Stay Planted

 To be planted is to be rooted in something. It is rooted in a particular place. We have lots of plants in our house. For those who knew my Mom, you know she loved plants and had a green thumb. It seemed like my Mom could get any plant to grow! She could take the tiniest plant and get it to grow. She could break off small pieces of other plants, put them in a different pot and get them to grow. My Mom was the Queen of plants! Now I'm definitely not the Queen of plants like my Mom, but something rubbed off about plants on me and my brother. All of the plants in our house (the ones here before she left and new ones we got) are all alive and growing! Thank you God! Thank you Momma! So you might thinking: What was her secret?! I thought about it too and I figured it out. Secrets will be revealed shortly! Let's take a look at our lives through the lens of Jeremiah 17:8 for a minute. The first part says, "He will be like a tree planted by water: it sends it roots out toward a stream." All around the world, there are different types of trees- oak, maple, cedar, pine, walnut, and the list goes on and on. In fact, there are over 60,000 types of trees in the world. Wow- a lot of diversity! There is also diversity in people around the world and that should be embraced. We're all planted in different parts of the world for a reason. In the place we're at in the moment, how are we growing? Who and what are we connected to? Is it helping us or hurting us? That leads me to the second part of the verse: "It doesn't fear when heat comes, and its foliage remains green." Here, fear is referenced to as being scared. Heat can be miserable, uncomfortable, unbearable. The tests and trials in our life can be like heat that leaves us feeling uncomfortable and like it's too much. Fear can definitely rise up. But when we know God, we can know we're not alone. God stands with us. Foliage represents leaves. Leaves give a plant food and air to stay healthy. In the midst of our trial, we can still stay healthy. We can still take in what's right. You see, my Mom knew the importance of the plants being in a right environment. She knew which plant should stay indoors or outdoors. She knew the right environment would help the plant grow. There's secret #1- the right environment (surroundings)! This includes television shows, music, social media follows, and who we hang out with. They matter. What are they feeding us? Are we healthy from taking in and living God's Word or are we malnourished? I need to mention something else about leaves: they release excess water. Too much of anything weighs us down. My Mom taught us not to water the plant too much- a certain amount will do. Is there anything we need to release on today? It may be good, but not good for us. When one of my Aunts visited not long ago, she reminded me of something else: check for any dead leaves that need to come off. Now I do a plant check from time to time. I just did one yesterday! We need to check ourselves often and make sure we are doing what's right and release what's not right. So secret #2- take care of  it! We have to take care of ourselves. The last part of the verse says, "It will not worry in a year of drought or cease producing fruit." We don't have to worry when it doesn't look like anything is working. We can know God is still working. We can keep serving and doing the best we can even when we don't see progress. Doubts, fear, disappointment and rejection will be experienced, but they don't have to uproot us. In fact, they are not bigger than what God says. We can know we'll be alright. We can still be healthy. We can still be fruitful (see Galatians 5:22-23). We can still stay planted!