But, last Spring I decided throw a few seeds in a few pots,
almost like a science experiment.
I hoped that perhaps some of them would grow.
My Father-in-Law also gave me a couple of Tomato plants.
They grew like cedar trees, tall and strong.
They flowered, filling me with visions of homemade salsa.
And then…
No fruit was found on them.
Gardening is not an easy task.
I'm not even sure that I would claim to enjoy it,
but there is something in my nature that desires to do it,
and to succeed at doing it.
Marriage is a lot like gardening.
For most of us, we start out with a grandiose vision of what our garden will look like.
We envision an abundance of brightly colored blooms,
all flourishing together under blue skies and sunshine.
But, often to our shock and dismay, we find ourselves frustrated by the lack of fruit we are producing.
Like gardening, Marriage takes hard dedicated work.
The work of humble hands and hearts.
When I look at the old weathered clay pots sitting on my patio, I am reminded of God's word.
We are the clay, you are the potter, we are all the work of your hand.
Isaiah 64:8
For most of us, we start out with a grandiose vision of what our garden will look like.
We envision an abundance of brightly colored blooms,
all flourishing together under blue skies and sunshine.
But, often to our shock and dismay, we find ourselves frustrated by the lack of fruit we are producing.
Like gardening, Marriage takes hard dedicated work.
The work of humble hands and hearts.
When I look at the old weathered clay pots sitting on my patio, I am reminded of God's word.
We are the clay, you are the potter, we are all the work of your hand.
Isaiah 64:8
Each of us is like a clay pot being molded and shaped as we seek God in our lives.
In our Marriages we start as two clay pots,
but over time God allows us to be broken down and re-formed together into one.
As He fills us with the new fertile soil of His spirit living within us,
He gives us the responsibility to sow good seed.
Death and life are in the power of the tongue,
and those who love it will eat its fruit.
Proverbs 18:21
We have a choice, we can either sow good seed into our marriage or bad seed.
our marriage, like a delicate flower wilts and withers.
When we sow good seed: quality time, love and respect, empathy and compassion, and most of all, GRACE, our marriage produces new life.
How blessed we are to have God, the master Gardener,
to continually reveal to us the condition of our marriages by the fruit He brings forth.
How is your garden growing?
Are you seeing the fruit that you desire or is God revealing some weeds that need to be pulled out?
God wants your marriage to flourish like a beautiful garden, ripe with fruit.
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| by Alicia Jo McMahan |
You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.
Isaiah 58:11
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