What Grows in God's Garden?

My dog, Willa, and I took a walk this morning. With little or no green thumb of my 
own, I admire the late summer flowers growing  in other people's yards. One 
driveway in particular is lined with brilliant orange and yellow nasturtiums. We 
walked past several gardens too, full of tomatoes, squash, green beans, and rows 
of corn. 

God likes garden's too. (That's why He created them.) I recently read a short list of 
some of His favorite things to grow. 

Speaking to His people, Israel, God said, He will make her "wilderness like Eden 
and her desert like the garden of the Lord; joy and gladness will be found in it, 
thanksgiving and the voice of melody" (Isaiah 51:3 italics added).

It's too easy to misplace joy and start thinking it comes from what I manage to 
accomplish. But joy grows from realizing what God has already done for us. Like 
eternal life, no small thing. 

We grow glad from a greater acquisition of joy through thankfulness. Yet we can 
get so used to listing the things we don't have that we neglect to thank God for all 
we have. For the chronically lack-minded rather than like-minded, joy evaporates.

I'm amazed how many verses remind us to thank God. Such a simple thing and yet 
we often forget. "Thank You, God for___________." We could fill the blank with a multitude of everyday or unusual things, all equally wonderful.

Last evening, just before I closed the curtains, I noticed the sky, soft blue, with 
streaks of pink clouds. It look like a pastel water color painted by a Master artist. 
So much beauty to thank God for. 

Everyday I want to wake up more thankful because that's where real joy and 
gladness grow. Not from more stuff but from more gratitude for the stuff we 
already have. And may we remember to thank God for the priceless treasures 
of love, grace, His Holy Spirit and the amazing people He put in our lives. 

Like me, you may not have a knack for growing great gardens. But we can all 
flourish like flowers in His garden just by making a habit of saying thank You.  

          

      

A Tale of Two Yards

Sometimes the best way to understand problems in your own life is to 
walk in someone else's neighborhood. One day I took my car in for new 
tires. Rather than sit in the waiting area and breathe the smell of rubber 
for an hour, I took a walk. A few blocks later, houses, trees, and flowers 
surrounded me.

Gentle wind moved deep green branches. Orange and gold nasturtiums sparkled in the sunlight. But the glorious day was some what wasted on me. 
I had just received two rejections for a kids series I thought was promising. The more rejections piled up, the more I questioned my writing direction, in fact writing in general. A little discouragement goes a long way.

Then I stopped to look at an unusual yard. Every blade of grass clipped, 
hedges shaped, lawn edged. Happy bunches of kale, lettuce and carrots 
grew in two raised beds. A shade tree swayed as if to music. I couldn't 
help but smile as I walked on. A few feet and one hedge later I stopped again but for the opposite reason. 

Dandelions gone to seed filled the yard next door. A moldy throw rug 
hung in a wilted tree. Dented pop cans and food wrappers scattered 
across the dry grass. A rusted pet carrier lay on it's side against the 
hedge. An empty grocery bag blew past me like a tumble weed. The 
torn screen door and taped window on the house completed the picture.

The first yard spoke diligence and revealed the power of direct and steady effort.
The second yard spoke negligence and revealed we only have to ignore something to destroy it.

As often happens the Lord nudged my thoughts back to my struggle and 
encouraged me to consider it from the view of two yards. The only real
difference between them was hard work, not a lack of opportunity or money. Pulling weeds and planting seeds are equal opportunity options. One family worked in their yard while the other walked past theirs. 

How much real work had I put into my writing projects? How many 
times did I let endless distractions steal the time I planned to spend 
working at my craft? 

The tale of two yards tells me I can't give up on the series idea because I haven't worked at it enough to say I've tried. If it were a yard, I still had 
weeds to pull, grass to mow, seeds to plant and water. I walked back to 
my car with renewed resolve.     
     
If we want to be happy with what we accomplish, to feel contentment 
of a project well done, there's no way around working at it. That's one 
reason Jesus said, "If you know these things happy are you if you do 
them" (John 13:17). This simple cure from the Lord has the power to 
change our lives if we'll put it into practice.

God Bless the work of our hands.