How does your garden grow?

We want our children to grow up rooted in Christ. We have ideas about how we want to shape them to become men and women of good character. We want to teach them how to make the right choices in this life.

We have some basic routines in place to help them mature into men and women of God. We might read them the bible everyday and pray for them and with them… or at least have the intention to. We have good ideas of how we can even do a better job of this, and yet many of us struggle as we put it off until an opportune time… which probably never comes.

Parenting is often spur of the moment. Deal with each circumstance as it occurs, when it is brought to our attention or as we find the time in our busy schedules. I often wish I could slow time down and learn how to better be more purposeful in my parenting.

The other day I made some time to do some much needed gardening and this is when I began to reflect on what I am writing about today. My garden is a good example of something that gets neglected until the weeds move in and everything is overgrown. I definitely lack purpose and planning in my garden. Most of it was just there when we moved in and some of it has planted itself throughout the years. It is not until it gets really hot out that I think to water it. It is not until it is overgrown that I think to prune it. And it is not until the weeds overtake it that I think to pull them out.

What a difference it makes when it is weeded… the soil freshly turned… the flowers in bloom… it can be very beautiful. But it takes more then just a day of hard work… it is a continual process. It takes a lot of time. It is a daily effort.

As I was pruning I began to think about how God prunes us, shaping us to be the godly children, wives and mothers He intends us to be. He is very purposeful with us, and He is there to prune us as needed. Whether we are in our 20's, 30's, 40's, 50's… we are all very much like a flower blooming in a garden (and I'm sure this analogy is not new). I think about my own faith journey and how sometimes it blooms beautifully, while other times it needs pruning, and still other times the weeds creep in.

How thankful I am that I have God as an example of the perfect parent.

Thank you Father for always being there to help us grow to be more like Christ. Help us make the time for our spiritual growth and the spiritual growth of our children. Shape our priorities to be in order of what is eternally important.

Amen