But I Wanted Spaghetti Squash!
(edited from a previously written post on TheHopeFilledRoad.com)
Boy did I have a mix up in the garden awhile ago!
Routinely, if I have a good crop, I save seeds from vegetables that grow well. I'll label them, seal them, and save them. It’s worked out pretty good. Clearly, from the pic below, I set my sights on using seeds saved from Spaghetti Squash I had previously grown.
But…this is what I ended up with a few months later!!
Butternut Squash!
Still a squash, but not spaghetti. Ugh.
Don’t get me wrong, I like, like, like Butternut Squash, but I wanted Spaghetti Squash. I needed Spaghetti Squash. I set my hopes to have Spaghetti Squash. I worked hard to get Spaghetti Squash...I didn’t get Spaghetti Squash.
Can I tell you, this whole seed mix up thing hit home to me. I labeled, I planted, I waited, I watched, I toiled, I hoped…all for something that never, ever, ever could have become a Spaghetti Squash. Ever!
What I started with was Butternut, and what I finished with was Butternut--whether I knew it or not. All my wishing and hoping and waiting had no more influence on that little seed than the man in the moon.
Don’t we get there sometimes?
I mean don’t we sit in the wanting and wishing and hoping we would turn out different than what we are? We want--therefore we hope, therefore we wait, and therefore we’re disappointed. I, for one, have spent countless hours over my lifetime, hoping to be someone else; waiting to become--someone else; toiling to be--someone else. Yet, I was never, ever meant to be--someone else. Not a body like another, not a personality like another, not gifted like another, not able like another, not a life like another…it goes on and on.
Yet, I have to remember…God didn’t label me wrong.
You, have to remember...He didn’t label you wrong!
He knew the seed He set and the bounty that would spring forth.
May I remind us…you and I are God’s greatest creation! We are exactly the way He intended; exactly the way He planned. Our bodies, our personalities, our gifts, our abilities, our strengths, our weaknesses…it is all what makes us, us. And it was all designed by Him.
When we come from a place of understanding that God doesn’t make mistakes, then we can put aside the futile efforts of wishing and hoping for something else we thought we should have been.
When that happens, we become a more confident child of God. We become a more confident person in the world He made. We become a more confident follower of a Savior.
From one squash to another, may I encourage you to let go of the effort you spend hoping you would have turned out differently. It’s wasted energy. It’s useless thoughts. It’s actually a divider between you and Him. Put aside the wishing and hoping, and instead celebrate what actually came forth…YOU—in all your glory, exactly as planned! And when those old, useless thoughts pop up from time to time, perhaps you can remember that even though Spaghetti Squash works, Butternut does too—it just depends on the recipe.