Bloom
We’re gearing up for Friday, y’all! Write your little hearts out for five whole minutes without worrying about getting it “just right.” Don’t worry about perfection. Just let those fingers fly!
Ready?
Set?
GO!
There is a saying that goes a little something like this, “Bloom where you are planted.” What, exactly, does that mean? Let’s explore, shall we?
Thinking back, I was uncomfortable in my own skin for way too long. Circumstances and things of the past influenced my overwhelming feelings of low self esteem. I was lacking self confidence, and I was full of insecurities.
I’ve known about Jesus from a very early age, and I had asked him into my heart and life early on as well. It wasn’t until I was much older in my adult walk that I came to really realize and appreciate what having this relationship with Jesus was about and what it truly meant to be a Child of The King!
For so long I sought other people’s approval. I wanted to “fit in” when the truth of the matter is that I was not like everyone else. I think that added to my insecurities in my younger days; however, I’ve come to appreciate the fact that I am different as I’ve grown older and wiser (or so I’d like to think). Now I don’t concern myself with fitting in or agonize as to whether people will like me. I don’t try to be just like them because I recognize our differences and respect them, knowing full well that God made each of us in our own unique fashion because each of us brings something valuable to the table. No, we may not be like Suzie Q, but that’s okay because God wants us to be exactly who WE are and who He created us to be. He wants us to recognize the beautiful people that we are, how He made us with His very hands, taking His time to form every detail of our being. He smiled looking at his beautiful creation, why then do we stare almost in hatred at ourselves when we look in the mirror?
Bloom where you are planted … to me, that means to appreciate where you are today. You may have faced many trials and tribulations along the way. You may have had situations arise in your life that threatened your sanity, your well being. But know this. God can take the most horrible situation and turn it into something good to be used for His honor and His glory. Bloom where you are planted … watch the tiny little rose bud (that’s you in your younger days wrapped tightly in the bud with insecurities and lacking confidence) slowly begin to open up (that’s you as you’ve grown and matured in life) and transform itself into this bright, vibrantly colored rose displaying all of its wonder and grace (that’s you now, sweet one … we all recognize it but you!). Bloom dear one, as God intended you to be. Recognize your beauty in the present day, appreciate your transformation and know that God has great plans for you … bloom, darlings. Bloom …
STOP!
Be Thoughtful
Do you practice being thoughtful of others? Merriam-Webster defines thoughtful in three ways. The one I want to talk about today is this; “showing concern for the needs of feelings of other people” or their full definition: “given to or chosen or made with heedful anticipation of the needs and wants of others <a kind and thoughtful friend>.”
In today’s world it is so very easy to get wrapped up in our own lives that we can lose sight of what is going on with those family and friends that are an important part of our life. There is a wonderful book that I am re-reading to gain some more insight as to how I can be a better person towards others; Dale Carnegie’s “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” There is a singular concept that is talked about throughout the book that really hits home with me; we all need to feel important. This doesn’t mean we all have to have a big ego, it just means we all need to know that someone thinks of us and cares about us. I try very hard to live my life within this philosophy and to treat people with kindness, compassion and respect for their feelings.
Being thoughtful towards others is not difficult. It could be just remembering a special day in someone’s life and letting them know that you do remember. It could be stepping aside in a long line at the supermarket to let someone go ahead of you when they have a few items and you have a cart full. It is as easy as holding a door open for someone. All of these things can be considered being thoughtful towards another. Just doing a small thoughtful gesture for someone can brighten someone’s day.
Take a moment today and think of those you care about. What is some thoughtful gesture you could do for them today?
Be thoughtful!
This was supposed to be a part of the We Care Wednesdays segment. Yesterday, Tamela shared an important message regarding the need for everyone to feel loved. Gregory’s message complements it and goes hand in hand with the message that everyone needs to feel important! Therefore, we thought we would share these two back-to-back … We Care Wednesdays and now Thoughtful Thursdays. 🙂 We hope you enjoyed! ~Shirley
We All Deserve Love!
I have been thinking lately about my upbringing and the parents who raised me. My father was gone most of the time deployed out at sea somewhere and so it was my mother who primarily raised me. I honestly do not know what it was about me that bothered my mother so but I just didn’t fit into her “ideal” of womanhood (neither size, personality, behavior). I was labeled by my early teens as the “trouble maker” and the one who always talked back. I didn’t see myself as a trouble maker nor did I see myself as someone who had the nerve to talk back to a mother such as mine! But that is how she viewed me and, in the end, it left me feeling unloved and unlovable because my own mother found fault with me, I was imperfect. I had this message so deeply ingrained in me that it took years to truly overcome those messages of old and move into a bright, happy, secure-in-self-love future.
It’s just so sad that some walk this earth feeling as if no one has ever loved them, truly loved them. They have lived existences I cannot recognize and wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy. Some live in their heads unable to see and feel the love available to them; some just won’t open their eyes to what’s so plainly in from of them. For whatever reason, it seems to me that it’s easier to deny love than it is to accept love. Have we become people who choose to question love instead of openly welcoming it? Have we all somewhere along the lines received the message that we are all defective and not loveable – not deserving of freeing, soul-lifting love??
I was told for many years that my “picker was broken” – meaning that I always chose men who were either not emotionally available or that wanted to use me all the time pretending they loved me – when I was just meeting a need of theirs until they found someone new to use and abuse. I had so little faith and belief in myself that I subjected myself to bad love. I did not know the extent to which I’d taken in the words of my youth, “You are not loveable.” I believed no one would ever love me or truly want me forever in their hearts and the men I dated all seemed to bear out this one simple self-fulfilling prophecy. You see, that’s what it was, a self-fulfilling prophecy. When I took in the messages and words of my youth, I took them in completely and truly felt and believed that I didn’t deserve to take up space or breathe air or receive love because I’d been labeled “bad” and that’s just who I was…bad. “Bad” people don’t deserve love. While love may have been staring me in the face – I’d deny it just to make sure I maintained that “I wasn’t loveable” message. In adulthood, I did not “own” the fact that I could define myself any way I wanted; instead I slipped into the old messages and managed my life in a way so that no one, truly, ever had the chance to try to love me.
For someone to carry the message that you aren’t right for this world, you didn’t deserve to be here, just exist but don’t be noticed, don’t draw attention to oneself – it’s hard moving into the adult years believing that you have a future or that there is goodness and grace down the road, if you are only patient. It’s hard to believe that anything you do is of value or has worth – because if it comes from someone who is worthless, how can their work be worthwhile? I lived the belief that I was unlovable and thus fulfilled my own prophecy by not finding true love till later in life – after I had found my own self-love and discovered that what I’d been told growing up was just a bunch of bunk!
Inside each and every one of us lays a seed, a spark of belief that if nurtured can result in true self-love and when we realize this, we begin the walk away from falsehoods put in our heads at a time when we knew no better. Some of us need to seek professionals to lead us to new thoughts and beliefs – sustainable thoughts and beliefs. Others need to walk the path of self-discovery on their own – uncovering as they are ready the truths that are part of their lives. Some of those truths aren’t so pretty and our tendency is to run instead of confronting them. But hang in there, every obstacle you’ve overcome in your life and every obstacle you will face in life IS NOT insurmountable! Especially when those obstacles are self-created in your own head and not based in the truth of who you truly are!
I beg of you, do not ever allow anyone but yourself to define who you are, what you stand for, what you believe in, what you deserve. God did not create us to live in fear and pain and the knowledge that we aren’t good enough. We are all good enough and deserve to be loved as we want to be loved. It’s worth holding out until you find that unconditional love you may not have yet received in your life – your OWN unconditional love. Until or unless you love yourself fully, take care of you fully, allow yourself to be loved fully – until you stop fighting the messages in your head – you will live in the place of fear and the sad knowledge that you “don’t deserve love.” We ALL deserve love; some are just harder to love than others!
Today I let others have their opinion of me because trying to change another’s mind is seriously not my task to do today. Today my job is to find self-love, self-acceptance and to be ready and open for the next person I can love and who will love me in return. Today my choice is to not live with old messages that want entrance into my brain to repeat all the negative stuff doled out in my youth. Today I live in the present and deal with what’s in front of me; the rest is up to God and His “staff” of angels. Today it’s my job to trust in the process and that I am being led to my highest good. Today I know I am lovable, not just because I exist but because I know now true love, lasting love, lifetime love. I could not have achieved this place had I not let go of the belief that I was, heart and soul, unlovable.
WE ARE ALL LOVEABLE! Know that. Feel that. Think on that. Breathe that in. It is truth.
We all deserve love!
Part of my own self-love today is recognizing when someone wants to feed me false information about myself – I no longer live on what others think of me. Who I am, what I am today is based on my beliefs today and not of the past. No one can define me but myself and this person, me – today – is lovable and deserving of love. Seek love. Seek the peace that love provides. I keep in mind today that my God is a forgiving God and if God is capable of forgiving me, He’s more than capable of forgiving you and taking away the negative thoughts you’ve carried for too long. Try to give the negativity to God and live a life of belief and love. You can’t live in grace until you’ve released you inner demons.
