Planting Seeds...

This year, we planted a garden for the first time. Tim painstakingly prepared every detail. He tilled the soil, working the ground in preparation for each tiny plant and for every seed. He built a fence around the garden to keep the pesky rabbits from causing certain destruction. We dug our hands in the dirt and planted each one tenderly into the waiting soil, praying that the plants would bear fruit (or vegetable, if you will).










Then, we waited. At first, much to my chagrin, only the brussel sprouts seemed to flourish. I was concerned about the tomato plants, whose growth seemed stunted as they remained unchanged day after day. The zucchini wilted, and seemed lost forever. Tim added Miracle Grow to his daily regimen of weeding and tending to his precious plants, and life was soon restored as they grew inch by inch.

I've been thinking about the planting process in relationship to training our children. We plant seeds of truth into their hearts. Bible verses, teachable moments, time spent speaking of the Lord when we sit down, when we rise up, in the morning, in the evening.

Deuteronomy 11:18-20 (New International Version)
Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds; tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Teach them to your children, talking about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Write them on the door frames of your houses and on your gates...

We spend the time preparing the soil of their hearts to receive each seed of truth. Tilling and toiling in prayer. We ask for grace to cover the moments when we fall short, when we miss a teachable moment, or lack wisdom, or fail to set the right example. We ask that even those moments would be used for good...somehow worked into the soil to nourish their souls. We pray that the seeds would take root, that they would grow and flourish, like a tree planted by the water...that would not bend and break when the winds of life blow and the storms threaten.

He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers. ~ Psalm 1:3

Sometimes, during the growth process, we look at our children and they seem like the zucchini...or maybe the tomatoes. We wonder if they are growing at all. Do the seeds we have planted matter? Is there any hope? Any sign of life? Growing isn't always pretty. Weeds threaten to choke the life out of the tender plants. Sometimes they seem not to grow at all, or grow in strange directions. Pruning, weeding, nurturing, watering, wondering about the end result.

And then, a glimpse of life, a reminder of hope. A compliment from the teacher about your child's manners. A heartfelt gesture of kindness or encouragement. An unprompted act of selflessness or gratefulness. A Father's Day or Mother's Day card that says all the words you're longing to hear. A choice for good when two choices were presented.

We can't always see the growth. We aren't always sure which seeds we plant will bear fruit. But, still, we plant...trusting that God will give the increase...in His perfect time. It is a true walk of faith, the planting of seeds, the nurturing, the watering, the trusting that they will grow. But, it is worth every moment, and every glimpse of hope along the way.



If you wait for perfect conditions, you will never get anything done. God's ways are as mysterious as the pathway of the wind, and as the manner in which the human spirit is infused into the little body of a baby while it is yet in its mother's womb. Keep on sowing your seed, for you never know which will grow - perhaps it all will. ~ Ecclesiastes 11:4-6 TLB

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