THURSDAY THOUGHTS - "There Is Always Hope, Faith, and Tomorrow Morning"

Guest Post -

Each year as Mother's Day approaches my husband, Ron, and I make a trip to the nursery to choose the bedding plants for our yard.  The together we plan them so I can watch them grow all summer long.  This has been my Mother's Day gift for several years and I can't think of better one.  As we shopped this year, we selected three beautiful Peony bushes for the northeast corner of our front yard.  They were in full bloom with hot pink flowers when we purchased them, a somewhat different choice for us, but we both liked them so we took them home and spent the day planting them along with the Geraniums we bought.

After the first blooming flowers wilted and we removed them, I became concerned because I couldn't see any new buds to replace them.  The leaves looked pretty sad too and at one point, I considered replacing them altogether.  I know flowers go through a shock when they are transplanted, but it had been nearly a month... longer than any plants I remember taking to adjust.  Ron told me that some flowers go through a dormant phase, so we should wait a little longer and I agreed to give them a last chance.  We checked them every day and before long, we saw the new buds working their way out.  Not only were there more buds, but they shot up much taller than the original flowers did.  I was thrilled and so grateful we didn't uproot and replace them.

This experience taught (or should I say re-taught) me the important principle of patience.  Most things that are worthwhile take time to materialize.  It takes time for new marriages to find their rhythm and for more mature marriages to keep their rhythm strong; it take time and patience to wait for babies to be born, especially for those moms who are pregnant through the hot summer months; it takes time and patience to build homes and for mortgages to be paid off; it takes time for Cancer surgeries to heal and for chemo and radiation treatments to be completed.  And how about finishing college degrees or seeing family members through the rough patches in their lives?

Richard L. Evans, a well respected writer and spiritual leader, penned a wonderful quote that reads, "Always again there is another day.  Always, eternally there is hope and faith and tomorrow morning."  It is hard to wait as we discover what will or will not work in a marriage; as we endure waiting for a baby to be born and learn how to parent after they get here; as we wait until the discomfort and exhaustion of chemo and radiation treatments are over; and while we wait and watch as our loved ones struggle to learn many of life's most difficult lessons.  But just as the Peony plants in my front yard took hold when they were ready, the times and seasons of our lives ebb, flow and unfold when the time is right.  And thank heavens as Evans so aptly said, "There is always hope, faith and tomorrow morning."

-Kathy Christensen
Survivor
Member, Lifting Hearts