Meet The McKinneys

Bloom Where You’re Planted

I heard a lady say this on the prayer section of the DailyAudioBible.com podcast a while back. This little saying was no doubt meant for me to hear. It may have been meant for a lot of people to hear, but I’m glad I did.

Always looking to the horizon for what is coming or always peeking over the fence at that greener grass keeps you from realizing the potential you have to positively affect your environment. “Bloom where you’re planted” says a lot.

Don’t forget about the horizon or that greener grass, but go for it. Go for it by being the best at what you are doing right now.
If you are given only a “little” job to do, do it better than anyone else could possibly conceive.

Here’s a little story for you:
Jan became a librarian quite by accident. She was looking for a job and the library was looking for someone to do a job. She complained a lot early on in her job that there were no “good” jobs left out there. The economy was bad and no one would hire her to do “important” work. Granted, the economy was awful, but she was missing it. She did have a job. A very important one at that. Maybe it wasn’t important to her at the time, because it wasn’t what she expected to be doing.

It was very important to the kids that came in the library during the evening hours. Turns out she had previous teaching assistant experience and 2 of the kids coming to the library were there to help each other get better at algebra (her specialty). The kids were not very good at the concepts, but that didn’t stop them from asking for help.

After finding out what the two students needed help with she was delighted to help them. She spent the next few weeks helping the students grasp the concepts in ways they hadn’t been able to before. She realized that when she was helping them she wasn’t bellyaching or griping about the jobs she couldn’t find. She decided that day to give it all she had and help those two students get A’s in there classes.

Because of her efforts and the kids eagerness to learn from their new-found tutor the kids did indeed get A’s on their next exams. Now remember, these kids were awful at algebra. That’s why it raised the eyebrows of the students algebra teacher.
“How did you two improve so much in so little time?” the teacher asked the students skeptically.
“We had a tutor. The librarian.”

The teacher didn’t believe that these two “problem” learners really had help learning and paid a visit to the library to see the source.
Jan was surprised that the teacher paid a visit to her and the teacher was surprised she actually existed!

The teacher was so impressed that he brought Jan to meet his boss and recommended her for the teaching assistant position that would be coming open the following year. She got the job because she put her efforts into what she was doing now, not what she would be doing in the future.

Leave a comment telling about a time when you or someone you know bloomed where they were planted.