Meet my babies!

“You don’t have enough faith,” Jesus told them. “I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”

I think that it's about time I introduced you all to my babies.....my plant babies, that is.

I knew when I got my "She Space"- my special room in our apartment - that I wanted to have some plants. Nearly a year after moving in, my husband and I finally decided to pot some soil and plant some seeds. For the last 4 months, I have truly been in my "garden era".

Each morning, I wake up and walk into my room to greet all of my "plant kids" (oftentimes literally). For each of my plants, I've given them names:

My cilantro is CiCi.

My parsley is Patti.

My basil is Bay-Bay. (I didn't grow her from seed - she's adopted!)

My husband's coreopsis (mardi gras flowers) is Mardi.

...and my oldest baby, Holly - my jalapeno plant.

I never understood why some older women have so many plants, but I now understand. They can bring so much joy. Almost the same kind of joy that you can get from having pets - except no walks or poop to pick up!

Take Holly for instance. Holly is the two seeds that I planted on a whim 4 months ago. Each day I watered her carefully and waited in anticipation for a glimpse of her. The seed packet said that it would take about 3 weeks to sprout, so that's what I expected.

2 weeks had gone by and there were no sprouts. I started to doubt and wondered if I'd done something wrong...

Just when I was starting to give way to doubt, a little curled sprout sprang up! I must've stared at that sprout for the accumulation of hours. I was truly enamored and in awe of what God had done with those seeds.

The past 4 months have truly been a joy watching the plants grow, nurturing them each day with water and love. You realize that as a "plant parent" that's really all you can do - God does rest!

I've gotten the privilege of harvesting CiCi (cilantro) and Bay-Bay (basil) to use in some recipes, which was super cool to have grown my produce in my home!

Mardi (my husband's coreopsis flowers) have grown rapidly. It's now nearly two feet and flower buds open up nearly everyday!

...but my oldest, Holly (jalapeno) truly has my heart. She's now a little over a foot tall and I've gotten to witness her journey at each special stage:

From a sprout with tiny leaves...

To a more mature plant with big leaves...

To now having at least 15 flower buds that will soon become jalapenos.

Not only have I learned a lot by caring for her, God has taught me quite a few things by witnessing her growth from a seed...

It's still amazing to think about where she started.

As you may know, jalapeno seeds are super tiny. To know that those tiny seeds - under the right conditions - can produce a plant that has to be 1000 times bigger is incredible.

...but ain't that just like God though? To take something seemingly small and make it mighty. In this moment, I'm thinking about our faith.This morning I was reminded of what Jesus said in Matthew 17:20: "I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it would move. Nothing would be impossible.”

Sometimes, it can feel like your faith is running on pure fumes. You may feel distressed by things that you're dealing with physically, mentally, or spiritually.

Jesus lets us know in the scripture that it's no need to get discouraged by the amount of faith that it feels like you have. Faith just needs to be there.

By simply having it there, God will take your "teeny" faith and grow something amazing from it. I've seen firsthand how he's lead me through some tough circumstances and can work it out in a way that I'd never seen coming. You just have to trust Him.

So you, hold tight to your faith - something beautiful is about to spring up from it!