About the Author

Jennifer Dukes Lee is the author of several books, including Growing Slow. She and her husband live on the family farm, raising crops, pigs, and two humans. She’s a fan of dark chocolate, emojis, eighties music, bright lipstick, and Netflix binges. She wants to live life in such a way...

(in)side DaySpring: things we love
& you will too!
Find more at DaySpring.com
(in)side DaySpring:
things we love
& you will too!
Find more at
DaySpring.com
Recent Posts

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. YES, Jennifer, Beauty is found in every moment we live in as long we slow down to take a look at it and appreciate the moment we are living in. Hallelujah..

    Thank you for sharing.

    God Bless

  2. Good Morning! Some tough words here, but oh so important. Thank you so much for these reminders to bloom where we are planted, even when it is a “hard” place. If it is God’s will to “transplant” us somewhere else at some point, then sure! But at the end of the day, may our focus always be to please God, honor God and to be fruitful wherever God allows us to be, at any point in time. Hmm! Weighty thoughts.

    You know, I had momentarily forgotten that the Bible Study Mondays were not starting until August. I woke up excited to join the Bible study today. I saw this post and then remembered they didn’t start till August. But this was perfect. Made me think. These are encouraging reminders. Thank you for sharing:)

    • Hi Bomi! I like the reminder that God has the authority to pick us up from a hard place and replant us somewhere else. Until then, we can make something beautiful right where we are.

  3. Amen! Thank you Jesus You redeem the hard & produce beauty! Thanks for the reminder, Jennifer!

    • So interesting that my reading this morning was Psalm 126 and then this followed. Seeds. Planting. Despair. Suffering. Harvests. Joy.
      If I were to recount all of the crap from the past year (much of it still current), it would sound like I was making it all up. I’ve never known such devastation in so many of life’s spheres. We’ve been hanging by a thread.
      I am so thankful when God clearly sends me what I need to hear and focus on. Thank you for your post!

  4. Thank you I was so encouraged by your thoughts. God is always wanting to shower his blessings on us even in hard times. Because his love for us is endless ❤

  5. Thank you so much for posting your article. Your words and God’s words spoke to my heart. I have been wanting to move to another home and location for quite a while now because I feel trapped in the house we have. But I feel that until the day I really “live” in my home, which is a gift from Him, He will keep me right here. Your post has shown me how to enjoy where God has us in our season, enjoy every moment, and constantly find His grace and blessings with everything He has so blessed us with.

    • Hi Sherry! Thanks for sharing your story. Praying now that God can grow you here, and that when the time is right, He will replant you elsewhere, bringing you joy in the here & now … as well as in the future.

  6. Thanks for your post this morning. The timing was was perfect! I always enjoy your posts.

  7. Thank you for this post. I have been going through a very tough season which has spanned for several years. There seems to be no end in sight. I found this very encouraging and it really spoke to me.

  8. So interesting that my reading this morning was Psalm 126 and then this followed. Seeds. Planting. Despair. Suffering. Harvests. Joy.
    If I were to recount all of the crap from the past year (much of it still current), it would sound like I was making it all up. I’ve never known such devastation in so many of life’s spheres. We’ve been hanging by a thread.
    I am so thankful when God clearly sends me what I need to hear and focus on. Thank you for your post!

    • Oh Melissa, I apologize for taking so long to reply to this message from you. I am saying a prayer for you today. You’ve endured so much. I hope that this difficult season lifts and that you can see the light at the end of the tunnel!

  9. The suffering, the planting, the hard places, the blooming all serve a great purpose. Thank you Jennifer for this encouragement.

  10. So, I love your allusion to Alexander, my fave storybook as a child! But even more, I love this reminder to look for the beauty right where I am today. Yes, God can and will work through our hard places…may we live with expectant hearts, ready to lean into a new season of growth and praise Him for it! Thank you, Jennifer.

  11. Jennifer,

    It is so easy to play the “grass is always greener on the other side” game. Thinking it would be better to live/work some where else. What we must realize that God has us right where He wants. He alone knows the future & the journey He mapped out for us. Who knows how much influence we can have in our area/sphere? Like you said look at Joseph he stayed true to God & bloomed where planted. God used & elevated Him to second in command in Egypt. God can & will use you right where you are.

    Blessings 🙂

  12. We can let the weeds of sin and thoughts from past years that have been offal into our lives if we want to. Have then follow into the following year. When they can take root in our lives. By us walling in saying about how bad 2020 year of Covid was. When it started in 2020 really bad. We can let that year carry on to 2021. With letting Satan the Old Devil fill our minds with things that are not of God that happened in it. That God wouldn’t want us to fill our minds with. Like all the negative things that happened in 2020. To try and put us down and carry them into 2021. Since the start of year in 2021 to now in June 2021. To have them still from 2020 to be rattling round in our minds like weeds that grow in hards Places that are hard to pull out and get rid of and kill. That is what the Old Devil what us to do to get us down and keep us down. That we keep thinking of them. Then saying why why is this still happening to me. I hoped 2021 would be a better year. Then you get down say will things ever get better in my life. Will 2021 be any better than 2020. You get in rut. Like a weed you get stuck on these thoughts. You find it hard to get them out of your Mind. That is what the Old Devil want. The weed of theses thoughts to be annoying you so much like that hard weed. You can’t pull it out of your mind. So you think. No matter how a real weed is deeply clung to what it clung to. You can with a bit of weed killer. Kill it then it is with a garden fork and space easier to pull out. Guess what you can do the same with that weed thoughts in your mind that you have carried from 2020 to 2021. That is annoying you. To get it out of your mind for good. So as Old Devil doesn’t have you were he want you to be recking your Mind. All you have to do is cote the word of God back to the Old Devil. Get into God word the Bible and Prayer. Ask God to help you remove what that weed is in your mind. That is and has been annoying you from 2020 that you brought it with you into 2021. Through God Holy Spirit God will show you how to get rid of it out of your mind. Fill your mind with the word of God. Not the nasty thought weeds. That Satan and Old Devil would want you to fill it with. Then you will see Satan disappeare from your life his nasty weed thoughts die. As you will be killing them with prayer and the word of God the Bible. Your mind will mind will then not be fill with any nasty weeds that fill it with thoughts of 2020. That you said what a year it was into 2021. You will feel so much better. I did that. I have amit I did feel slot better. Satan was not annoying me anymore. Thank you Jennifer for what you shared it was excellent. Praying for you all incourage. Love Dawn Ferguson-Little xx

  13. Thank you SO much for this blog!!! I have been struggling with mental illness for a while now!!! My medication stopped working and I am now in the process of building up my system with a new med!!! It takes a couple weeks to really start taking affect!!! I have been in the Word and my plants are verses like Psalm 36:5 NLT—Your unfailing love, O Lord, is as vast as the heavens; Your faithfulness reaches to the clouds!!! It is like a seed sown in my heart to grow a plant of His love and belief in His love for me, my family, my church family and those I pray for and interact with!!! It gives me hope!!!

  14. Joseph frequently comes to my mind also as someone who did not sail through circumstances from one success to another. He was faithful right where he was–in spite of horrific setbacks. Surely discouragement and questions plagued him, yet he soldiered on. Such a powerful example for us! Love your illustration of the mustard plant, Jennifer, and the lesson that beauty can grow anywhere. May I take root, right here, right now, and bear fruit for you, Father!

  15. Thank you so much for these thought provoking, reflective, and encouraging words. Oh, they are so needed during this struggling life-changing season of my life right now. God is so good. Grow where you are planted is so what I needed to hear today. God in His infinite omnipresent self – made this manifest to me through you today! Amen! Amen! Amen!

  16. Thank you Jennifer. I shared your words with my husband, who right now feels like a weed placed (a new job) where he has nothing to offer those around him just taking up space like a “rambling” weed. I asked God to remind him…
    “may I have the faith to know that God is growing me even here”
    My husband may not feel or see his bloom, but God does.

  17. Looking into the rearview mirror of 2020 makes me want to drive faster and in the complete opposite direction. Surprisingly, the unexpected events of global impact were not what marked that year for me as being ‘hard.’ It was the chaos of life — that just happened during the year everyone else was wrestling with pain. Ironically, I found how much misery loves company.

    When you spoke of seeing the ‘beauty’ in the present, it pulled me back and forced me to ‘park’ on that thought. It’s so easy to overlook what God has placed in front of us when we’re spiraling in lots of other directions.

    Thank you for sharing this.

    • I love this comment, Linda! So much wisdom here. I am glad you were able to “park” on this, and take a look at the beauty all around. I hope your July is going well!