Cultivating the heart

Recently I was thinking about what type of environment I feel most inspired and most at peace in. For some, it might be a mountaintop. Some might like the excitement of a bustling city. Others may enjoy a walk on the beach and while I must say that I very much love the feeling of warm sand between my toes along with the sound of the crashing waves, however my favorite place to be is in the garden. I love the fragrant smells of the flowers. I love all the bright colors and even the feeling of silky soft flower petals. I love to watch the bees go from flower to flower and to hear the birds singing. Someday I will have myself a prayer garden but for now, I have a small humble garden where I can still sit and dream and pray.

Much time, effort, and patience go into the creation of a garden. You can't plop a plant just anywhere. There must be careful consideration in what plants are suitable for the particular climate in which you are in. Soil is the most important aspect of having a fruitful garden. The soil in my lawn is full of clay. Not many things grow without me first amending the soil. I even have a preferred "garden soil recipe" that I like to use that seems to bring me healthy plants and a good "harvest". The one aspect I dislike about gardening is weeding. Even in my raised beds, weeding is a never-ending job. I recently went two years without weeding. The first year we were extremely busy and the second summer (last year)we spent in New Zealand. Our summer's here in Maine are very short so 6 weeks away, didn't give me time to plant. I could have planted a few things in mid August for a Fall harvest if it were not for my beds being full of weeds! This year between the business of a full time secular job, ministry, and raising a family, I thought about dismantling my beds and mowing everything down but I just couldn't bring myself to do it. It was a lot of hard work this spring to get my garden beds back in shape but it was so worth the effort!

I have about 6 planters of various sizes on my deck. Two of them have vegetables and herbs in them, the others have bright beautiful flowers. My raised beds have a combination of vegetables and flowers: foxglove and bee balm and phlox which I moved from another spot to make room for a swing, morning glories that are still only 4 or 5 inches tall at this point, porchulaca, zinnias, asters, marigolds, etc.. For veggies and herbs I have planted kale green peppers, 3 varieties of cucumbers, 3 varieties of tomatoes, 3 different squash plants, lemon thyme, basil, parsley, pole beans, and last but definitely not least, rosemary.

When you first begin your work, the garden looks rather bare for a time. A week ago not much seemed to be happening but now my pole beans are just tall enough to begin climbing, my kale is getting bigger, my zinnias and cosmos took right off, and I have buds on my tomato, pepper, and cucumber plants. (I have one baby cucumber!) My squash seedlings I planted less than a week so I must continue to be patient! I am at the stage that I love, visible growth with the promise of an abundant harvest! How I long to live in a climate where we have a much longer growing season!

Did you know your heart is much like a garden. In fact you are the planting of the Lord! (Isaiah 61:3) But blessed is the one who trusts in the Lord, whose confidence is in him. They will be like a tree planted by the water that sends out its roots by the stream. It does not fear when heat comes; its leaves are always green. It has no worries in a year of drought and never fails to bear fruit. Jeremiah 17:7-8. I don't know about you but I would love to be always bearing fruit, (Galatians 5:22,23) though I have days when I wonder about myself. I am sure my husband and children wonder at times also! We all have days where we struggle though I love what one sister in the Lord says, "Snuggle, don't struggle." Of all the times I have walked through my garden, looking at all my plants, I have never watched one struggle to bear fruit. They just simply bloom where they are planted. Yes, there is much care involved but that care comes from the gardener and your heavenly Father is the vine dresser. See John 15. We are grafted in to the vine, who is Christ. We draw near to Him. He does most of the work. His yoke is easy, His burden light though that does not mean that there is no responsibility on our part. Using the analogy of a garden, here are are few things that we must daily be mindful of in order to bear fruit in our lives.

1. Don't leave the vine. Remain in Christ. I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. - John 15:5

2. Water your garden. Stay in God's Word ...just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her to make her holy, cleansing her by the washing with water through the word - Ephesians 5:26. ...but whoever drinks the water I give them will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give them will become in them a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” - John 4:14

3. Weed your garden often and guard your heart. It is as important for bearing fruit in your life as it is in a garden, (weeds will choke out everything else) in fact even more so. Don't let just anything become attached to you. Remove the sucker branches in your life. Still others, like seed sown among thorns, hear the word; but the worries of this life, the deceitfulness of wealth and the desires for other things come in and choke the word, making it unfruitful - Mark 4:18-19. Above all else, guard your heart, for everything you do flows from it - Proverbs 4:23.

4. No matter what you‘ve gone through in life, don’t let your heart be hardened but allow the Father to cultivate the soil of your heart. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears,and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them - Matthew 13:15. If your heart is hardened you there is always forgiveness at the cross and it is never too late to allow the Lord to plow up the ground and soften your heart.

5. Remember you are in-process. Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything . James 1:4

I would like to think that the garden God's favorite place to be also. He is afterall the Master Gardener, for He is always watching, always tending, and always seeing the potential harvest!

Others, like seed sown on good soil, hear the word, accept it, and produce a crop—some thirty, some sixty, some a hundred times what was sown - Mark 4:20