Mum’s the Word!

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Fall has officially arrived and is standing at full attention! Pumpkins, gourds, corn stalks, sunflower, mums … they’re all here! I may or may not have a special place in my heart for mums. See photos above, that’s my front porch and one HUGE mum I came across recently!

Chyrsanthemums (mums) are one of the most popular flowers in the world, next only to the rose. This fact is surprising, did you know that mums are actually tropical flowers? Yeah, me either! The colors options vary from purple, lavender, pink, burgundy, bronze, white and red. They symbolize happiness, joy, love or grief depending on the color and the culture in which they are given.

Mums bloom in various forms and can be daisy-like, decorative, pompons or buttons. I’m pretty sure I love them all. Mums are called composites, meaning that their flower heads are made up on tiny, individual flowers. 

As I continue to find more parallels between flowers and faith, it’s neat to recognize that we too are quite similar to these notorious fallcomposites…we as Christians are under the headship of our God, just as those tiny individual flowers make up the flower head of the plant.

 And, just as mums bloom in various forms like daisies, pompons or buttons, we too as Christians bloom with our abundance of unique gifts and talents. Some of us bloom with flashier, center-staged gifts, like singing, teaching or preaching. While some people bloom with more quiet, behind the scene gifts such as administration, prayer, or discernment. No one talent or gift is more important than the other, yet they are all imperative as we work together under God and to glorify God.  Here are few of my favorite verses that portray this very concept.

1 Peter 4:10 Each of you should use whatever gift you have received to serve others, as faithful stewards of God’s grace in its’ various forms.

1 Corinthians 12:5-6 There are different kinds of service, but the same Lord. There are different kinds of working, but in all of them and in everyone it is the same God at work.

I have so much fun finding and arranging fall mums in pots and caring for them during their short bloom season. I absolutely love the burst of color on my porch as I walk into my home! However, as much as I enjoy these fall gems, their blooms are so very temporary. How much wiser to care for and tend to our unique, God given gifts (blooms) so as to carry out the work of the Lord.

I have been called to love and encourage others through speaking, writing and leadership. This very blog is me practicing a writing gift God has granted me. It may not be an award winning gift, but God has called me to use it and so I am. I am grateful that you are a part of it and I genuinely hope and pray that you too are practicing your gifts. The world is a better place when you are doing the thing (s) you are called to do. Your talents are a gift from God, what you choose to do with them is a gift back to Him. Let’s get to it!