Tending To The Garden

Its harvest season! I have been keeping an especially close watch on our garden lately, being sure to get veggies out as soon as they are ripe for the picking. A few weeks ago I spent a bunch of time weeding the garden (things were getting out of control in there).

Side step for a moment - This particular week I had been praying a lot that God come into the areas of my life that are holding me back from moving forward. I asked for His guidance in releasing things that were not good for me and help me to see what those things are. Sometimes the things that are blocking our growth, are things we think are harmless. God quickly showed me the areas I needed to work on and I was grateful.

Back to the garden - While in the garden pulling weeds, I couldn't help but see the parallels of my current action, to the work God was doing in my life. We weed the gardens so that our plants can produce good fruit. Removing the weeds allows the plants to get optimal nutrients and sunlight so they can thrive. It takes constant work to keep the plants in this state though, as garden tenders we need to go back to the garden regularly to review the soil and remove anything that will not benefit the plants.

Once the plants do produce fruit, all the tending seems worthwhile. The fruit is nourishing and allows gardeners to share their bounty with others. There is often so much fruit that it must be given away.

God is constantly tending to our lives, lovingly reviewing all the pieces of our lives and trying to help us remove the things in our lives that are preventing us from bearing good fruit. Some of the not so great things, have deep roots and take time to remove, or repeated tries to remove, and if we feed the bad things, they will continue to grow back. But if we persistently give those things to the Lord, they will be removed from our lives and allow new branches of life to grow, branches that will bear amazing fruit, enough to share and fruit that will nourish our soul.

As I weeded the garden, I tore out some weeds in my life. I talked to God and let Him know I was ready to lay some things at His feet. As I stepped out of gate and looked back at my refreshed clean garden, I was so pleased with what was left. The garden looked stronger, like it could breath easier with all the bad stuff removed. I thanked God for my time with Him in the garden and for showing me what I needed to remove from my life so I could be stronger, breath easier and bear good fruit.