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The Perfect Gardener

 These last few days were spent swimming in the lake and being outside with my family for hours.

Today, our little lady and I dried off while picking raspberries (over a gallon-worth), sugar snow peas and pulling weeds from what I'm now calling Papa's farm.

My little one got frustrated with me recently for calling her "my little farm girl," for reasons I couldn't quite understand then. Today, I was able to expand her idea of being a farmer, with this question, "Did you know Papa is a really good farmer?" She was intrigued, so I continued, "a farmer is anyone who works hard to take care of the land, grow food and care for the earth." She asked, "really?" I assured her and then asked, "would it be okay if I call you my little farm girl again some time?" and she said yes. I think she's getting it. 

Over the long weekend, God's spirit brought me so much peace, healing and laughter; strengthened our kids in their swimming skills, and a new perspective of the relationship available to us all with our Creator.

The illustration God painted in my mind while I picked and worked in the garden was this:

The best gardener is thoughtful, intentional, careful. They provide strong structure and sufficient support, to both help the plant grow as they know it will and give it plenty of room to grow wild. In these parameters, the plant will do what it does best under good care: bear fruit, vegetables and all kinds of good things. 

The best gardener knows exactly what each plant needs and provides those things with love and consistency to the best of their abilities.

The best gardener also does not expect the plant to stay within bounds, be anything other than what it is or make it apologize for how it responds to the measure of love, care, structure, support, water, soil, sun, heat and the exact nutrients that plant individually needs (or the lack thereof). 

The best gardener does all they can to help the plant thrive AND embraces that some of gardening is just sitting back and seeing how things go and grow.

That's both the kind of gardener I want to be AND the kind of garden I want to be in. 

How about you?

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