A beautiful Bouquet

I had a wonderful opportunity to just 'be' this morning.  I sat prayerfully with my tea contemplating the weeks events.  The triumphs the disappointments..and all the other things in between that consume our thoughts at times.
 My thoughts stopped on something I often battle with.  Boundaries, words, saying 'no'. Not conforming to this world or what it wants me to be.  I know I'm not the only one, but in my quest to balance this challenge in my life, I feel I've taken baby steps at most in the understanding of what all that means for me as God's child.
As I prayerfully considered who I really am....and who I was REALLY created to be, my thoughts were taken over by a very distinct analogy.  I'll share that analogy with you in hopes that you too can understand who God wants all of us to be.

We all have a garden, and along the way we cut flowers for people.  These 'figurative' flowers are representative of help we give, time we give, responses we give to others.  It's when we allow God to work through us to move in the lives of others.
God's hope is that each and every time we give these flowers from our garden...we give only the best.
The challenge to this giving of flowers is that we are to understand that we have no control over what our receivers do with the beautiful bouquets that we hand them.
{Much like when we call and order flowers to be delivered to someone...we don't drive to their house the next day to see how they've received them and how they are caring for them.}  

When we give from our gardens people can do several different things.  They can:

-Take and appreciate our gift by putting them in a vase.

-Leave them on the counter, unsure of how to 'receive' them-possibly allowing them to wither.

-Throw them away.

-Come back to us and request 'different' flowers.

Although we may have chosen the most beautiful flowers from our garden to give, some people may come back to us and ask us to cut them 'different' ones.  They don't like the roses...they want the daisies.  In other words...they didn't like the response we gave them.  Maybe we said 'no' to something they asked us to do. Perhaps we shared with them our hearts for Jesus.   Although we gave them a heart felt acknowledgment of their need...it may not have been the answer they wanted.

If we turn around and go back to our garden to cut the flowers that they 'expected' or 'wanted', rather then the most beautiful and best that we we had to give... we will run into a problem.   Before we know it...our garden will be gone.  Depleted.  Empty.  We've not only cut what we could give...we've gone back to pacify the needs of others.  We've given them the roses AND the daises...and in all honesty most times will find that is still not good enough. 

 Now with an empty garden we no longer have ANYTHING to give...even to the appreciative people in our lives.

These are are the times that we stop in our lives and look around.   We feel surrounded by people who seem to want something from us we just can't give..pulling from us...requesting of us.  Wanting us to be someone that we are not.

Have you ever felt that way?  Surrounded by people who just aren't satisfied with the person God created you to be? You give them your best roses...but they want your daisies?

Where are the people who put your flowers in vases, stopping to breath in the beautiful aroma each day?  They're there too...but you can hardly see them through the others.  You're too busy running back to your garden to cut more 'acceptable' flowers.   To be who they want you to be...not what God created you to be and you become discouraged...exhausted.

  Then the next time anyone asks you for something you go out and grab the least beautiful flowers.  You don't want to give your most beautiful ones anymore...because they're not appreciated.  

What we will learn if we are true to the person that God wants us to be is...He wants us to always give the most beautiful flowers...to everyone... every time...no matter what.  What he does not want us to do, is to worry about how they 'receive' them.  {Whether they put them in a vase..or throw them away.}  And if they come back for different flowers then the best that we were able to give, it is ok to say

 "No...I've given you my best".

What will happen is we will find that instead of being surrounded by disappointed people,  we will finally be able to see all the people in our lives that appreciate our beautiful bouquets and who give us back many in loving return.  Those others will move on when they can no longer get what they want from us.  That's ok.  God's working on them.  They are not for us to fix or fulfill. 
We've planted a seed in their garden for God to grow.

We'll find that our gardens are plentiful and we want nothing more then to continue to give our most beautiful....no matter what the circumstance.

 That's who I am and who you are as God's children.  Givers of the most beautiful.  

That doesn't mean always saying yes, or over extending who we are able to be.... or becoming people they they want us to be, rather than who we are in Christ. It's about graciously and lovingly stepping out to help others when we are able.... and graciously and lovingly stepping back when we can not.  I'ts giving your best always, while not being burdened by the way it may be received.  After all, we can only be responsible for who God created us to be.....not what others expect or want of us.  We are HIS children.

{I'm so thankful for God's wisdom this morning.  I feel by giving him my time and attention he was able to communicate this to me in a way that finally sunk in.  He painted a picture for me, that I was able to understand and appreciate.  I felt this was also something to share, because I know that I am not the only one in this busy over burdened world that is forever trying to give my best bouquets.}

God Bless,

Patti