Bloom, Girl, Bloom.

This season that I am currently in is one of totally unfamiliar territory. It is one in which I'm faced with numerous decisions that I simply have no desire to make. This season I am in is stretching me in ways that I didn't even know existed and quite frankly in ways that are majorly uncomfortable. My faith. My comfort. My security. All of it is being put through a major test and all I want to do is run away from it. I want to rest in the safety net of what I know and continue to live life through blinders, pretending to be oblivious to the world around me. I don't want to face the reality out of fear of the unknown. How many lives will I negatively impact by running in the opposite direction of all that I have come to know and love? As I grow in my faith and within my relationship with God, I realize that there are going to be times where He wants to pick you up from one place and put you down in another. Totally uprooting everything you've grown comfortable with and accustomed to and planting you in a place you've never experienced. All of which is done to help you grow into the person He created you to be.

After years of saying I was going to plant a garden in front of my home, I woke up one day and finally decided to do it. I didn't know the first thing about gardening however, upon completing that task, I found it to be far more therapeutic than I ever could've imagined. The intentionality of the process from start to end is so beautiful when you take a moment to stop and think about it. Visiting the nursery and choosing the perfect flowers, designating the perfect place for them to be planted with proper space for each one to grow, and then nourishing them with water and attention, and being able to stand back like a proud parent witnessing and admiring their growth over time. As I was reflecting one day, I had a revelation that this is exactly how God sees His children. Everything He does in our lives is so intentional. I stopped believing in coincidences and began realizing how everything in our lives whether good or bad, happens for a reason. God handpicks us to carry out tasks and assignments created specifically for us. He purposefully puts us in places where our gifts/skills can be utilized, then provides us with all that we need to grow and develop within that environment. Sometimes, those environments are our forever homes while other times, it may just be temporary. He surrounds us with the people we need (and sometimes, the ones we don't) in order for us to learn valuable lessons along the way. When we start to waver, He maintains our balance. When unbelief kicks in, He sends us a sign to keep on pushing. When He plants a seed that we may be unsure of, He waters it. Then what happens next? We slowly start to blossom in ways we never even thought were possible. We bloom into a person we never even knew existed. We find confidence in areas we once felt insecure. We find peace in areas we once felt turmoil. We find beauty in places we once felt pain. We find life in places we once had to grieve. Just like flowers, sometimes, we have to be taken out of one familiar environment and placed into another in order to truly grow.

Sometimes, familiar settings can stifle our growth and keep us stagnant. Sometimes, familiar territory will have us living in fear of stepping out on faith and maximizing our potential and chasing some of our wildest dreams. Sometimes, that familiar territory can be a partner or a loved one. Sometimes, that familiar territory can be a long-time friend or family member. It could be that toxic job we can't seem to walk away from or that friendship/relationship that's run its course but we can't seem to let go of. Whatever that familiar territory is for you that's convincing you to stay somewhere you know aren't meant to be, I challenge you to break free. I challenge you to embrace that unfamiliar territory because that place you're afraid of being planted could be the very place that you need to be in order to flourish in ways you never have. Don't be afraid to start over, girl. You owe it to yourself to bloom.

**I originally wrote this post back in April and it's so crazy to see how much of my own advice I have taken since then. What was a therapeutic release for me months ago actually turned out to be the blueprint for the status of my life right now. Look at God.**