Wednesday, May 16, 2007
“No lah, I cannot one…” was how I reacted when a friend gave me a pot of flowers from Hong Kong. He insisted that I should try gardening, which is not my cup of tea, and I certainly don’t want to break the commandment “Thou shalt not kill”.
In the end, all my excuses like “don’t want to breed mosquitoes”, “this flower might be considered an illegal immigrant here”… didn’t work. I carried that pot of flowers home.
In fact, it doesn’t look like flowers to me at first. The buds still haven’t opened except for one. Here is how it looked like at Day 0.
I thought I might really kill the plant. I don’t have an impressive record when it comes to pets and plants – when I was in primary 2, my pet snail, Janelle, was drowned; my goldfish, Big Eyes, died of toxicity because I fed her too much food (I think); my morning glory plant died before it barely had flowers; my colleagues’ money plant turned from a healthy green to dull yellow under my “tender loving care”… I have 1001 reasons to reject trying this.
But am glad that somehow I decided to give it a try, and can’t believe I actually enjoyed it, even though I felt like an inadequate gardener. And so I am thinking:
If Moses dared not put his staff into the waters, the red sea would not have parted.
If Esther dared not look for the King and present her request, many Jews would have died.
If Gideon dared not step out to be fight the war, the Midianites would not have been defeated.
Inadequacy applies to most great biblical characters. A recent conversation over lunch with a respected senior IGNYTE leader changed my perspective of handling inadequacy. God honors the courage that we have to step out in faith. Courage is not the absence of fear, but it is act of stepping out in spite of that fear. God see our heart, and not our skills.
Even if we fall and make mistakes, we can still grow and learn along the way. (I made quite a big mistake with the plant at first. I mixed 1 part of the fertilizer with 10 parts of water at first, and only realized after a few days that the correct ratio should be 1 to 100 instead… I think I overdosed the plant. Thank God it survived through without being intoxicated. Heh.)
All of us experience inadequacy in different areas of lives. Maybe more applicable for us now is exams --- Even if your grades have not been up to your expectation for the past few months, don’t worry, just step out in faith and give your best shot. Never mind about your past failures and inadequacies, simply take this as a new beginning and try again!
I do freak out during exams too, but every time I enter the exam hall, I will try to recall the bible verse that Sis Limin used to encourage me with when I was doing my A’level exams.
“No king is saved by the size of his army; no warriors escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is his unfailing love...” Psalms 33: 16-18
Continue to tout your confidence in God, study hard and be the best student for Jesus! J
Btw, here is how the flowers look like after 2 weeks: (beautiful?)
In the end, all my excuses like “don’t want to breed mosquitoes”, “this flower might be considered an illegal immigrant here”… didn’t work. I carried that pot of flowers home.
In fact, it doesn’t look like flowers to me at first. The buds still haven’t opened except for one. Here is how it looked like at Day 0.
I thought I might really kill the plant. I don’t have an impressive record when it comes to pets and plants – when I was in primary 2, my pet snail, Janelle, was drowned; my goldfish, Big Eyes, died of toxicity because I fed her too much food (I think); my morning glory plant died before it barely had flowers; my colleagues’ money plant turned from a healthy green to dull yellow under my “tender loving care”… I have 1001 reasons to reject trying this.
But am glad that somehow I decided to give it a try, and can’t believe I actually enjoyed it, even though I felt like an inadequate gardener. And so I am thinking:
If Moses dared not put his staff into the waters, the red sea would not have parted.
If Esther dared not look for the King and present her request, many Jews would have died.
If Gideon dared not step out to be fight the war, the Midianites would not have been defeated.
Inadequacy applies to most great biblical characters. A recent conversation over lunch with a respected senior IGNYTE leader changed my perspective of handling inadequacy. God honors the courage that we have to step out in faith. Courage is not the absence of fear, but it is act of stepping out in spite of that fear. God see our heart, and not our skills.
Even if we fall and make mistakes, we can still grow and learn along the way. (I made quite a big mistake with the plant at first. I mixed 1 part of the fertilizer with 10 parts of water at first, and only realized after a few days that the correct ratio should be 1 to 100 instead… I think I overdosed the plant. Thank God it survived through without being intoxicated. Heh.)
All of us experience inadequacy in different areas of lives. Maybe more applicable for us now is exams --- Even if your grades have not been up to your expectation for the past few months, don’t worry, just step out in faith and give your best shot. Never mind about your past failures and inadequacies, simply take this as a new beginning and try again!
I do freak out during exams too, but every time I enter the exam hall, I will try to recall the bible verse that Sis Limin used to encourage me with when I was doing my A’level exams.
“No king is saved by the size of his army; no warriors escapes by his great strength. A horse is a vain hope for deliverance; despite all its great strength it cannot save. But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him, on those whose hope is his unfailing love...” Psalms 33: 16-18
Continue to tout your confidence in God, study hard and be the best student for Jesus! J
Btw, here is how the flowers look like after 2 weeks: (beautiful?)
Sis Yinting
2:23 PM
(SALVATION)
