Lessons from the Garden: Growing Faith
I’m finally going to have a garden of my own this year. When I lived at home, there was always something growing during the summer. Even when my parents didn’t plan out the full garden, we still had plenty of blueberries and apples along with a decent amount of blackberries and peaches.
I’ve had a few pots of herbs before, but due to a combination of living accommodations and summer traveling, I’ve never been able to transform that to classify it as a garden. Plants can’t keep themselves. You just can’t keep things growing when you aren’t home to water them for weeks at a time.
We bought our house recently. so I wasn’t up for the challenge of nurturing and trying to start seeds while also moving. For this reason, I mostly bought seedlings that the nursery had already taken care of and given a solid start. The plants were only three or four inches tall to begin with, but I gave them plenty of room to spread out as they grow.
I did get two packets of seeds when I bought my plants. After looking at gardens online, I decided I wanted a cutting garden along with my vegetables. I thought I would enjoy being able to make bouquets with my own flowers. Although I know that seeds take time to germinate, I kept checking them more often than I needed to. Of course, for the first few days, there was no change. If a seed takes seven days to germinate, you aren’t going to see anything on day four. But, eventually, if you keep making sure the seed has water and sunlight, you will see tiny green stems rising out of the soil.
It’s hard to be patient though. A few days of waiting isn’t really that long. We live in a world of instant gratification. If it takes longer than two days to ship, we don’t want it. We are not used to waiting for things.
Imagine the beauty I would have missed out on though if I decided to stop caring for my seeds when I didn’t see results in two days. To have the garden that I want, I have to put in constant effort over time. Growing plants is a lot like growing our relationship with God. When we pray once or twice and feel that nothing has changed, it isn’t time to abandon everything. Things are happening below the surface that we aren’t even aware of yet.
Just like plants require regular attention to flourish, we have to continually practice the spiritual disciplines that bring us close to God. We have to pray, read the word of God, and worship regularly in order for our faith to blossom.
It can be hard to make our faith a priority when we don’t always feel fulfilled after praying or reading the Bible. For every prayer session where you feel filled with the Holy Spirit, there will be other times when nothing seems to happen. In Galatians, Paul reminds us that our actions are important regardless of what we think in the moment.
“So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time, we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.” Galatians 6:9
We may not see results from our spiritual disciplines right away. Sometimes, it’s going to take longer. But, if we stop, then we are going to miss out on the blessings that were meant for us.
While I’m writing this, my flowers haven’t blossomed yet, but I am confident that as long as I keep taking care of them, I’ll be rewarded with lovely arrangements of flowers. I’ve seen plants grow in the past, so it isn’t a stretch to believe this. It can be harder to believe that a commitment to growing in faith will be rewarded if it isn’t something that you’ve experienced before or something that you’ve heard others talking about. If this is the case for you, I encourage you to stick with your faith. We have been promised blessings from our God.
If you’ve experienced the rewards of faithfulness in the past, but are now in a period where the wait seems particularly long, remember how you’ve been blessed in the past. You’ve seen the good of tending your relationship with Christ before, so keep going even when you aren’t currently seeing any change.
Do you feel as if you are in a period where you aren’t visibly able to see the results of your spiritual practices? How can you continue to nurture your faith?
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Elizabeth is an educator at heart. So far this has taken the form of a camp counselor, a museum assistant, and currently a middle school teacher. She loves to watch people grow and learn. You can read more of her writing at her blog Chronicles of a Southern Belle. (http://chroniclesofasouthernbelle.blogspot.com)