Pollinators

I've spent a lot of time recently thinking about growth, especially as my word for the year is flourish. . The retreat I went on last weekend was based around John 15 - abiding in the vine.  Abiding in the vine leads to fruitfulness.

Once the flowers turned up on my page, I began to think about flowers and fruit.  Just because a plant produces flowers doesn't mean that it will produce fruit as well. It can bloom with a million blossoms, but there is only fruit if the flowers are pollinated. Which led my thinking to: what are my pollinators? What are the situations, or who are the people, that make me produce fruit?

I came to the conclusion that they come in two categories - the encouragers and the annoyances.

The encouragers cause me to grow in fruitfulness because they push me to be better, they show me how to do it, they mentor me and make me accountable.

The annoyances cause me to grow in fruitfulness because they make me exercise patience, grace, mercy, when it is hard. The more we exercise a muscle, the stronger it grows, and it is the same with these desirable traits.

What and who are your pollinators?