Are you growing flowers or weeds?

Your mind is a garden
Your thoughts are the seeds
You can grow flowers
Or you can grow weeds.

I came across this little poem recently. I do not know who wrote it, but I had to stop and re-read it. Maybe it was because I am prepping for this year’s garden. Maybe it is because it was very fitting to some issues the kids are struggling with. No, nothing too serious, but just those growing up and out things. But it also made me pause and think about what I am growing as well.

Planting

I have been planning for gardening season. Sprouting seeds; planting sprouts; tending baby plants; keeping them watered. I need to re-pot some even. But more than what I plant for the garden is what I plant in my life. Or in some cases what I chose not to plant in my life.

What should be plant in our life? First, we plant family. Second, we plant work, activities, and hobbies. But the most important thing to plant is God’s word. Planting the Word in our hearts takes more than whatever you hear in church. It takes daily, repeated planting by reading and studying the Bible.

Deuteronomy 11:18a says “Fix these words of mine in your hearts and minds” (NIV). The ESV says “lay up these words of mine in your heart and in your soul.” You cannot “fix” or “lay up” God’s word in your heart without repeatedly putting it there.

If you don’t spend part of each day reading the Bible, what are you going to do to change that? What do you need to remove daily to make room for the Bible?

Watering

Planting and watering go hand in hand. In part, watering happens in much the same way as planting. Paul says in I Corinthians 3:6-7 “I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.” In this instance, watering is the continued exposure to the gospel. This happens much like planting. We are watered through daily reading of the Bible, solid Biblical preaching and teaching, and fellowship with other believers.

There is another aspect to watering that Jesus gives, the Holy Spirit the seal of our salvation (Ephesians 1:13-14). John tells us in his gospel “If anyone thirsts, let him come to me and drink. Whoever believes in me, as the Scripture has said, ‘Out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.’ Now this he said about the Spirit, whom those who believed in him were to receive,” (John 7:37b-39a).

Weeds or flowers?

Really, in life everything we do is either going to grow weeds or flowers. What activities do you do that need to go because they produce the wrong fruit? Where do you spend your time? Does it produce flowers? or weeds? It is good to stop at times and re-evaluate our actions. I pray you will also stop and think about what you are doing. Are you growing flowers? Are the things you do and where you spend your time honoring to Christ?

What are you planting? What are you watering? And, what is growing in your path?