Gardening with God- Intro

Here's a picture of my daughter and I in my garden last summer. As you can see it is a modest little garden. I don't claim to be an excellent gardener... I'm not even sure if I'm a very good one but I thoroughly enjoy watching things grow.

This series Gardening With God- is from a talk I gave this past weekend at GateWay Bible Church for a women's brunch. You are invited to follow along as I blog about what God taught me this summer while I was working in my garden.

How did God teach me? Good question! First, He got my attention-

It was towards the end of May (my garden had been recently planted) and Jeff was at an Elder's meeting. (That means- I was doing the bedtime routine on my own. You may know how that goes with two small kids... a bit hectic.) During that time I kept feeling an urgency to get out in my garden and pray. It wasn't unusual for me to pray in my garden... but the urgency was. So I rushed through their bedtime routine and was able to get out into my garden by early evening. I climbed up to the top step and spent time talking to God. When I was done I just sat in silence. After a few moments I felt God prompt me to, "Look around." So I did. As I looked around my garden He started pointing out different plants and how they grow and how they are tended and who is responsible for them. It was an amazing time of learning directly from God. I went to bed that night excited about what God had been teaching me.

At about 4am I was wide-awake... unfortunately with two small kids, that's not unusual. While I was awake I started thinking again about what God had taught me in my garden that evening. I spent about an hour talking to Him and thanking Him for the wonderful lessons. During that time I started realizing that His teachings were not just for my benefit. So then I asked, "how do you want me to share this with others?" I didn't get an answer that night but it came shortly after.

A few nights later I excitedly shared with my Life Group some of the things I had been learning. That particular evening the Life Group Coordinators (John & Carol) we're visiting our group and they heard me share. The next day she called me and told me that she felt that the Lord was leading her to ask me to be the brunch speaker. They had already picked the theme An Abundant Harvest and what I had shared seemed to be perfect for the brunch.

So, I told her I'd pray about it. It sure felt like God had given me an answer already and when I did pray about it He told me that yes, I should commit to speaking and that throughout the summer He promised to reveal more for me to share.

I had a wonderful summer working in my garden and intentally listening for the lessons that God wanted to teach me. I Hope you enjoy hearing more about these lessons over the next few weeks.

Next post: Gardening With God- The Master Gardener