I am a master gardener. And by master gardener I mean that I recently purchased my first vertical container garden. On June 12th, I purchased and planted a total of 18 plants/seeds. I’ve only killed the lavender so far, so I’m guessing that’s a good thing since I don’t eat lavender.
I honestly didn’t put a lot of thought into the actual science of gardening other than the fact that I really wanted to try my hand at it, and the container garden I found was such a cool system! I know I’m Zone 9b (didn’t mean much to me at the time) and I live in California where there is plenty of sun and shouldn’t EVERYTHING grow beautifully in California?! Eighteen days in, and I’m honestly just glad that the lavender is the only thing I’ve killed, but let’s be real…I’m only 18 days in.
But here’s where the real work starts. The novelty is starting to wear off; I don’t have peppers hanging from my plants and tomatoes aren’t just showing up and dangling from the vine. (FYI, I know it takes longer than two weeks to show up, just so everyone knows!) But my desire to watch the plants mature and bear their produce has become exciting. Now I’ve purchased a highly recommended gardening book. I’m researching soil. I’m looking at what grows well next to each other and whether to plant seeds or starts. I joined a local online group of gardeners to see what works for them and what they’ve had success with planting in this area. It’s time and effort to get these plants to grow. And it’s time and effort that’s well worth it.
Our walk with Christ can often begin the same way. We accept Christ as our Savior and get so excited to start a walk with God. We find ourselves jumping straight in, soaking up as much scripture as we can, join a community for a bible study, attend church services. Sometimes, however, when we don’t see immediate changes in our life or fantastic things start happening to us because we live for Jesus now, we can start to get frustrated in trusting Jesus during the process of us growing into spiritual maturity. If we don’t find the immediate gratification, confusion or bitterness can sweep in and next thing you know, your walk with God is thrown to the wayside in favor of what’s right in front of us temporally.
Remember that the seeds were cast in Mark 4 into good soil and they grew up and produced a crop. The bible didn’t say it happened overnight. The good soil with the seeds had to be tended, nurtured, loved, and fed. That is what our walk with Christ must be. In order to see the growth, you have to plant yourself in the good soil of the Word of God and allow Him to tend to you, maturing you in your walk with Him.
I encourage everyone today to plant yourself in the Word of God and allow Him to grow you.
~Erin
Iron Porch 
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