Gardening Adventures

Do you like to garden? I love gardening. The whole process is relaxing to me. Well… almost the whole process, but more on that later. I have been blessed with a huge area for gardening. This year, we went all out and put in pathways and squared off little plots. I even have an Excel graph showing me where everything is and when it was planted – because I’m geeky like that.





I love putting seeds in the dirt and watering them every day with anticipation. I check on them more than once a day to see if a tiny sprout is emerging.

  

When that first tiny sprout emerges from the earth I get so excited almost giddy really. It’s like the days before Christmas as a kid when you can hardly contain your expectation of what is coming.

And the swelling pride that comes when you see your plants actually growing the way they should.

And then there is the exhilaration when you see your first fruit growing.

I love that I can grow healthy food for my family. I love that they can taste what a tomato is supposed to taste like and that they can go out to the garden and snack on fresh peas whenever they desire. I also love that my kids are learning so many skills while gardening and they know how we get our food. It is important to understand where food comes from. There seems to be an increasingly large lack of appreciation for our farmers and ranchers these days. My kids appreciate what farmers do on a large scale because they do it on a smaller scale.

Then there is this, what really makes me grit my teeth and cry. Lately I have been running out to the garden every morning and every afternoon just to see if my plants are still there. I’m now going out to see this.

A hole where there was once a plant. It is so frustrating so see your plants get sucked into the ground. You see I have (well I don’t have it but you know what I mean) a gopher. This gopher thinks that I planted my tomatoes for him (or her, I haven’t bothered with introductions but if I do introduce myself to him/her it will be with a shovel.) Sorry okay where was I? Oh yeah the fact that I am ready to go caddyshack on the gopher that moved in and has so far eaten 8 of my tomato plants. *Sigh* That is the part of the process that I don’t like in gardening. Replacing what was stolen from me by a rodent.

You know there are so many ways our walk with Christ is like the garden. From when we are just new in the Lord and starting to sprout with such promise, to even that tomato plant that gets sucked into the ground. You don’t want to be that tomato. You have to protect yourself from the gopher. Next year, I am going to make some raised beds and line the bottom with chicken wire to protect my plants. We, in our walk with Christ need to protect ourselves too. We need to make sure that we don’t get sucked into the ground. Surrounding ourselves with others who can keep us strong and give us wise counsel is so important.

Psalm 1:1-3 How happy is the man who does not follow the advice of the wicked, or take the path of sinners, or join a group of mockers! Instead, his delight is in the LORD's instruction, and he meditates on it day and night. He is like a tree planted beside streams of water that bears its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers.