Patience Young Grasshopper.

At the beginning of summer, my sister bought a packet of wildflower seeds. She didn’t know what the end garden would look like but knew that with a little love and a lot of watering, the flowers would be beautiful.

So she weeded the garden, worked the ground and sprinkled all those little seeds in the dirt. Then, with a careful and gentle hand, she covered them with dirt and gave them a drink.

And she waited. 

And waited.

And waited.

Last Sunday, she was so proud to show me her sunflower. Singular. There were several stalks, but only one bloom. And there it was, beaming in the sunlight saying, “look at me.” My nephew was quick to point out all the other buds which were so close to blooming, but only one had opened up.

She planted those seeds in March. MARCH. For months there was nothing. Then as shoots began to appear, my sister had to decipher if it a wildflower or another weed trying to sprout. It took 5 months for one single bloom. Talk about patience.

You see, that’s the thing with seeds. You plant them. You nourish them. But sometimes you aren’t quite sure what, when, how or even if they’ll turn up. So you wait. And you nourish. And you wait some more. You keep having faith that with a little love and a lot of attention the seed will grow.

That’s patience, young grasshopper. And patience is such an amazing gift. It’s easy to talk about but much harder to put into practice, especially in today’s world with all its instant gratification.

However, my patience has been wearing thin lately. Before I left on my worldwide adventures, I planted seeds. Then during my travels, I watered those seeds while planting more. And when I got home a few weeks ago, I watered those old seeds like crazy to no avail. Why weren’t things paying off? Why was my plan not unfolding at the speed at which I preferred?

If my sister had gone out to her garden at any point in the previous 5 months to see a green sprout, she could have done one of 3 things:

1. Pulled on it, willing it to grow taller faster.
2. Given up and quit watering it.
3. Practiced patience while showering it with love and water.

The first two would have killed the plant. We all know you can’t pull on a plant in its infancy and expect it to grow. You’d be pulling it out of the ground, the very fertile soil that you’ve been nourishing all this time.

Lately, I’ve been getting frustrated with myself over lack of forward motion. I’ve been feeling stuck like I’ve done all this work with no real results. Do you ever feel that way? Have faith in divine timing. Blooms open according to God’s will, not our own.

Our dreams and schemes are a lot like that green sprout. We must continue nourishing them with a little love and a lot of patience while simultaneously planting more seeds, making the third option the only one for us!