A Mother's Garden

I love gardens. I love the vibrant colors, the captivating scents, and the tranquil ambiance they produce.

On several occasions, I have attempted to grow a beautiful garden of my own. Initially, I am excited and motivated to grow my own garden. I begin by setting out a perfect spot in my yard to plant my garden, I buy the seeds that depict the perfect flowers I want to grow, and then I plant the seeds in the ground. I start out watering my garden and taking good care of it, but soon my attentiveness begins to fade. I begin to overlook watering the garden, weeding the garden and pruning the garden. Soon the budding flowers that hold the potential of splendor quickly begin to wither and become a sore sight to the eye.

As mothers, we confidently proclaim that it is our aim to raise God-fearing children who obey the Lord, serve the Lord and adore the Lord. We all want that beautiful garden--you know, the godly children that sprout into godly adults. However, we sometimes fail to realize that just as a garden will not flourish without constant nurturing and attention, our children will also not thrive spiritually unless we plant the seed of God in their hearts and continue to water, weed, and prune it daily. 

March 19, 2006. I remember that day vividly. As I drove my (then) four year-old daughter to school, she asked me the question. Yes, the question every Christian parent longs to hear, "Mommy, how do I get Jesus in my heart?" Her tender yet profound question wrenched at my heart. Immediately I deleted my mental to-do list, turned off the radio and decelerated in the midst of rush hour. I then spent those next precious moments explaining to my daughter how to accept Jesus Christ into her heart and be saved.

At that moment, I had "planted the seed"--God's seed of Truth. It was a wonderful and exciting day. Yet, had I never talked about God's Word and Jesus' sacrifice to her again, then that little seed would have never grown at all. However, I sincerely wanted her to grow into a beautiful godly woman, so since that day I have continued to water her with God's Word. As I continue to water, I have been able to witness that tiny seed that was planted into her heart begin to bloom into something beautiful and godly. But, if I want to see her (and my other children) continue to mature then I must continually do my job as a gardener and not become lazy. The truth is, those little seeds depend on me to nurture and water them so that one day they will grow into a magnificent, mature garden overflowing with God's love and glory.

While speaking in parables about the sower and the seed, Jesus said, "But the ones on the rock [are those] who, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, who believe for a while and in time of temptation fall away" (Luke 8:13 NKJV). We never want any of our children to fall away from the Lord. Instead, we want them to draw closer to and fall more deeply in love with Him. Yet, in order to do that we need to: first, plant God's seed of Truth in their heart(s) and secondly, nurture that Truth so that it becomes deeply rooted within them. How do we do that? We do that by continually watering the seed with God's Word. We should constantly be reading, talking about, and living out God's Word to our children. As we do this, we will be able to see that tiny seed start to root out and grow strong.

We also need to weed our garden. We need to take out all (or most) of those things in our children's lives that can choke out God's seed of Truth. It is our job to be attentive to those things in their lives that have the potential to distract and turn them away from God. Jesus describes such things as, "cares, riches, and pleasures of life [which] bring no fruit to maturity" (Luke 8:14 NKJV). Such things, will easily take their eyes off of Christ and onto the world.

Lastly, we need to prune our garden. The purpose of pruning a garden is to control the shape and growth of it. Similarly, we must be controlling (as much as possible) the shape and growth of our children's spiritual walk by cutting off areas of their lives that that may cause them to grow away from the Lord.

How does your garden look today? Are you still in the planting stage? Or is the seed already planted and you are now nurturing and watering it? Wherever you are, you must understand that your job is vital to growing a beautiful garden. God has given us the job of growing a lush garden and we need to be certain that it grows to maturity--spiritual maturity. Our children must know the Lord and be continually growing in that knowledge and adoration of Him.

How delightful it will be to one day sit back and baste in the beauty of the garden that we helped grow. We will be able to see all of our hard work pay off as we recall how those tiny seeds we once planted developed into lavish gardens that glorify the Lord. What more can we ask for? 

Come on ladies, let's put on our overalls and begin planting and harvesting!

Comments

[Lindy Abbott]

Denise,

You are an incredible writer and I am so happy your are doing this column! It was so easy for me to jump right in and relate to your topic because I love gardening also and have left many wimp and withering after the initial excitement. I spend hours planning and get so excited but 'life' never happens as I plan and I am not good at sticking to a plan after it is messed up by the unexpected. I can't count the days I wanted to crawl back in bed (and some day I literally did) when my plans for my day with my children withered. Thank you for your insight.

Lindy