Stop to Smell the Roses!

The old adage "stop to smell the roses" is sometimes easier said than done. Life can become so busy that I feel pressured and pressed from every side. When this happens, and so often it does, I find it difficult to STOP to do anything much less smell the roses.

This Spring the roses in my garden and all over town have been extraordinary. On the fence row outside of our courtyard is the most lovely rose bush I have ever seen. The rose itself is an old fashioned climbing pink Cherokee rose. What makes it unique and special is that this is a rosebush that has been in my family longer than I have been alive. It is affectionately called the "Grandma Abbott rose". I am not sure that I have the story straight, but my great-great-grandmother is buried in the Oakridge Cemetery in Tifton, Georgia. At some point in time after she was buried, this rosebush was planted near her grave. I will have to check with my daddy to see if it was in her garden before it was transplanted to the cemetery.

Long story, short...I have had a cutting from that rosebush in Tifton for at least 12years. The transplanted bush and the babies have made it from the Cemetery to Jonesboro, to another family home in Tifton, to my daddy's home and now to mine. After one of the babies was transplanted to my home it lived in the shade of a pine island, basically ignored for several years. The bush never once bloomed in that location and never grew longer than a three foot straight shoot that laid on the ground. Seven years ago, when we built a pool, I moved the rosebush to a fence row next to my neighbors yard and hoped that it might thrive in the new location.

The laws of nature are true, with the proper sunlight, water and pruning, that old family friend has bloomed this year in glorious splendor. There must be at least 1,000 blooms covering the fence corner, climbing up the trees and spreading over an area covering about 50 square feet. It is beautifully, amazing!

So, with all of that said, God has graciously reminded me that when I am too busy to "stop and smell the roses" He loves me so much that He will bring the roses me. I have had no choice but to admire, enjoy and smell the roses this year.

What does it take for you to stop and smell the roses? Are you to busy? The "roses" in my life are the blessings for which I am eternally grateful. Sometimes I completely overlook the blessings and I am ashamed to say that sometimes I am so busy that I fail to humble myself before the Lord and just express my gratitude to God for His amazing grace and blessings in my life. Thank you, God, for the blessings in my life and for the gentle reminder from my glorious rosebush, that if I don't "stop and smell the roses", voluntarily, You will put those "roses" right in front of my face and force me to stop and smell them.

What catalyst is needed to bring you in alignment with the purposes and plans of God, today? Start by being grateful, if we are not, often times God will place a catalyst in our life to force us to "stop and smell the roses"!