Over the past couple of days, I’ve been thinking about the old maxim, “Bloom where you are planted.”

Some ascribe the saying to St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622), who said this:”Truly charity has no limit; for the love of God has been poured into our hearts by His Spirit dwelling in each one of us, calling us to a life of devotion and inviting us to bloom in the garden where He has planted and directing us to radiate the beauty and spread the fragrance of His Providence.”

Others think that the saying originated from the Bible, and there are several passages which have the same timbre.  For example, in 1 Corinthians 7:17, Paul wrote…   Nevertheless, each person should live as a believer in whatever situation the Lord has assigned to them, just as God has called them. This is the rule I lay down in all the churches.

Psalm 1, which is one of my all time favorite passages of scripture, also speaks to blooming where you are planted.

Psalm 1 (NIV)

1 Blessed is the one
who does not walk in step with the wicked
or stand in the way that sinners take
or sit in the company of mockers,

2 but whose delight is in the law of the Lord,
and who meditates on his law day and night.

3 That person is like a tree planted by streams of water,
which yields its fruit in season
and whose leaf does not wither—
whatever they do prospers.

4 Not so the wicked!
They are like chaff
that the wind blows away.

5 Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

6 For the Lord watches over the way of the righteous,
but the way of the wicked leads to destruction.

This morning, as I prayed, the Lord spoke to me and said, “Don’t just bloom there, flourish.”

Flourish?  What does it mean to flourish?

According to Merriam-Webster, to flourish is to:

… grow luxuriantly
… thrive
… achieve success
… prosper
… be in a state of activity or production
… reach a height of development or influence
… make bold and sweeping gestures
… wield with dramatic gestures
… brandish

As I studied this afternoon, I used my concordance to find other references to the word flourish in scripture.  I think Psalm 92: 12-15 most closely fits with what the Lord was speaking to my heart.

Psalm 92: 12-15 (NIV)

12 The righteous will flourish like a palm tree,
they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon;

13 planted in the house of the Lord,
they will flourish in the courts of our God.

14 They will still bear fruit in old age,
they will stay fresh and green,

15 proclaiming, “The Lord is upright;
he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him.”

That’s what I want.   I want to flourish.  I’m not sure how I will go about flourishing.  I know that in order to get a plant to flourish, you have to feed it, water it, give it the right amount of sunlight, and sometimes prune it.

What about you?

Are you blooming where you are planted?

Or are you flourishing?