My mom has always loved flowers.

She would always have them in a mason jar on the counter, usually picked from the backyard. When I was a little girl, my mom would take me outside with her and we would plant flowers. Somehow, we never seemed to run out of places that needed more.

So there was little me, putting my tiny hands into her adult-sized gloves, attempting to dig in the warm dirt as the too-long fingers got caught in the roots. My mom would play music from a portable speaker that followed her around the house at all times, and we would drink lemonade, and plant those pink, white, yellow, and red flowers until we were covered in dirt, sweat, and a sense of satisfaction.

After years of this gardening practice, I understood the basics of how gardening and plants worked. Some needed to be in full sunlight, others did best when planted by the base of a tree. I was no expert, by any means, but I was able to grasp the basics.

Of course, one of the first things I learned is that every single flower starts out as a seed. Not a single bloom appears without having been a seed first. You see, once a seed becomes a flower, it is no longer considered a seed. Not ever again. Because now, it is a flower.

I know I didn't just blow your minds with new information. "Well duh, Amanda. Of course a flower doesn't just become a seed again." But think beyond the world of gardening. Once something becomes new, it is no longer considered its old self. It is a new creation. And so it stays new, never again becoming its former self.

In the same beautiful way, once we invite the Lord into our hearts, we are made new. Our past self is nothing but a memory, a testament to God's work in our hearts. And yet, so many live in fear or shame of their past, afraid that people will find out that they once lived life as a seed. But, the crazy truth is that we ALL lived our lives as seeds at some point. Something needed to begin the process of new beginnings. We needed a starting point. And now, with the love, grace, and mercy of Christ in our hearts, we become a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17), planting roots and blooming into the flower He has designed us to be.

So why do we dwell in the past? Why is there shame or regret, feelings that are not of the Lord? We are looking at it wrong. We do not need to dwell in the past friends, because through Christ we are new.

Philippians 3:13-14 declared this truth, saying, "Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do; Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me, heavenward in Jesus Christ."

Isaiah 43:18-19 says, "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland."

What a gift it is to live, made completely new, in Jesus Christ. Embrace it, love it, and grow each day in this truth. But do not waste time dwelling in the past, for it is in the past. And remember what my mom taught me so many years ago in our little garden; every single beautiful, ornate, colorful flower must begin as a tiny, hard seed.