A Little Faith

As Violet Gardens Floral Designs grows I'm learning to build the foundation of my business on faith alone. And the reason I say this is because it's the only thing that pushes me through when bookings get slow, when uncertainty creeps up, or when I'm eager for everything to happen all at once because I see everyone moving
at 100 miles an hour past me. But that's when I stop and remind myself to keep the faith. It's a lesson that never ceases to amaze me. 

God gave me this most recent lesson in the form of an elementary school science fair project. That's Him working mysterious ways right...Anyway my son loves science and is always inquiring on how things work. So when the school sent home packets in an attempt to recruit voluntary science fair participants my son jumped right on it. Which was fine with me since I've always been good at science. But this project totally threw me one. My son picked the topic of filtering water and I'm thinking "great, this will be super easy." Boy was I wrong. So we went online to get the steps for the procedure and then we went to gather the materials.  The experiment called for charcoal since it acts as the filtering agent for bacteria. I then went to the grocery store and purchased a bag of charcoal briquettes which are ONLY meant for grilling. My son broke them into small pieces and we put the filter together.

The pond water before the initial filtration

The initial filtration

                      And as we filtered the water it just got darker and darker. Not what we expected...

Two days before the science project was due the water was darker than ever and I didn't understand where we went wrong. We followed the instructions and repeated the experiment multiple times. Finally my son came to me and said "Mommy, what am I gonna do? The project is due in two days." and I said "Don't worry about it, I'll take care of it." Not knowing what to do, I went to God and asked for help. The next day I found  out on Google that I was using the wrong charcoal. I needed to use activated charcoal which could be purchased at the pet store since it's used in fish tanks. I was so relieved and excited. Most importantly though I was amazed. I was amazed that my child put his faith in me, and I put my faith in God. It gave me great comfort to know that if God can pull me through a little science project that won't even be graded, then he surely will pull me through much bigger things.

   

                                          The dirty water being filtered into clean water.

Though the project wasn't graded, my son was able to experience the feeling of accomplishing a goal. And I also learned another lesson. We won't be procrastinating until the last couple of days for coming years science projects.

So whatever I face; whether it be a job relocation, or the uncertainty of a particular flower for an upcoming wedding, I'll think back to this life lesson and KEEP THE FAITH.