Skip to main content

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?

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

You're not alone...

We received a little book of bedtime prayers to read to our little guy when we were pregnant, and one of the prayers is titled, "You're never, ever alone." It is a little cheesy and even rhymes, but it teaches that no matter what, no matter where, God is with you. It is so basic, but it's a reminder that I've needed a lot, and so have many of my friends. In the last several months, God has brought me conversations with other women, where God has used me to assure them that they are not alone in various circumstances. One friend was dealing with family and friends who kept telling her "how small" she was in her pregnancy, and some family members even told her to her face that they didn't think she could accomplish a natural childbirth as she desired (for those who did not get comments about being "so small," it often made me feel as though people thought I wasn't eating enough or doing pregnancy well, which this momma was feeling too)....
Post a Comment
Read more

If You're Going to Put on Makeup

  If you’re going to put on makeup, you’ll probably start with some mascara. When you take out your mascara, you’ll remember you like to curl your eyelashes first, so you’ll have to find your curler. When you find your curler, you’ll slowly put your eyelashes in, one eyelid at a time. Curling your eyelashes will remind you of how fun it is to curl your hair, so you’ll probably find your curling iron and plug it in. While it’s heating up, you’ll get inspired about what to wear, so you’ll go to your closet to pick something out. You’ll choose a favorite shirt and pair of pants and excitedly put them on. When you step into your pants, you’ll notice your toenail polish is peeling off and decide that it would be fun to have them match your favorite shirt. So you’ll go to the cupboard and take out your nail polish remover and select the right color. You’ll remove your peeling polish and see the blinking light of inactivity on your curling iron. So you’ll wash your hands and curl your hai...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ding-Dong-Ditch Isn’t Just for Kids

 This post was originally published here . A few weeks ago, I brought a meal to a friend whose son had gone through surgery about a week earlier. As we had a quick visit in her kitchen, she asked if I had brought a meal to our mutual friend who is battling cancer, and I told her I hadn’t been able to yet. I had been reaching out to her to try to find time to connect and planned to bring a meal, but I couldn’t get anything on the calendar, so the meal hadn’t been shared yet. My friend told me that when they had been in the hospital with their son in the NICU, the only way she could accept offers for a meal was if people dropped it off on the doorstep and left it in containers that didn’t need to be returned. I asked for clarification. “So, they basically ding-dong-ditched you and left a meal behind?” “Exactly, and it was amazing,” she answered. “Aha! I will offer to do the same for our friend,” I replied. The next week, I was making a huge batch of potato soup and I texted the other...
Post a Comment
Read more