Guest Post - katie lately

Sorry, no Bachelorette re-cap for you today, I'm sure some of you are like thank goodness! Haha instead I have someone much better to share something a lot more deep than who went on the solo date and group date with Emily.

This guest poster is one of the best. She is genuine, she is kind and she is super sweet and I am very glad that God connected us over the blogging world. Also her husband is just as great as she is and the college he attended has a really super awesome name, ask her!

There are some posts that just speak to my heart and what Katie writes about God and lessons she is learning from Him, it tugs at my heart strings and makes me consider my current relationship with Him and how I can be closer to Him.

Katie, you are such a blessing to me and I know you will be an amazing mom!

 

On Growth..

This spring, I decided to learn how to garden. I bought a few plants, easy ones, just pansies and alyssum to start out. My sweet husband made me an awesome planter box out of some wood we salvaged from an old dresser. One of the ladies here at camp has a beautiful garden, so I asked her to help me plant my flowers and teach me how to take care of them. This time, I really wanted to keep those plants alive.  

www.carolinefontenot.com

So she taught me how much to water them and how often, she taught me how to cut them down after they bloom, and she taught me how to plant them with enough space and deep enough down that the roots get all the water they need.

After a few weeks, I knew I needed to "dead-head" (trim the spent blooms off) and I found myself not wanting to. I didn't want to cut away pieces of my precious plant, in fear I would ruin it. So I stared at my flowers, and at the dead ones that needed to be cut off, and I made myself do it. 

I started thinking and realized I do this with a lot of things in my life. I don't want to remove the parts that are finished. I'm afraid of letting things go that aren't necessarily what they once were to me. 

But you know what, after I dead-headed those flowers, the plant looked fresh. It wasn't cluttered with dead blooms and the live ones had room to reach closer to the sun.

It made me realize that this is sometimes what  God asks us to do, to remove parts of our lives that are spent so that the new, alive parts can reach Him better. I need to be more prepared and willing to get rid of the things that are just cluttering my life with dead leaves per se, and allow the new parts of me to feel fresh. To feel alive. And to have a way cleared for them to blossom. 

God promises us that he renews our hearts, and that when we ask for forgiveness our slates are wiped clean. What are you allowing yourself to hang on to that is cluttering the newness in your life? Allow yourself to move on, to make a fresh day for yourself. I bet you'll feel a lot better when you do :)