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."
