffing, and a lemon cake for the potluck dinner. I also had some last minute things to check on for our new 2-3 year old department. One of our sweet older ladies, knowing that I was doing a lot of printing at home for the Sunday school lessons, gave me a brand new package of copier paper which I put into my big bag of stuff that I needed this morning.

My purple and black bag was one that I used when I was teaching college. I often had it stuffed with English lessons and worksheets that needed to be graded. This morning it was stuffed with magic markers, coloring sheets, and new Sunday school lessons.

When William got in the van, he looked at the bag and said, "That makes me sad."

Obviously confused I asked him why.

"It reminds me of what we used to do, and I like what we do now," he responded.

We were not unhappy with our old life; in fact we enjoyed it, but it is amazing how God has worked in each one of us to make us even happier where we are--so much so, that when William saw my bag, it gave him a twinge of sadness. I have to admit, I was a little worried when we first moved to the desert; I didn't know if I could really be happy without grass. I know that sounds petty, but I had lived in the desert when I was a teenager. I didn't have really great memories of that time. God has allowed us to have a ministry here in the Mojave in which we are reaching people and seeing lives changed. There is a saying, "Grow where you are planted." I think our whole family has grown these past 7 months--right where we are planted--in the desert.