I've been tending my garden today.
Planting flowers and a few herbs has become a seasonal hobby for me. I used to stick to containers only, but have recently branched out into the soil of my own backyard.
It started when a neighbor gave me some Shasta daisy transplants and insisted that I couldn't kill them - all I needed to do was get them in the soil before winter, and I'd have blooms all summer long! Plus, they would reproduce. That sounded like my kind of flower.
And so began my low-maintenance flower gardening. This year, I was pleased to see the verbena my mother gave me returning in the backyard garden, so I decided I'd try my hand at a few more flowers back there.
Today's job was to get rid of some encroaching grass and do some dead-heading (which probably should have been done last fall, but oh well...) As we worked out in the dirt, I was struck by the parallels to my daily life in Christ.
So often, I am blind to the weeds in my heart because I have ignored them for a season, only to find them choking some of the more beautiful things God has planted in me.
Gardening always seems to be a much more difficult job until I just start doing it. I think it's the same in my spiritual life. The things that need to change seem overwhelming at times, until I begin praying and acknowledging that God has all of the tools and wisdom needed to tend to the soil of my soul.
It's not too big a job for Him. He is willing and ready to prune, weed, nurture the good flowers and plant something new in me.
Inside the house, we've slowly but surely been making progress in the kitchen. For a long time, I have desired a round table for our family meals. Here's the table Greg and I purchased as newlyweds 13 years ago this summer.
This week, we found a bargain on a beautiful second-hand round pedastel one. I think the owner said their family had used it for 25 years, and raised children around it. This is the view from my seat.
I am praying that it will become a place of rich, loving fellowship for our family and friends in the years to come.
