How Does Your Garden Grow?

Some of us are born with a spirit of discontent. It doesn't matter what we attain in life, we'll always want the thing that is just beyond our grasp. It won't matter where we are in life, we'll want to be in the place we aren't. It won't matter who is beside us, they will never quite measure up to the next person or the one that walked away. We will always have an unfilled wish list or a page full of regrets. That is just the way we are and it is destroying any and all opportunities for our happiness and that of those who chose to love us.

There is hope. The Holy Spirit is trying to tell us to take a good look at where we are at THIS very moment and realize that the grass will always be greener on the other side of the fence but we can do something about the grass we are standing on. We can water it with the Word and with prayer. We can learn to be grateful, because no matter where you happen to be, there is someone with less than what you have right now.

Find one small thing each day that makes you smile or that makes you the least miserable. Write it down. At the end of the week, review those small things and give thanks for them. Make it a habit to tell the people in your life that they are doing things well rather than pointing out all the things they do that displease you. Begin to catch people doing right instead of wrong. Sow seeds of contentment in others and see if you don't notice a change in them and find that there is a bigger change in you.

Remember how God speaks to you. It is always to convict and never to condemn. It is always to build up and never to tear down. We are all flowers in His Garden and God loves diversity. He has more types of flowers than we will ever be able to name and He loves them all. We tend to have favorites and get stuck in ruts and prefer certain types and if we’re honest, that can get rather boring after a while. We grow what’s easy or familiar, never branching out and trying anything that really requires effort, and when we do and it doesn’t grow as fast as we’d like, we call it a failure and give up.

Anything worth having will take time and a bit of work on our part and we must be willing to stick with it if we want to enjoy the results. Look at how faithful and patient God has been and continues to be with us. Your grass can be luxurious if you’ll take the time to care for it. You can be quite content in your own backyard if you’ll put a little time and effort into caring for a nurturing it. Don’t be so quick to give up. God’s hasn’t given up on you and He never will.