A lesson from my garden

Several weeks ago in the middle of the night we had a wind storm go thru our garden with winds up to 60 miles per hour. The next morning when my husband went outside to check on the animals he noticed something different about the garden.

 

Walking over there to explore what it was that was different he noticed the corn was totally flat. It wasn't only flat but halfway down the rows of corn there was a circled spot where it was beyond just flat. It almost looked as if that was where the wind tunnel originally touched down. Running into the house he got me to go and take a look. "Wow!" I said. I had never seen anything like that before. The entire crop of  tall stalks of corn over seven feet tall was lying flat on the ground with the remainder of the garden and yard untouched.

 

After marveling over the loss of our corn crop we went to work. I figured I would get a picture of this later and share it with my friends on Facebook. That night when I got home from work it was dark so I planned on taking a picture of the corn the following morning on Saturday once it got daylight. Much to our surprise come Saturday morning, almost two days after the corn was flattened, we woke up to a big surprise. The corn was standing upright!

 

How could it be? One day it was flat on the ground and now it was standing once more. Was it really going to be okay? Would we ever see a kernel of corn off of them? Well it's been over a month now and the corn remains standing and is producing terrific corn.

 

As I stand and look at the corn as it stands tall in the garden I think of the lesson we can learn from it. Often in life there is something that touches down in our lives that knocks us down flat. We have the choice to stay down there or get back up and keep moving forward. God has equipped us to be able to do that no differently than the corn stalks He created. We should use that which God has supplied us with and pop back up in an upright position so quickly that world around doesn't even have a chance to notice we are down.

 

I don't know what it was that made the corn come back up but what we have is the Holy Spirit within us to help pop us back up. We have God's written word of encouragement and directions to help as well. Recently when a devastating thing struck my family, as my youngest granddaughter cried I told her we need to just trust in the promises of God. That is what will help up stand upright once again is trusting in the promises of God thru any storm.

 

Another lesson from my garden is the one from the sunflower that is standing near the corn. The lesson I learn from it is the fact that every morning it faces the morning sun and follows it thru the day. It would do us well to begin and end our day the same way, facing the rising Son, Jesus Christ. Truly this is another way that will help us to stand upright when life knocks us down.

 

Thank you Lord for the lessons learned and the beauty You have created in my garden both physically and spiritually. You are the best Gardener there is! I love you.

 

 

Kid DEES "Rest Here!"

Matthew 11:28, 29 Come to Me all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from Me for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and my burden is light.”
Christ when He was here on earth sent out an invitation to all. He invited us to come to Him especially when we are feeling tired and worn out. His invitation included a promise for us to find rest in Him.

The best way to come to Jesus is through prayer and the reading of His word, the Holy Bible. There are a lot of places to go. Often if you search your Bible enough you will find the scriptures that help you the most in the situations you find yourself needing rest.

For example:

Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Feeling weak and trampled down by things going on in life this is a good scripture to hold on to. Claim the promise here that you can do all things through Christ who strengthens you. It doesn’t give you the power to leap tall buildings in a single jump but it will give you what you need to endure and go on.

Joshua 1:5 …as I was with Moses, so I will be with you. I will not leave you nor forsake you.” God may have been talking to Joshua there but that promise is for all of us to claim and hold on to. God will not leave us or forget us. Satan will try to make it seem like He has but He won’t. There is tremendous rest for your spirit to know and believe that this is true.

Proverbs 3:5,6 Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths. One of the big things that drain us of strength that leads to the lack of rest is trying to lean on your own understanding. Stop it! If you do that you’ll be way ahead of a lot of adults. Just trust the Lord with ALL your heart, not parts of it, not when its convenient for you but ALLways with ALL your heart.

The treasure chest of scriptures useful to give us strength and rest is endless. Get in the treasure chest of God’s word today and find more to take along in your journey through life.

Now that we got our scriptures to travel with let’s now take the time to pray to round off the perfect start to a long journey, the voyage of life itself.

OUR PRAYER: Precious Heavenly Father, the King of comfort, strength, and giver of rest we pray this day that we will take that first baby step towards You and accept Your invitation to “Come.” We come running into Your arms Lord God seeking the kind of rest and strength You promise. Thank you Lord that we will never find Your arms closed or Your back turned. Forgive us Father for the times we listen to the lies of Satan telling us You don’t care, You forgot about us, that we are not important to You. We know better Lord and we claim Your promise to never leave us nor forget us as we learn to trust in You. In the precious name of Jesus we pray. Amen.



They call me grandma



© 2011 Karen J Gillett @ Pencil Marks and Recipes Publishing