Settle for the Best

This is a repost from three years ago.  Enjoy!

My mother has a green thumb like no other.  She has one of the most amazing flower gardens I have ever seen.  It’s overflowing with one healthy plant that looks just perfect next to the plant beside it.  She has meandering paths, ponds, bushes, bird baths…it’s like a walk through Heaven.  Since I moved out 15 years ago, I have been trying to tap into her amazing ability to mold and shape a garden.  Year after year I get closer, but there are always a multitude of things that aren’t “working”.

I think I have officially discovered her secret…she has no mercy on what is just “good”.  She has no problem ripping out a plant that is slightly unhealthy.  She has no problem ripping out a plant that doesn’t go with her particular style that year.  She has no problem saying no to something that is perfectly good in order to say yes to the best thing for her garden.  And if something didn’t work the year before, she doesn’t give it a second thought.  She just simply tries something new and doesn’t beat her head against the same brick wall.

I find myself being a sucker for a deal.  If there’s something on sale…that’s my plant.  If I get a free flower on Mother’s Day, it’s going in the ground.  Not because I love it or it fits into the overall look that I have, but because it’s there.  And what I keep ending up with is a conglomeration of some things that I love and some things that throw off the feeling that I was trying to get.  I spend the rest of the season looking at the odd ball plants with a twinge of bitterness and not focusing on the plants that I love.

And here’s the irony…my mom and I are both really frugal and don’t spend a lot.  She just is willing to wait longer for what is perfect, rather than what is convenient.

How many times do we look at what’s around us and settle?  It’s “there”, so that MUST be God’s way of giving it to us.  It MUST be “His will”.  Or maybe it’s just there.  Maybe it’s not God’s way of speaking through opportunity.  Maybe it’s just another moment for God to teach us how to make the “best” decisions rather than just making “good” ones.

It’s time to settle for the right additions to our garden of life.  If it’s not beneficial, it’s not the right thing for this season.  And in the end, I know what will happen…life will be a beautiful place filled with all of the things that you value the most and not a lot of junk that is just altering your focus.  Thanks, Mom.  You continue to teach me through your love and life.