{"id":1436,"date":"2012-07-24T12:48:22","date_gmt":"2012-07-24T16:48:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/smalltownamerica\/?p=1436"},"modified":"2012-07-24T10:06:19","modified_gmt":"2012-07-24T14:06:19","slug":"back-to-the-original","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/07\/back-to-the-original.html","title":{"rendered":"Back to the Original"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have some beautiful hybrid roses.\u00a0 One of them is a gorgeous purple and the other is a lemon yellow.\u00a0 Last year the purple one began to have red roses on one side of the bush and purple on the other.\u00a0 I talked with the people at the greenhouse where I bought the plants and they said it was trying to return to its original color.\u00a0 They showed me how to cut it back to make it stay purple and it did the rest of last summer.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

This spring it’s back to all red.\u00a0 My yellow bush is also going back to it’s original color.\u00a0 It has one or two yellow blooms and the rest are orange\/red.\u00a0 I have decided to let it go and be what God created it to be.\u00a0 The amazing thing is that the hybrids don’t have any fragrance, but when the original comes back, the fragrance returns.<\/p>\n

People are similer in some ways.\u00a0 God has created each of us with our own personalities and fragrances.\u00a0 When we try to improve on God’s creation, it changes everything.\u00a0 For roses it’s just the color and the smell, but for people it can changes lots of things.\u00a0 When we try to by something other than what God designed us to be, we can really mess things up.\u00a0 Our looks can change, our personalities, our attitudes, our purpose for living, ans even our relationship with Jesus.<\/p>\n

God knows best.\u00a0 He knows what will make us happy and at peace.\u00a0 We sometimes think we know better than God and try to become a different person.\u00a0 I did this once many years ago.\u00a0 I thought I wanted to be a famous author that traveled around the world teaching and prophesying.\u00a0 When my first book was published in 1979 I set out to make that happen.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I did do some traveling, but I hated it.\u00a0 People always expected more than I had to give.\u00a0 I had a little taste of being famous when I wrote for Charisma Magazine in the eighties.\u00a0 I hated it!\u00a0 I used to resent it when people called me a “children’s author”; like I wasn’t good enough to write or speak to adults.\u00a0 All this time, I was trying to be something other than what God created me to be.\u00a0 I wasted a lot of time and energy on these false dreams.<\/p>\n

One day I realized that I was happiest when I was teaching children.\u00a0 They brought life to me.\u00a0 They didn’t expect what I couldn’t deliver.\u00a0 I loved being with them.\u00a0 I loved telling them stories. I loved writing books just for them.\u00a0 I just love kids.\u00a0 What a wonderful revelation, God has called me to children.\u00a0 Not that I can’t write and relate to adults, but my calling is to children.\u00a0 I know it and the children know it.\u00a0 Now I live to teach and play with these little guys.\u00a0 I love them and they love me.<\/p>\n

Change is good, like with the roses, but not if you are willing to sacrifice the best.\u00a0 The best will always be what God has provided for us.\u00a0 He knows us better than we know ourselves.\u00a0 Sometimes He will let us try a new avenue just to show us where we belong.\u00a0 It’s sad to say that we may make ourselves miserable before we find our place again.\u00a0 Our happy place will always be where God plants us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have some beautiful hybrid roses.\u00a0 One of them is a gorgeous purple and the other is a lemon yellow.\u00a0 Last year the purple one began to have red roses on one side of the bush and purple on the other.\u00a0 I talked with the people at the greenhouse where I bought the plants and…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":420,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,14],"tags":[17,50],"class_list":["post-1436","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-encouragement","category-inspiration","tag-courage","tag-hearing-god"],"yoast_head":"\nBack to the Original - Small Town America<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/07\/back-to-the-original.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Back to the Original - Small Town America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I have some beautiful hybrid roses.\u00a0 One of them is a gorgeous purple and the other is a lemon yellow.\u00a0 Last year the purple one began to have red roses on one side of the bush and purple on the other.\u00a0 I talked with the people at the greenhouse where I bought the plants and…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/smalltownamerica\/2012\/07\/back-to-the-original.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Small Town America\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-07-24T16:48:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2012-07-24T14:06:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/smalltownamerica\/files\/2012\/06\/IMG_08411.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"dhanny\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Back to the Original - 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