We were in the garden today, picking tomatoes and green beans and cucumbers and flowers. For those looking for the school posts I promised, I apologize. They are just not ready. Stay tuned, they’ll be coming soon! In the meantime, I hope you’ll enjoy this lesson from the garden.
The garden provides so many illustrations for life and the lessons I learn from my children seem to come around again and again. Today, as I was looking out the window recently, I was struck by how much bigger the plants seemed that morning than they did the evening before. I’m not kidding – some of these plants had grown by inches overnight! I remembered the tiny seeds we sowed only about a month ago. There is so much potential packed inside that wee little package. I have had the same thoughts while snuggling my sweet newborn babes.
After a short time in the warm, moist, nourishing soil, they push up through the surface with incredible strength. So strong, yet fragile at the same time. And so it is with infants. It boggles my mind that when my babies are still so tiny they quickly become mobile. Crawling and pulling up and exploring and discovering, they can withstand bumps and bruises that would have me doubled over, nursing the pain. 
Then those seedlings turn their faces to the warm sun, drink up the rains, spread out their leaves, send their roots deep down for the nutrients of the soil. In the same way, my little crawlers are soon toddling along, turning their faces up toward mine for encouragement and approval, reaching out their arms for a reassuring hug, planting their feet firmly as if to say ‘this is MY turf!’
It is so exciting to collect the bounty of our harvest. Just as we watch the garden grow from seeds to seedlings to blossoming plants and then mature to fruit-bearing, we watch our children through all these phases as well. Each new stage and phase in the development of my little one brings the same wonder, the same peek into the fruit of the future. I have loved this journey, watching my children grow. Yes, I am always a bit sad to leave the sweet baby years behind, but it is so fun to see their personalities blossom. There are always surprises.
Remember that seed with so much potential? With our children taking wing and heading off on their own, starting their own homes and families, I am seeing how much life truly is packed in those little seeds. We have grandbabies arriving now. The life cycle continues.
I have not forgotten the fact that tending a garden also means dealing with weeds, disease, pests. Along with the thrill of the harvest, there is the labor of keeping it a healthy growing environment. The squash bugs got to our zucchini and summer squash plants early on, so sad. There are some little tiny aphid-like pests making their home on our tomato plants. We ward off caterpillars and grasshoppers as best we can. I think I’ll leave that to another post 😉 Still, gardening – it’s a good thing!
linking this post at some of these wonderful places.
We have wild morning glory that only needs one drop of water to get out of hand so now it’s going crazy taking over in a matter of seconds while the plants are also growing up dispite the loving grips of this horrid beautiful flowering “weed”. And to think, there are seeds for this plant at our local LOWES. Not for this momma! I think it looks pretty growing up the fence, just not taking up my garden and flower beds. I can’t seem to figure out how to get rid of it though. Ug! We have baby bugs and bug eggs on the under side of our already done sunflower leaves. Those things, the leaves, are HUGE! And we will have to get out to get rid of those little varmins. *smile* Well, it’s good to see that we are not the only ones blessed the the entire experience of gardening this year. *big smile* Have a great day and thanks for sharing your garden post. Sincerely, Mommy of two growing blessings & so much more!
ah, yes, morning glory 🙂 we have it here – the farmers just hate it! It is very invasive. But beautiful! I guess if it’s growing where you don’t want it, you can call it a weed, and if it’s growing where it adds beauty to your property or roadsides, it’s a beautiful flower! It is now coiling its way up a stone wall along our drive. So far we are getting along, but it’s going to get some pruning very soon 🙂 Good luck taming it! I hope you enjoy all your garden experiences the rest of this growing season.
Love this! Thanks for linking with Collage Friday!
thank you Mary 🙂 have a blessed weekend!
Beautiful post and photos. Great analogy – it really made me think.
Thanks for linking up at Essential Fridays. Blessings.
Mel from Essential Thing Devotions
thank you Mel 🙂 And thank you for hosting Essential Fridays every week! Have a wonderful weekend
What great things are coming out of your garden.
Blessings, Dawn
Thank you Dawn stopping by for a quick visit, Dawn 🙂 Have a wonderful weekend!
What a beautiful, wonderful post ! 🙂
Thank you, Deb 🙂 I’m so glad you stopped in for a visit. Have a blessed weekend!
There was a time when we were raising our 6 kiddos and working a full time job as an R.N. when I did not have time to garden. Then after they all left home I took up gardening and many times would be drawn into nostalgia thinking how similar the two things are. I told my husband after the babies and grands stopped coming I had to nurture and grown something so gardening was perfect. Now the phase of our life has come around that neither of us are able to garden much. Just a few container flowers and herbs. Your post was a well written essay that I enjoyed very much. Blessings.
Thank you for sharing this 🙂 I’m so glad you stopped by today! I seem to be more nostalgic these days as well. Both our families and out gardens, whether large or small, simple or fancy, need tending and nurturing. I think that must be why God created the very first home in a Garden Paradise.
Your container garden of flowers and herbs sounds wonderful! Enjoy them.
What a beautiful comparison between the garden and our children. You’ve made me wish mine were little again!
thank you Sylvia 🙂 My youngest is 7, she isn’t very little anymore! Doing my best to embrace the joys and blessings in each stage. Have a blessed week!
Thank you for sharing this lovely comparison of your garden and children. With my youngest lacking the ability to stay close, I am unable to garden as I desire. I have a few plants that, thankfully, thrive in the hot and humid Louisiana weather. I feel blessed to have found your blog by way of Friendship Friday.
Hi Shelley 🙂 I’m so glad you stopped by for a visit today. Thriving plants, even if only a few, are a good thing! Me? I actually have a very brown thumb and most of our gardens would die of neglect, if it weren’t for my amazing husband and children! I’ve wondered what it would be like to garden down south where the growing season was longer – maybe I’d have more success myself? Have a wonderful week tending your plants and your family.
Beautiful post. Really opened my eyes. Thank you, bless you!
Thank you Ashely 🙂 I’m glad you stopped by. Have a blessed week!
I’m visiting from the MYHS linky party. We just planted our first square foot garden this year and had so much fun! Our four children really enjoyed watching the plants grow and harvesting them when ready. I like the analogy you made between our gardens and our children. 🙂
Hi Jen 🙂 Square foot gardening is a wonderful way to get the kids involved! We’ve been gardening with our children for many years, and our oldest are carrying on with their own children. I think the Lord knew what He was doing when he placed the first family in the garden. Thank you for stopping in and leaving your comments. May your garden, and your children, thrive and grow and produce good fruit this year!
I love the watermelon garden. How long will the watermelon last as a planter. Please consider posting a how to. Thanks,
Mary
Thank you, Mary 🙂 The planter lasts several days if you put it in the frig or a cooler overnight. For a one time use you can just place the flowers in a hollowed out watermelon – there’s plenty of water naturally in a watermelon, or add a little extra to keep them fresh for several hours. You can also place a vase, glass or bowl inside filled with water, then add flowers. A how-to post is a great idea, thank you! Have a wonderful week!
A beautiful post! We are responsible for nourishing those little seeds — and the seeds that are our grandchildren are even more fun to watch grow and blossom. Just stopping by from the GRAND Social Linky Party. Hope you get a chance to do the same!
It’s an exciting time, watching this next generation of seedlings grow and mature! Thanks for stopping in today, Kc. I’ll be coming by for a visit at your party! Have a wonderful week 🙂
Love the watermelon as a vase! Some people at church were remarking on how much our grandson had grown since they last saw him, and I just chalked it up to the fact that kids grow and when you don’t see them often, this is more noticeable. Then I happened to see a photo of him from a year ago and understood what they were talking about. Like the garden, they change in a remarkably short time!
Hi Carol 🙂 They do keep growing, don’t they? Thank you for admiring our watermelon vase. It was actually my 7 year old daughter’s idea. That girl is full of crazy, wonderful ideas. Enjoy the rest of your summer, and watch that grandson grow!
LOVE this! I often think of and pray for my children as I am out in the garden. It’s good quiet time to do this but I love how you draw the parallel between the garden & our children. Blessings friend!
thank you, Kim 🙂 they both take work and investments, our gardens and our children – but so worth it the effort! Blessings to you, too – have a marvelous day!