Houseplants & Giants

Lessons from unusual places.

The Health Growth Letters is a weekly publication of tips, frameworks, and lessons to help you build a more balanced life based on faith, health, and wellness. If you’ve been forwarded this email, you can subscribe here.

What’s on the agenda:

A verse:

After God used Moses and the plagues to miraculously free the Israelites from Egypt, they spent forty years wandering in the desert before entering the land that God promised to them.

But it didn’t need to be this long.

This verse comes from the story of Joshua, Caleb, and ten other spies who went and surveyed the land God promised them shortly after exiting Egypt. After they went into the land, they came back and shared a report with the people.

The report was positive & negative:

  1. The land was good, flowing with milk and honey

  2. The land is dangerous and can’t be conquered

Because of this report, the people were fearful, and God punished them.

God said to them, “Not one of you will enter the land I swore with uplifted hand to make your home, except Caleb son of Jephunneh and Joshua son of Nun.” - Numbers 14:30

Because of their fear, they were forced to endure 38 more years of wandering.

And all of them, except Joshua and Caleb, missed out on the promise God had given them.

Take your eyes off the giants

I find the story amazing. Two short years after God brought down the Egyptian Empire, miraculously freeing the Israelites from bondage through plagues, the people are fearful to take a step of faith.

They are being led by a pillar of fire by night, and a cloud by day, but the report of giants keeps them from entering the promised land.

I think we often do the same thing.

Despite God delivering us from sin and bondage, opening up doors and opportunities, and calling us to step into it, we focus on the giants.

We miss the promise and the way we arrived at the precipice of promise, and focus on the potential problems in our future.

As a result, we miss out on entering into what God has for us.

Takeaway Question:

What promise is God calling you into? What doors has he opened that He wants you to step through that you’re delaying, and fearfully avoiding?

Trust God, His promises, and His word, and confidently step forward into what He has for you!

A lesson: Growth Tips from Houseplants

Several years ago, I moved out of state while only bringing what fit in my car.

I moved into a small one-bedroom apartment, but I owned nothing. I bought a mattress and a bed frame, but the furniture was expensive.

Instead, I started by filling my space with plants.

Over the next two years, I went from never owning a plant before to having nearly 60 in a 550 square foot apartment. (I can get a little obsessive).

I’ve calmed it down over the past few years, but I still have 15 or so, all named, in our apartment in South Florida. But I’ve learned a lot about life and personal growth through my plants, and there are a few lessons I’d like to share with you today:

1. The size of your pot matters

When you buy a plant, there are a few things you need to consider, one of which is the size of the pot. Too small a pot, and the plant won’t have room to grow, and it can die as a result. Too big of a pot and the plant can’t absorb all the water and can drown or rot.

As people, we’re very similar.

Too small a pot, and we never grow, we get comfortable, stagnant, and slowly get unhealthy and unmotivated.

Too big of a pot and we get overwhelmed, fail, and get scared of stepping out of our comfort zone.

Takeaway: When looking to grow, find slightly larger opportunities to step into, don’t throw yourself into the deep end.

2. You require a unique environment

Most people go to the store or see a plant they like online and buy it. They don’t consider the environment they’re bringing it into, and if it’s a match for the type of plant they’re buying.

Some plants need bright light, or morning light.

Some need low light or indirect light.

Some need lots of water, some don’t need any (or very little).

Yet we treat them predominantly the same.

We do the same thing with our goals and desires. We see something online, read about something in a book, or get convinced we need to do something from an influencer on Instagram, and try and bring that goal into our existing lives.

Rarely do we look at our goals and desires and ask, “Does this align with who I am and the environment I’m trying to cultivate?”

Takeaway: Before taking on a new challenge, habit, or goal, ask yourself, “Will I be able to cultivate and grow this within my current environment, and if not, do I need a new goal or a new environment?”

3. Pruning is needed, but too much is deadly

One of the most beautiful analogies I have from plants regards pruning.

As a plant grows, things happen. They get too much water, the sun scorches a leaf. You don’t rotate it, and it grows in a weird direction.

To cultivate healthy growth, we need to cut back the plant from time to time, but if you cut off more than 10-15% of a plant their is a good chance it will die. That’s because even though broken, ugly, and damaged, that growth servers a purpose for the plant. it still captures light and is critical to future growth.

Like plants, we have broken, ugly, and damaged stories and parts of us, but those pieces make us who we are. They are what make our story unique, and sharing those experiences and learning from them is critical to our growth and the growth of others.

Takeaway: What broken or damaged pieces are you cutting off that should still be a part of your story or life simply to present a “prettier” version of yourself?

A Puzzle:

A rebus is a puzzle that uses pictures, symbols, and/or letters to represent words or parts of words. The challenge of the puzzle is to decipher the hidden meaning behind the symbols and solve the puzzle.

Here’s this week’s puzzle:

The answer will be given in next week’s letter.

The answer to last week’s puzzle was “Feeling Under The Weather”.

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