An Analogy: Mourning Flowers and Planting Seeds

Greetings, my dear friends,

To counteract the lighthearted and somewhat silly post that was "A Lesson: How to Make me Tea", let's change the mood a little.
I'm in a stage of great preparation in my life right now. A year from this month, I'll be applying for college and scholarships. Two years from now, I'll have moved away from home. Three years from now, I'll be starting my first year of college. (And so on, and so forth.)
This upcoming year is so crucial to this next chapter in my life. I've had to make some difficult (and even painful) decisions in light of that; and one of the things that makes them so painful is this:

I have yet to see the fruits of those decisions.

I've bitten the bullet and ripped off the band-aid, but I'm still in pain and I have nothing to show for it--yet.

My grandma gave me the best analogy for this, and while hers was a little simpler than this, I will take the liberty to expand on it.
Say you have a flower garden, one that you've been planting and tending your whole life. You have some flower patches and plants that have been a part of your garden for a long time, but you have some new seeds that you need to plant, and you lack the room that you need for them. You try digging holes for them wherever you can; next to these plants, mixed in with those, even right against the garden wall, but there is simply no room for them to grow. They're either too shaded by the leaves of other plants or too crowded by their roots. Looking around the garden, you see one patch of beautiful flowers, ones that you've tended for years. But you think of the seeds that so desperately need planting, and with a sigh, you find a trowel. Kneeling down next to those grown flowers, you dig up the earth around them, being very careful to not damage the roots. Laying them gently on the ground next to you, you take the seeds, which feel much heavier to you than they did before, and you plant them in the newly turned up soil.

This is the phase of life I am in presently. While we all know the end, I have yet to reach it. I'm about to start tending these seeds; I'm grieving the flowers that have been set aside; and I'm searching to find the faith to know they'll grow and the patience while they do.

In Christ,

Felicia

Photos courtesy of my younger brother at noahheisephotos.blogspot.com