TLC - Tender Loving Care

While preparing for my first video interview, my cousin and I discussed my background. She liked my setup but said I needed to add a green plant as a finishing touch. In my mind, I tried locating a plant in my house (even a fake plant) and suddenly remembered I had an aloe plant on a window sill in my bathroom. I went to get it and low and behold the aloe was completely brown. Despite that, I put the plant on my background setup and it looked great with the aesthetic! It had what I called a rustic look…lol.

To revive it, I decided to prune it and relocate it to another room in the house with better lighting. I also started watering it in small amounts, breathed on it, and prayed over it almost daily. Within a few days, the plant began to turn green again! What love and the right conditions are doing to this plant is amazing! It’s not 100% green yet but it’s on its way.

Imagine if that was how we treated one another…with tender, love, and care (TLC). As I was texting this update about the plant to my cousin I realized this was a message of hope that when relationships seem like they are dead/dying, and individuals feel like the life has been sucked out of them, they can be revived. BUT, it’s critical to understand how to revive your relationships (in certain circumstances) or how you can be restored.

An initial step I took with the aloe that you may or may not find you need to incorporate in the process is pruning. Although pruning may feel painful, there may be some people or things in your life that need to be removed for you or your circumstance to be revived. Pruning involves removing what is dead or overgrown to increase fruitfulness or growth. Without the pruning process, you may continue to be weighed down and or unproductive in your life and or relationships.

There are times when your physical location needs to change. Meaning, that the couple or individual needs to be in an environment that’s conducive to making their interaction thrive. Either the atmosphere where you exist needs to change or you may find that physically relocating yourselves/yourself is more fitting for your situation. Next, one must consider what and who can water them. For husbands and wives, there are things you can do for one another to water and nurture your relationship. Outside of marriage, maybe this means you have close friends, a mentor, or trusted confidants that can positively pour into you. Last but not least, as far as everyone is concerned we need to ensure we are surrounded by people who are speaking life over us and not death. I have nothing more to add to that.

Amazingly, I received this revelation from the process of reviving a plant. Though it may seem simple, pruning, moving, watering, and praying are parallel processes that we can see restore both plants and people. These forms of TLC will yield amazing results. I pray that as you read this you will discern whether or not this message is for you and applies to your life. If so, may God breathe new life into that situation that was dead or dying.

                                                                                                                                                                                Selah

Psalm 118:17 (KJV)

I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the LORD.