Gardens need water. Our children also need water, yes they need this in the physical sense. But they also need to drink from the Living Water. I'm reminded of this daily as I water my plants. I need to make sure that I am also reading to my children daily from scripture so they might drink of the Living Water and have a fuller, more beautiful life.
Gardens need care/time. They are an effort. You cannot just let them be. You must go out there and check on them. Check to see if there is anything to harvest. Check to see if there are weeds or if they need more water. You have to make sure they have the right balance of everything. Just like children. They need balance. You have to spend time with them, and put forth and effort. If you don't put effort and work into them, you will notice as they get older.
Gardens need to be kept in check. My cucumber plants specifically seem to want to take over everything else so I go out there daily and guide it where I would like it to go so that it doesn't go somewhere that it shouldn't. We must make sure we are guiding our children. We need to show them the straight path of the Lord and try our best to keep them on the right track. We need to be training them while they are young so when they are old they will not forget the way they should go.
Gardens need to be cleaned out. You have to clean out the dead leaves or plants. You have to pull out the weeds so they don't choke out the good plants. Again much like our children. You must recognize the bad fruit in their lives or the weeds that get in the way. You need to prune them and help them to grow in the way they should go. You need to make sure there are no weeds choking them up and remove them.
You must be gentle. When the plants are just starting to grow you need to be careful not to step on them or move them around to harsh or the stems and leaves will break off leaving your plant damaged. You need to be gentle in your rebuking, correcting, and teaching of your children. Always do it out of love, never anger. Make sure you are gentle with them and their spirits as they are fragile and still forming. This is especially true for me since my children are so young. I need to make sure I correct them when they do wrong, but in a gentle and kind way.
I know there are probably more, but this ones are the serious reminders to me every time I step foot outside to work in the garden.
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