In the Garden

"Are you a Gardener?" I heard the visitor to our Bible Study ask. For a minute I thought she was asking if I were related to a friend by that name who had just introduced herself. Flustered, I almost said, "No, she's a Gardener, I'm a Summers." Then it dawned on me that she was asking if I were a gardener, as in tending a garden!

In that case, I guess I am a gardener. Gardeners plant, hoe and cultivate tender plants, pulling out weeds and clearing rocks from the rows. By the same token, raising a family is like a garden. Each little plant (child) we were entrusted with was treated tenderly when he or she came into the family. But as time passed, when little weeds of disobedience or negative habits might take hold, intervention of rooting them out became necessary.

Thankfully, our six children were mostly well behaved and were easy to raise. Still, they were apt to be exposed to things in school and from other kids, things which, as parents, we had to pull out like weeds. It was up to us to remove the rocks and stumbling blocks from their lives by, for instance, denying their seeing certain movies contemporaries may have been allowed to see. They learned to cultivate wholesome friendships as a rule.

A vital part of having a garden is keeping it watered. Our home wasn't perfect, but our "plants" were watered with a home atmosphere of the gospel, from seeing their dad, especially, studying the Bible or praying over meals. Our "crop" regularly attended, participated and literally grew up in church where they heard the Water of the Word!

As a stay-at-home Mom, I like to think I provided sunshine in their lives, so important to growing things. They still talk fondly about my having cookies or brownies ready from the oven when they got off the school bus. I loved to listen to their recounting of their school day as they sat around the table with their munchies before they burst out the door to play in God's sunshine!

Now they have their own gardens to cultivate, even some with little sprouts to baby-sit and nurture. They relate to me the accomplishments and antics of their "crops," of which I am just as proud. My harvest, my garden.