trbccoffeebreak

“Let your roots grow down into Him, and let your lives be built on Him. Then your faith will grow strong in the truth you were taught, and you will overflow with thankfulness.”  Colossians 2:7 (NLT)

I am a kindergarten teacher working 40 minutes east of where I live. I also attend and serve at church 30 minutes west of where I live. I absolutely love everything about my school, but my priorities are changing. When I first started teaching four years ago, I could see myself retiring from this school. Now, married and living 40 minutes away, I am homesick — I yearn to live in the community where I can run into families at the grocery store and meet up with friends for coffee. When telling my husband I was “homesick,” his response was so God breathed, it took me aback. He simply said this urge to want to be closer to home was because God was pulling my roots up. WOW! My roots! I was guilty of putting my roots into my job, but my roots should be into God so that my life is built on Him. If God has made my mission field teaching, I need to be ready to move where He calls me because my roots and identity are in Him, not in my job.

If we truly believe our Lord and Savior has placed us where He needs us, then we can have peace. My calling is to be a teacher, and the days I see my job as a mission field are the days I am most energized. However, we must allow ourselves to grow, even if that means change. When I hear the word “root,” I automatically think of a big tree which started out as a seed that had to GROW strong. When I think of trees, I often think of fruit that grows on them. Galatians 5:22 tell us that the Holy Spirit produces fruit in our lives –and among this fruit is faithfulness. The Lord is commanding us to trust in Him and have faith that will GROW strong by staying in the word and in diligent prayer.

I am thankful for a lot of things, places, and people who have been crucial in playing a part of who I am today, and I used to consider those my roots when they are really my core. My core is unchanging. The shy, tenderhearted, full of love person I am is still the same no matter where God chooses to move me. My roots are GROWING in the Lord and I am so thankful for that.

“God, we humbly ask You to help us to fix our eyes on You and help us to grow into You. We are so thankful for all that You do for us, even though we are so undeserving. Amen.”

For His Glory

Denise Crouse
TRBC Women’s Life