Garden Thoughts

I was in my garden a couple of evenings ago picking Okra.  It's about the only thing left in the garden now, except for weeds and a few cherry tomatoes.  It always makes me a little sad.

It was a pretty good garden this year, although we have certainly had better ones in the past.  I just didn't spend enough time in it weeding and watering and generally taking care of it.

The Bible tells us that you reap what you sow and that certainly is true, but it is also very true that you reap a lot of things you don't necessarily sow as well.  An uncared for garden will quickly fill up with more varieties of weeds than I can count without taking off my shoes and socks.

There is a good feeling in the spring, when you get out in the cool fresh air and till up the soil and plant corn and bean seeds and put tomato and pepper plants in the ground, but it isn't easy in the heart of summer to get down on your hands and knees and pull weeds and kill squash bugs. 

Did I mention that I hate squash bugs?

Life is like a garden in many ways.  The laws of sowing and reaping apply.  But while people think of sowing as a one time event, what we reap is never dependent on just one day of effort.  Certainly you can mess things up in a single day, but what we reap is really dependent on multiple days of effort.

I think about it most as I raise my children.  For, children are a lot more than the scrambled genetic material of their parents.  They are human beings with minds, hearts, and desires, good points and bad points.  Raising them cannot be done in a single day or even a couple of days.

I pray for my children a lot and for myself as I touch their lives.  It is a fearful thing to have little lives entrusted into your care and to realize that someday they (and their spouses) will reap what you have sowed.

It is better to wake up each day, making a commitment to sow blessing and good, than to wake up one day in the fall angry because all your garden is producing is Okra and Weeds.