How Are Your Tomato Plants Doing?

A word of caution- a disclaimer if you will- I like tomatoes, and even more so I like analogies. If you do not like either of those, you will probably find most of anything I have to say annoying! Proceed reading at your own risk!

I haven't weeded the garden for two weeks. It has rained nearly every day, and when it's not raining the mosquitoes take so much blood from me and the kiddos, I would just assume give blood in the conventional manner.

I weeded the garden today. Scratch that. I tried to weed the garden today. The tomatoes are gorgeous, they have beautiful little green orbs just waiting to be kissed by the sun and drip with juiciness! The leaves are green and nary a bug, fungus, or disease in sight!  

But the weeds, they are starting to take over. Yep, two short weeks, and the weeds are staking claims.

Should I have gotten to the garden sooner? Yes. I rationalized why I couldn't get to it, but I should have. Will I loose my tomato plants? Most of them, no. Some of them, maybe. At least one of them, yes. Could they be better?  Yes. Will I still have a harvest? Yes. Is there still hope for my tomatoes? Yes.

I weeded for hours. I recruited help. I will weed again tomorrow. If I make sure to not let the weeds take over for the rest of the season, they just might all be okay. If continue to neglect my tomatoes I just might loose them. I will fertilize them, and do whatever extra I can do to make up for my mistakes, my laziness, my poor rationalizing.

Analogy to follow... again, proceed at your own risk!

Take out the word "tomatoes" and insert children.  Make the weeds the "world" the biblical use of the word "world". Let the "fruit" be the fruits of the spirit.

Proverbs 22:6  
Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it

Do I pull weeds for my children? Am I fertilizing them? Do I tend to their tender hearts, growing so rapidly, on a daily basis? Do I neglect to do the things God wants me to do for my children? Do I rationalize it away? Do I assume Sunday school, grandparents, or friends will teach my children to love the Lord, and grow for His glory?

Lord, help me pull weeds for my children. Help me love them like YOU do. Teach me to teach them. Remind me daily I am here to give YOU the glory. 

If It Ain't Written It Ain't Real

Okay, starting the title with a Dad-ism (that would be number 2.)

I was in my garden this evening. I find I think a lot in my garden. Yes, about gardening, like how to get the Asian beetles to leave my basil alone, and why the perfect tomato staking system really hasn't been invented yet. But, I also find myself thinking about lots of "God" things.  


I told my dad I was starting a blog/journal. I got the ever skeptical - why?? Which I feel I have previously answered at the start of my journal. But, to tell our stories we do not have to write a book, or a blog, or have any form of "social media". Our stories can be told by others and in the daily living of our lives. They can be told through friendships and relationships, and our stories can be our own until God uses them himself.


Why write?


Well Dad. "if it ain't written it ain't real!"


When I write things down I remember them. I ponder the things I write down. I find I don't have time to write down all the little annoying things about my life. Wiping snotty noses, potty training, pulling weeds, bad traffic, no milk in the house, the leaky basement, the laundry I didn't do, the guy that is supposed to have been done painting the barn a week ago, the really high NIPSCO bill...I think you get the point. All these little things, they drive me NUTS. It's those things that I find I focus on way too much. I get hung up on my bad day. But, when at the end of they day I sit down to write, I realize an entire day's worth of writing about the dumb things, are just plain-dumb!


I want to make a conscience effort to be grateful for the zillion gifts I have been given. I want my thankfulness to be a fruit in my life. I want my actions to reflect the thankfulness of my heart. If I spend time writing down the good things in my life, the important things in my life, the things that are growing me for His kingdom - I remember them!! I can look back and reference them. I can have a better and accurate view of the past. Sometimes, its easy to make things out to be worse than they really are. It's easy to forget the good things. I was thankful this morning because I drank a double tall vanilla latte from Starbucks. I was thankful today because we found a huge box of snakes (the firework kind) that Tommy loves, for super cheap! I was thankful today because we completed our fingerprinting for homeland security. I was also irritated, frustrated, inpatient, rude, etc, about things today. If I dwell on the things that are annoying then I find I am just more annoyed, but if I dwell on the good things, the gifts that God has given me EVERY SINGLE DAY, I am just a happier person.   


I will be able to look back at my life and see where I was. I can look back and contemplate where I need to grow and how I need to change. It is a way for me to think out loud and remember. I want to live intentionally, and writing is intentional.


I was thinking about being intentional, and thought about "setting our minds" to do something. I love a good concordance and looked up "setting your mind" - Colossians 3 popped up.


some excerpts...

Colossians 3:1-2
If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 


3:5-9
Put to death therefore what is earthly in you: ...  anger, wrath, malice, slander, and obscene talk from your mouth.


3:12-17
Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.


Journaling is a way for me to keep my mind on things that are above. Writing it all down, is a way for me to put to death what is earthly in me. Writing is a way for me to be thankful, have a thankful heart to God, and to give thanks to Him.