I shared with you a few months ago about my orchid. Last year was the first time I had any interest in planting anything, and along with that came the desire to own a beautiful purple orchid. It lost its petals after a while of owning it. As I knew the petals would come back, I’ve diligently followed the instructions and put 3 ice cubes on once a week for the last 7 or so months, with seeing no results.
The leaves were still green, so I figured it hadn’t died. My good friend told me back in April that her orchids had already sprouted their beautiful petals. My mom told me around the same time that hers had come in as well. Yay! Mine are going to be coming soon. Except, nothing has happened for me and it’s now June.
Recently, my mom stopped by and I once again said something about my non flowering orchid and she suggested that I should only put one ice cube on per week, like hers. Hmmmm. I made sure to relook at my instructions, ‘3 ice cubes once per week’. I think I’m going to follow the instructions I was given.
Something has started happening recently with my plant. Nope – don’t get too excited – it still has no petals, but… As I’ve been watching it closely and doing different things, including moving it closer to the window to get more sun, a new leaf has started to sprout in through the center of the older leaves. That’s exciting for me, because I had even contemplated that my plant might have died and that I need to just give up and get a new one.
Sometimes that happens with us. We tend to look at what’s happening in other people’s lives, and ask why aren’t those things happening in ours. Sometimes we may even be tempted to follow other people’s instructions for their lives, to get their results, not realizing that God has a different set of instructions for us to get to our final destinations. Sometimes, we may even need to adjust our settings so that we can bear new leaves and new fruits in the right time. And most importantly, we need to be patient with ourselves, that our process may take a little longer than others. God knows each of us, and exactly what He needs to do in order to cultivate in us the work He has called us to do – don’t lose hope that it’s taking too long.
Dear Heavenly Father, we thank you for your love and that you can show us life lessons, even through the lack of immediate growth in an orchid. Thank you for being patient with us and adjusting our settings so that we are able to grow into the people you have called us to be, even though at times it might be uncomfortable.