I’ve already shared with you that I planted a garden around a week after Mother’s Day. I planted both flowers and vegetables. This is the first time I’ve ever planted anything. Before, the only time I ever paid attention to my mother’s plants was when she went away on vacation, and I did it begrudgingly and then, the only thing I was required to do was to ensure they had water. But now, I have a full fledged garden of beautiful flowers and tomatoes and peppers that I’ve even been able to share with friends.
How did this change come about? Simple. I wanted to try something new. As a part of my growing process, I’m trying things that I’ve never done before and learning new things about myself each day. But these lessons have not all been easy.
As I google everything, I googled about planting and talked to my colleague who knew some things about planting. I bought the plants, put them in the ground, along with plant food and watered them daily or almost daily and waited. And waited.
While I was waiting, I got little glimpses of things that were happening. My plants grew a little taller and the base of the plants got bigger and stronger. While I can’t see below the soil, I can imagine that the roots are growing further and further in the ground, which makes it that much harder for anyone to pull out. Then they flowered. For the tomatoes, little tiny yellow flowers that eventually becomes a tomato. And for my flowers, they started spreading, like really spreading. But guess what I learned in all of this? I had no control of when any of them were going to do anything. As I talk to my mom, who’s been doing this a long time, she said her tomatoes haven’t started coming yet. But she planted from seeds and I planted from sucklings, so she may have to wait a while longer to see her resulting tomatoes and peppers.
How do I relate that to my growing relationship with God? Sometimes seeds are planted in our hearts, and it takes a long time to see fruit (or vegetable), but God gives us indication that He’s working, and we need to continue watering the plants, and paying attention daily to ensure that nothing is coming and eating away at it.. No fear, no self-doubt, nor any other negative thing that we place on ourselves. We also cannot look at what’s going on in our neighbors’ lives. Our neighbors may have planted before or after we did. Our neighbors may have had a head start that we might not have. Let me slightly digress for one moment. Stop looking at social media, i.e. Facebook and Instragram or anything else and being jealous and wistful of what you see in other people’s lives. You do not know what they have done to get it and you do not know what they are doing to maintain it. Only then will contentment with what you have and are working towards will return to you.
Lord, I thank you for your many blessings. I thank you for the gift of being able to plant and to reap from my own garden. Help me to use the time that I am waiting on anything to continue to grow in wisdom with you. Lord, help me to never look at what’s in my neighbor’s yard and say, ‘I wish’.. Help me to be content with what I have and to work towards what I need, with your help.