The Mustard Seed Grows

My daughter's plant is teaching me a lot today:

Lesson 1: The first step in seeing something grow is BELIEVING it can.

My daughter started this little plant from mustard seeds that had been used for a gift.  She asked me one day, "Mommy, can I plant some seeds?" and I thought it would be a nice project for her toward the close of our day.  I don't know that she expected growth but it never occurred to her that it didn't have the POTENTIAL to grow.  My girl went in with an open heart. Oh what I could learn from the faith of a child...

I think too many of us kill seeds even as we plant. We decide we don't have the skill, that God will not conspire with us to grow it and unknowingly, we remove the magic spark that turns it into WHAT IT IS CALLED TO BE.  When I got the seeds, they had been used to reflect someone's interpretation of them.  My daughter looked at the seeds and saw the beauty of what was already inside.

Lesson 2: The execution doesn't need to be elaborate, it just needs to WORK.

The container is an old Italian ice cup with holes poked in it using a pen and the dirt was collected from what spilled out of a forgotten bag of soil.  The seeds were then sprinkled in and after some watering, the cup was set on a plate and put in a spot with no direct sunlight.  It looked like play to me but as far as the seeds were concerned my girl had done everything that was needed to give them a chance to grow. And so they did.

Lesson 3: Don't give up on something just before it has a chance to break through the surface and really BE something.

I have to admit, from the beginning, I saw the project as something I would eventually throw away.  I am so glad I LOOKED  at it first and found the sweet little top of one plant poking above the rim of the cup!  I was SO excited to see it had grown and felt so blessed to bear witness to it. 

We have to be careful of giving up on something deeper by what we just see on the surface.  What if I had thrown away the plant just before the living thing had had a chance to break through the soil? Looking at the cup, I could've just seen dirt without ever acknowledging the LIFE that was growing within it. I hate to think it would never have had a chance to grow even as it was trying so hard to BE something outside of its confining shell.

Lesson 4:  Treat people like seeds.

Humble and simple beginnings do not dictate the importance of what a child will become and how mighty they will grow to be.

Believe they can grow and watch them do it.

Put them in an environment where they have a chance and sometimes a chance is all they need.

Don't give up on people just short of the breakthrough.

Thank You, Lord.

He replied, "Because you have so little faith. Truly I tell you, if you have faith as small as a mustard seed, you can say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it will move. Nothing will be impossible for you." 

Matthew 17:20

And he said: "Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.

Matthew 18:3