Patience

Nasturtium has a very hard seed coat. I planted some a week ago and the only reason they are sprouting this soon is because I soaked them in warm water before I planted them. They are just breaking ground now. The waiting is the hard part.

I remember praying day after day, month after month, and then year after year for my sons with very hard seedcoats. I knew that the Lord would soften them in time...but how much time, I didn't know. I wondered if I was praying right and sought out some books on prayer. With Christ in the School of Prayer by Andrew Murray soon became a favorite. I was encouraged by his chapter on persevering prayer: "But why, if this be true and His power be infinite, does it often last so long with the answer to prayer? And why must God's own elect so often, in the midst of suffering and conflict, cry day and night?...'Behold! the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, being long-suffering over it, till it receive the early and the latter rain' [James 5:7]. The husbandman does indeed long for his harvest, but knows that it must have its full time of sunshine and rain and has long patience. A child so often wants to pick the half-ripe fruit; the husbandman knows to wait till the proper time."

Weeding the Garden of my Heart

I've been working in the yard trying to get it up to shape after a busy school year. We have bermuda grass which is beautiful in the yard, but it creeps into the garden. I was amazed at how much had grown into the beds, and then I remembered that last summer unexpected responsibilities kept me from weeding as I should. Had I caught those little sprouts of grass last year when their roots were small, it would have been an easy job then and an easy job now. But as it is, the roots had a whole year to spread deeper and take a stronger hold on the dirt, and they have vowed not to let go without making me struggle. My body has complained every night for the last week and a half, yet there is still more stubborn grass to pull and dig. Even more irritating is the knowledge that I'm not getting it all. There are so many hidden runners deep in the heavy clay that it is impossible to get it all. After the mulch is laid, they will send up their little blades to taunt me.

"Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it are the issues of life." Prov. 4:23. This experience reminds me of how important it is to keep my heart garden weeded everyday. When I let even a little harmless sin go, it takes deeper and stronger root even when the visible part is doing little. It is going to be harder to get rid of it because I can't see where all the roots have spread, and until I get it all, it will keep popping up. I need the Master Gardener to point out to me these little sprouts and help me be strong to unroot them no matter how painful it may be.