Spring Fever

I’ve had the symptoms for a few weeks now. Long strolls through the garden department at my local discount store, spending more time looking at seed catalogs than my favorite decorating magazine, Googling vegetable names to learn new planting techniques. Yes, I’ve got spring fever.

When I was growing up, working in the garden was a chore. I remember summer days in the south, heat beaming on the back of my neck and picking green beans in Mom’s garden. I remember complaining. I remember washing beans, snapping them and blanching them to freeze. I hated it! So, that makes my love for all things garden even more ironic.

A couple of weeks ago I began clearing the area where I am going to be planting my cool-weather vegetables. I picked weeds, relocated bulbs and planned out where each delicate seed would go into the ground. I’m at a new location this season, so I am hesitant to even estimate how the garden will produce, But simple gardening steps have to be taken no matter where you garden, so I’ve been busy doing routine care. I’ve purchased the seeds, bought a new pair of gardening gloves and a few new tools. Fertilizer, weed killer and other soil nutrients are ready for use. Hopefully, all the prep work will help insure a fruitful harvest this summer.

The same thing is true for our Christian walk. It takes daily hard work and tending to produce a fruitful life. Cleaning the sin out, fertilizing with God’s Word, adding nutrients that will strengthen our relationship with God, dedicating ourselves to the end result: loving God and others. God provides us with everything we need to have a wonderful relationship with Him, but if we don’t do our part—just like with gardening—the weeds will take over, and eventually others won’t be able to see Christ shining through us for all the weeds.

PRAYER:  Lord, give me the strength and patience to clear out the weeds in my spiritual life. Help me tend the areas where things creep in. Keep me in Your Word, sheltered in Your hand.

“But he that received seed into the good ground is he that heareth the word, and understandeth it; which also beareth fruit, and bringeth forth, some an hundredfold, some sixty, some thirty,” Matthew 13:23 KJV

Today’s devotion is written by Gina Anderson Stinson of Sulphur Springs, Texas, where her husband serves on staff at their local church. Gina is a wife, homeschooling mom, and work from home publicist assistant. She enjoys gardening, homemaking and spending time with friends and family. Read more at http://journalinggina.blogspot.com