Gardening, A Great Lesson In Spiritual Growth

My wife is an avid gardener, she plants, and then rearranges what she plants because we have to make room for more plantings.  In the end, it all looks great, and she has won some awards from the local neighborhood association. I am the person who waters. I bought some tangle free hoses this spring, so my watering can be sped up without the hassle of tangled hoses.  We have a great arrangement, she plants, I water, and both aspects of this partnership is critical if we expect anything to grow. 

The Apostle Paul knew this principle, because he used it in to illustrate how we grow spiritually. 

1 Corinthians 3:6-8  6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth.  7So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth.  8He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. No matter what my wife plants, and no matter how often I water, once those are done, it's up to the earth, the sun, and God to make things grow.  No matter how hard you try to grow spiritually, through the planting of the word of God in your heart, the watering of prayer, and the fellowship with other believers, only God gives the increase.  If God gives the increase, what makes that increase greater in some peoples lives and lessor in others?  Isn't God  fair in giving His increase? As I take another lesson from my gardening experience by looking at what my neighbors plant. Most only marginally plant flowers. They rarely plant the volume that my wife does, so their increase is exactly what they sowed.  Few plants, few watering obligations.  (hummmm.....shorter trips with the hose....???) So increase can be directly proportional to your labor of planting, at least that is one element of how Gods increase works. Jesus said some would just naturally plant more flowers than others. It's just the way their DNA wired them. Mark 4:8  8And other seeds fell into good soil and produced grain, growing up and increasing and yielding thirtyfold and sixtyfold and a hundredfold.” In Matthew 13, there are more gardening tips on how to grow a spiritual life and the ramifications of poor gardening, including those pesky weeds.   My wife loves to plant her gardens so that the growing season has blooming flowers early, middle and late in the season, so there is always beautiful color in her garden. What about this truth in our lives?  Do you have spiritual color in the stage of life you are in?  Are you allowing God to bring to bloom what He planted in your life?  Another aspect of defining spiritual growth for the Christian today means, are you standing for what you believe in or are you letting the weeds of culture drown out the beauty of the Lord in your life?  Growth means you stand your ground, defending against those who would want to choke out the message you represent, the hope we have in Jesus Christ. Your life, like your garden, may not be what it could be, but there is always hope for another season, where God can restore the dried up, and withered.  You might like the link below, it illustrates how hope brings life back to what was once broken. Keeping things honest and truthful.....K   http://www.porcelainunicorn.com/