My husband and I finally decided that we probably are not going to move anytime soon into our own home and that it would be OK for us to spend a little money planting flowers to improve our base housing curb appeal. Several hours this past weekend were spent hoeing, raking, planting, and mulching. A lot of preparation went into the process of making sure the area we wanted to plant in had proper drainage as well as the correct amount of sunlight for the flowers we had decided upon.

The flower choice for me was quite easy. My mom always had Begonias in her spring garden when I was a child and when I saw some at Wal-Mart last week, I knew I wanted them in our garden, too. It seems that the longer I am farther away from my mom, the more like her I become. And the more things she liked, I like.

My daughter, and I planned out the garden area and worked on the space over the weekend. We had a good rain shower. This led to the discovery that the drainage in our small built in circular garden area off our patio was definitely a problem which needed tending to before any actual planting could take place. Thankfully we had gravel on hand so it was an easy fix. We also found we had to purchase more soil but this, too, was an easy fix. With the exception of mulching and adding fertilizer (uh, yes that would be organic manure for the best results), the planting of our small garden area was finished within about an hour but, the actual preparing of the bed took quite a bit more time… nearly three hours.

My husband looked at “our garden” on Sunday morning as we were leaving for church. He said “It needs more flowers. I want to see it overflowing!!!” His words took me back to the thought that had been sitting and brewing in my mind. I looked at my husband and said “Honey, God isn’t through with our garden yet. The flowers we planted need their space so that when God sends the sunlight and the rain, they have room to blossom into the full and beautiful flowers that He means for them to be.”

Guess what?! God isn’t finished with me yet, either! What began as a small thought about an overcrowded flat of flowers, and then a half empty garden bed, has turned into a revelation from God to me in my own life. You see, it is an easy task for me to get overwhelmed and overcrowded with everything I think needs to be accomplished. No one puts more stress on me in this area of my life than me — my husband doesn’t do it; my children don’t do it; my pastor doesn’t do it; my church family doesn’t do it; my friends don’t do it; God doesn’t do it.

I DO IT! I am the one guilty of overcrowding my life with too much stuff!

Christian Bovee said “To cultivate a garden is to walk with God.” When thinking of the word cultivate, I’m sure most people think of it in the gardening sense: plowing, tilling, preparing the earth. However, Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines the word cultivate more clearly when it adds to the definition the following meanings: to cherish; to make better or correct; to improve by labor or study; to advance the growth of.

I used to think that everything I did in my life, with the goal of directing my walk with God to be better than I was before, automatically equated to me cultivating a better me. I’ve come to realize that just isn’t the case!

In gardening, I understand that many times a little goes a long way. Fertilizer, for instance, will burn plants up if I use too much on them. Overuse of either organic manure or chemical fertilizer gives the same result and I will be left with nothing but an ugly patch of dirt. In a similar fashion, water, applied too often or in too large of a quantity, will flood a bed and wash away the seeds if they haven’t been rooted firmly in the ground. Fertilizer and water are both good things!! A well developed garden needs a good measure of each but, in the end, they are just water and manure.

The same can be said in my daily life as well. I get so busy filling my garden of life up with stuff that I think is good or needed. I too easily forget that a little goes a long way and I need space for growing. Not only do I need to leave myself room for improvement, I also need to cultivate my foundation. I need to ask myself some strong questions using the definition of cultivate as a starting point.

For instance, do I cherish what I am doing with and for God? Philippians 4:13 says “I can do everything through Him who gives me strength.” I often hear folks complain that God is failing them because He hasn’t given them the strength they need to complete a task. I wonder, though, if those folks ever stop to think maybe they aren’t feeling strengthened like they believe they should because they aren’t doing what God wants them to do? God does not give us the strength to do everything because He doesn’t want us doing everything!! He wants us doing what He has called us to do! That is what He will give us strength in!

Is it making me better or correcting a stance I have? I know that I’ve been wrong in the past and will be wrong again in the future but that knowledge does nothing to help me out if I’m not willing to examine myself and my beliefs. When I hold my beliefs up next to the Word of God (being my proof text) are they still correct? What good does it do me if I follow a “read-a-Bible-in-a-year-plan” but all I am doing is reading words on a page? What good does it do me to be in church every time the door is open, if I’m not worshipping the One true God with all of my being, but instead am worrying about what else I have to do later in the day or week?

Am I advancing my growth and improving myself by the labor I am doing? There is a lot of labor I can be doing… and trust me, honey, I’m doing a lot of labor most days… but I need to stop and recognize all that extra junk for what it is. I am the kind of person who just can’t say “no” when asked to help, and that bad habit has nearly killed me. I have to learn to set up boundaries. If it isn’t advancing my growth towards Jesus then it’s just extra manure that’s gonna burn me up.

God created me (and you) to be a beautiful person with blossoms a’plenty to share in a full and glorious garden. But, I need to have myself firmly rooted, and with just the right amount of fertilizer and water, or I will die off and wither away. When I remember to allow God to be the Master Gardener then I may say “The Lord will guide ME always; he will satisfy MY needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen MY frame. I will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.” Isaiah 58:11

Sallie Anderson is an off-again, on-again homeschooling mom to her 4 children, ranging from elementary to high school. In her writings, she tries to be an encouragement to others. She often discusses the challenges of homeschooling a child with disabilities while offering insight to those who sometimes feel all alone, like a square in a round world. Please visit her at Seaside Tales.