{"id":7041058,"date":"2026-08-18T05:34:58","date_gmt":"2026-08-18T05:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/uncategorized\/daily-devotion-march-30-2023-the-appearance-of-growth\/"},"modified":"2026-08-18T05:34:58","modified_gmt":"2026-08-18T05:34:58","slug":"daily-devotion-march-30-2023-the-appearance-of-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7041058","title":{"rendered":"DAILY DEVOTION | March 30, 2023\u2014The Appearance of Growth"},"content":{"rendered":"


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I bought these adorable, low maintenance succulents that look so uniform they appear artificial. As they took their place on the porch table, I loved their unspoken promise to be easy, lovely, and perfect.\u00a0<\/p>\n

But now they\u2019ve grown.\u00a0<\/p>\n

On one, the bottom sticks out flat and wide, while the top sprouts tall and skinny\u2014making its upper half disproportionately skimpy compared with its base. The other succulent spreads wider on one side than the other, and I imagine if it tried to walk, it would fall over from its cartoonish imbalance.<\/p>\n

As they grow, they aren\u2019t symmetrical. They aren\u2019t uniform. They definitely aren\u2019t perfect.\u00a0<\/p>\n

And honestly? I kind of don\u2019t like them anymore.<\/p>\n

As I confess my fickle love for these succulents, I see how I am still allured and beckoned by the perfect, and in turn, disappointed by the reality of imperfection. My waning appreciation for their awkward teenage stage isn\u2019t entirely unlike the disappointment I often feel about my own growth: still scrawny in some areas and overgrown in others. And I am equally hard on myself as I succumb to striving for perfection\u2014again.<\/strong><\/p>\n

But these unassuming succulents remind me to lay aside expectations, and instead, simply grow. Because true, unapologetic growth is braver than settling for the appearance of perfect.<\/strong> These succulents are following the more courageous path.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

So I move these two potted beauties to the ledge above my kitchen sink, where I can more closely admire their courage to reach their roots deeper, send their shoots higher, focusing only on growing into exactly what they\u2019re supposed to be.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor we are God\u2019s masterpiece. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago\u201d<\/em> (Ephesians 2:10, NLT).<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I bought these adorable, low maintenance succulents that look so uniform they appear artificial. As they took their place on the porch table, I loved their unspoken promise to be easy, lovely, and perfect.\u00a0 But now they\u2019ve grown.\u00a0 On one, the bottom sticks out flat and wide, while the top sprouts tall and skinny\u2014making its […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":7041066,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[133149,188860],"tags":[203520,8083,998,10575,3426,7095],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-7041058","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-devotions","category-faith-devotions","tag-2023the","tag-appearance","tag-daily","tag-devotion","tag-growth","tag-march"],"yoast_head":"\nDAILY DEVOTION | March 30, 2023\u2014The Appearance of Growth - Som2ny Network<\/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:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=7041058\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"DAILY DEVOTION | March 30, 2023\u2014The Appearance of Growth - Som2ny Network\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I bought these adorable, low maintenance succulents that look so uniform they appear artificial. 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