The Other One...

The Other One...

Confession: I haven’t been completely honest.  

Several months ago I wrote a post about my plant, Peter, and how if I practice a few simple practices (proper watering, good lighting, healthy and enriched soil, the proper container etc.) he will be able to flourish and not be dry and weary. With some hard work and recognition of Peter’s needs, he was able to flourish.  

At the time of writing about Peter, I had a little pang of guilt reverberate in my mind.  I haven’t told you about Ferguson.  He’s our fern.  (I can already hear you judging me in your minds because I name my plants and talk about them as if they have feelings…yeah, that’s just the way it is.  I’m unashamed.)  

I intentionally left him out of that previous blog for one reason.  I was a tad bit ashamed of him.  

He’s finicky and has a personality (in his very nature) that is very difficult.  Treating him with the same (initial) respect that I gave Peter, he was just not thriving at all.  A new pot, new soil, regular watering, good lighting…all of the good stewarding I understood in order to take care of him.  Although I had heard that ferns like to be “well-misted”, I just did not have the time for that…he was just going to have to deal with plain old watering.  After all, I was not about to purchase a spray bottle just so he could be “well misted”.  But he relentlessly became more and more dry, weary, and quite frankly, just sad.  I was disappointed and annoyed so I had intentionally given him the cold shoulder.  I stopped watering him and stopped caring because it was just taking too much effort with very little success to continue caring about his welfare.  

(If you’re losing interest in this wonderful story, hang in there, I DO have a point… “Patience, Iago, patience.”)

I felt a little bad about being bitter towards him.  But that didn’t stop me from neglecting him…I was euthanizing him and was just waiting for the day for him to die completely before throwing him out.  However, that guilt continued to spring upon me when I kept being reminded of Kate Hudson’s line in “How To Lose A Guy in 10 Days”, “you let it die! Are you going to let us die!!? Hmm?  You should think about that.”

As a little bit of a joke, both Ben and I got each other love ferns for our 1 year anniversary…without the other knowing…yes, we are that adorable. (Again, please don’t pass judgement).  My internal desire to provide for this plant, self-imposed expectation not to disappoint people or fail, took over and I was not going to let him die.  But he was dying.  And quickly.  So I did the only thing I could think of; put him in a time-out and give up (mature right?)

Ok, why this long and possibly uninteresting story?  

I’ve been learning a lot about the practice of discipline.  Seeing the needs, being committed to change, and acting on them.  Being disciplined in my studies and in my walk with the Lord and truly desiring growth. 

I got to a point with Fergie where I gave up.  Giving up on the desire to understand, learn and grow in how to properly take care of this finicky plant, I in turn lost the necessary practice of discipline; ignoring the very area I was (slash “am”) desperately needing to grow in.

A few weeks ago, I noticed something about Fergie.  There was a new, bright green sprig that had sprung off of one of his branches.  “How is this possible!!?” I frustratingly thought.  I hadn’t watered him in over 6 months and he was almost to the point of being completely dead.  But he was still hanging in there.  Through his pickiness his resiliency was astounding.  It was then that I decided to give him another chance.  I gave him new soil, water, good lighting and….dedicated a cleaning spray bottle in order to mist him.  He gets misted twice a day now.  And although 90% of him is brown, 9% is dying and a mere 1% is healthy, I am ready, willing and dedicated to the discipline of caring for him.  

With the right discipline, dedication, commitment to change, we can grow and thrive the way God has designed.  We need to set ourselves up in the right position to allow God to work on our hearts and change us from the inside out.  He desires to help us through that, but if we are not willing to let him change or position ourselves at His feet, we will become dry and weary.  

In order to experience change, we must commit to taking the necessary steps to get there.   Allow God to produce in your heart the desire for discipline so that you can experience the growth and life through Him!