Blooming in the Broken Places
05/14/25 • 17 min
Have you ever wondered if anything beautiful could possibly grow from your broken places? The soil of past pain, addiction, betrayal, or heartbreak might seem too damaged to support new life—but that's exactly where the most resilient growth begins.
Drawing from her family's annual gardening tradition, Tonya Shellnutt explores the profound parallel between tending a garden and nurturing our healing journey. Just as we carefully prepare soil, wait for the right planting time, and persist through unpredictable weather, our recovery requires patience, faith, and courage. The transformative promise of "beauty for ashes" from Isaiah 61:3 comes alive through practical wisdom about blooming right where you are.
True courage, Tonya reminds us, isn't waiting for perfect conditions to grow—it's growing anyway "in the mud, in the mess, in the cracks." Whether you're showing up when you'd rather shut down, praying when you feel nothing, or taking one small step toward healing, these brave choices are the seeds of new life. "Blooming doesn't mean the storm didn't hit you," she explains, "it means you didn't let it have the final word."
This episode introduces the powerful concept of creating your own "Bloom Board"—a visual reminder of the ashes you've faced, the beauty currently emerging, and the growth you dare to hope for. From forgiving someone who never apologized to breaking generational cycles, these personal milestones mark your journey from brokenness to beauty. Remember: you aren't buried—you're planted. And with God's help, something beautiful is already growing in your broken places.
Email Tonya for your own Bloom Board template and join a community of Courageous Overcomers who are finding new life after difficult seasons. If all you see today is dirt and broken ground, don't give up—your most beautiful blooms may be just beneath the surface.
Stay Connected:
- Website: https://www.tonyashellnutt.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tonyashellnutt/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tonyashellnut
- Twitter: https://x.com/tonyashellnutt
Have you ever wondered if anything beautiful could possibly grow from your broken places? The soil of past pain, addiction, betrayal, or heartbreak might seem too damaged to support new life—but that's exactly where the most resilient growth begins.
Drawing from her family's annual gardening tradition, Tonya Shellnutt explores the profound parallel between tending a garden and nurturing our healing journey. Just as we carefully prepare soil, wait for the right planting time, and persist through unpredictable weather, our recovery requires patience, faith, and courage. The transformative promise of "beauty for ashes" from Isaiah 61:3 comes alive through practical wisdom about blooming right where you are.
True courage, Tonya reminds us, isn't waiting for perfect conditions to grow—it's growing anyway "in the mud, in the mess, in the cracks." Whether you're showing up when you'd rather shut down, praying when you feel nothing, or taking one small step toward healing, these brave choices are the seeds of new life. "Blooming doesn't mean the storm didn't hit you," she explains, "it means you didn't let it have the final word."
This episode introduces the powerful concept of creating your own "Bloom Board"—a visual reminder of the ashes you've faced, the beauty currently emerging, and the growth you dare to hope for. From forgiving someone who never apologized to breaking generational cycles, these personal milestones mark your journey from brokenness to beauty. Remember: you aren't buried—you're planted. And with God's help, something beautiful is already growing in your broken places.
Email Tonya for your own Bloom Board template and join a community of Courageous Overcomers who are finding new life after difficult seasons. If all you see today is dirt and broken ground, don't give up—your most beautiful blooms may be just beneath the surface.
Stay Connected:
- Website: https://www.tonyashellnutt.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tonyashellnutt/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tonyashellnut
- Twitter: https://x.com/tonyashellnutt
Previous Episode
What do the Savannah Bananas and Courageous Overcomers have in common?
What happens when childhood trauma becomes the foundation for revolutionary joy? The remarkable story of Jesse Cole and the Savannah Bananas offers powerful lessons about resilience that transcend the baseball diamond.
Jesse Cole's journey from a broken home with an addicted mother to creating the baseball phenomenon that recently filled Clemson's Death Valley with 81,000 cheering fans demonstrates how adversity builds the emotional muscle needed for extraordinary vision. His willingness to go $1.5 million in debt, sell his home to make payroll, sleep on a twin air mattress in a cockroach-infested apartment, and survive on $30 weekly grocery budgets reveals what true belief costs before breakthrough arrives.
Through what I call the "baseball diamond of adversity framework," Jesse's story teaches us to face our personal pain (first base), identify necessary risks and sacrifices (second base), maintain relentless belief despite setbacks (third base), and finally experience the breakthrough joy that can be shared with others (home plate). The Savannah Bananas didn't just survive—they disrupted an entire system by studying when fans grew bored and reimagining what baseball could be through dance routines, trick plays, and unconventional cheerleading squads that keep crowds engaged from first pitch to final out.
Like biblical figures Joseph and Peter, Jesse's story reminds us that God often works through surrendered courage rather than perfect circumstances. Your beginning doesn't define your legacy—your resilience does. What dream might you be afraid to pursue because the odds seem impossible? Don't settle for mediocrity or victim status. Your wounds aren't your destiny—they're the proving ground for a vision that might just change everything. Share this message if it resonates, and don't forget to leave us a five-star review to help spread hope to others walking through their own valleys.
Stay Connected:
- Website: https://www.tonyashellnutt.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tonyashellnutt/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tonyashellnut
- Twitter: https://x.com/tonyashellnutt
Next Episode
Rooted and Rising
Have you ever mistaken a good day for deep healing? That fleeting moment when everything seems better might just be a beautiful bloom—but what about the roots beneath?
This week on Courageous Overcomers, we're digging deeper than last week's conversation about blooming where you're planted. We're examining what truly anchors us during life's storms by exploring the difference between momentary progress and lasting transformation. Drawing from Jeremiah 17:8, we discover that resilience isn't about never being shaken—it's about never being uprooted.
Together, we examine what constitutes strong roots versus shallow ones. Daily Scripture, honest relationships, and genuine self-reflection nourish our spiritual soil, while shame-based silence, numbing behaviors, and emotional avoidance slowly poison it. I share personal examples from my own journey, including parenting missteps and ongoing struggles with emotional eating, to show that healing isn't about perfection but honest growth.
The most beautiful revelation? You're not actually the gardener in this story—you're being tended to by a God who doesn't rush your growth, doesn't discard what looks messy, and doesn't demand overnight transformation. He's pruning what no longer serves you, cutting back mindsets rooted in performance, bitterness disguised as boundaries, and people-pleasing that once felt holy but now feels heavy.
Ready to evaluate your own root system? Download our free Five Day Cleanse and Heal Workbook at tonyashellnutt.com to begin identifying wounds, implementing action steps, and reflecting on Scripture that anchors you in truth rather than emotion. Share this episode with someone who needs to hear that becoming unshakable isn't about the absence of storms, but about being rooted in the One who never moves.
https://www.tonyashellnutt.com/2025-healing-cleanse
Stay Connected:
- Website: https://www.tonyashellnutt.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tonyashellnutt/
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Courageous Overcomers - Blooming in the Broken Places
Transcript
Welcome to Courageous Overcomers . I'm your host , tanya Shelnut . Thank you so much , everyone , for being with me today . We've spent the last month of April talking about addiction , and this month I'm so excited to talk about . Well , I don't want to tell you what we're going to talk about , but today we're going to be talking about blooming in the broken places . So Isaiah 61
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