Tag Archives: gardening

Becoming Deep Real Authentic Women of God

PART 1 (Disclaimer. This message was written in 2018, however, it is still very applicable today.)

     I have a confession or two that I want to make; I love my gardens.  I love my vegetable garden. My Peaceful Garden I sit and drink my hot tea in. And my flower beds!  I even love to weed my gardens. I know you are thinking I have lost my mind. All I can say is,  it relaxes me. I really enjoy weeding, until I come across the THING. The thing I have to confess to you I really don’t like!  It’s those things that stop my tomatoes from growing big and red and delicious!  It’s tomato worms. I really don’t like tomato worms.  I get excited because I see a nice big tomato growing on the vine and then look closer only to find a tunnel through the underside courtesy of a now plump green tomato worm.  Seeing these creatures leads me to want to ask our God, “Why oh why did you create them?”  

     I know they must have a purpose or God would not have created them.  It makes me curious about their purpose because I know they really bother me with their feeding on my beautiful tomatoes.  Well, the tomato worm’s purpose for today is to serve as an illustration for me. Soon after I saw the first plump critter, I realized he is a lot like the enemy of our souls and the barriers  he puts in our paths keeping us from having the connections and relationships God created us for.  The plump lime green critter seeks to feast on my tomatoes and therefore stop me from being able to enjoy some delicious homemade salsa or a slice of fresh tomato on my hamburger.  In a slightly similar fashion, the enemy seeks to devour any chances we have to enjoy and grow in our relationships with our Abba Father and each other.  

     Satan uses many things to attempt to destroy and/or block our relationships. We are just going to focus on four barriers in total. For the next several weeks I will share how we can break free and become Deep Real Authentic Women of God.

     Barriers can be spiritual and/or emotional chains that bind us and keep us from being free to be who God has created us to be.  I am learning when I give God my chains, he breaks me free of them and redeems whatever area of my life I have been in bondage to. The Lord is in the habit of replacing beauty for ashes.

     In preparation for this message, I put out a question on Facebook to see the most common barriers people experience in their relationships with God and others.  While there were a variety of responses, I found many of them fit under similar headings and there were several people with similar responses.  The order I am sharing with you is for the purpose of the flow of the message.

     Next week the barrier discussed will be fear.

#BreakingBarriers#Reconnection

Standard

Inner Strength … Resilience

Part 3 of 3 What Can Dahlia and Japanese Knotweed Have in Common?

     Inner strength. Resilience. Besides them both being plants and created by God, a Dahlia and a Japanese Knotweed have these two traits in common. Their strength comes from a strong root system that grows over time, producing resilience in the face of storms.

     Jesus’ words in Luke 6 verses 46-49 speak to the importance of inner strength and resilience.  

“Why do you call me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ and do not do what I say?  As for everyone who comes to me and hears my words and puts them into practice, I will show you what they are like. They are like a man building a house, who dug down deep and laid the foundation on rock. When a flood came, the torrent struck that house but could not shake it, because it was well built. But the one who hears my words and does not put them into practice is like a man who built a house on the ground without a foundation. The moment the torrent struck that house, it collapsed and its destruction was complete.”    

      After learning about the Dahlia plant and experiencing the Japanese Knotweed, my perspective began to shift. In God’s providence, I knew he had allowed me on this discovery journey for a purpose. 

  • I was to see my own need to be as determined in my faith as this plant is, to survive. Instead of Japanese Knotweed being the proverbial thorn in my side, I started to see it as a strong representation of resilience. 
  • The Dahlia plant blooms more when it’s cut and is a symbol of inner strength. The pruning that it experiences gives its root system internal strength to not only survive, but also to thrive. 
  • Similarly, the Knotweed’s root system is strengthened every time it’s cut back, cut down, or dug up. 

I want to be that determined in my faith journey. 

     I still don’t like Japanese Knotweed and would prefer it to disappear from my neighborhood. However, I am choosing to view it in life-giving thoughts instead of the mentally challenging ones I initially gave way to. 

     Resilience in my faith is what God is working in me. This only comes through difficulties and trials. Having the spiritual wind knocked out of me through life’s disappointments isn’t joyous; however, it will make me stronger in my spiritual resolve. Being cut down, like with the death of my young adult son, wasn’t what I wanted in my life; and yet…I’ve noticed on the flip side of the challenges, my faith and determination is stronger. 

     Maybe an important point to accept is for a strong faith, we need a strong root base or foundation, and to have that, we will need to endure struggles, challenges, and trials.

Standard

Inner Strength…Resilience (Part 2)

Part 2 of 3 Japanese Knotweed.

     My mind wanders from the dahlia (from Part 1) to another plant I am very familiar with. Japanese Knotweed. This ‘weed’ is lacking in the beauty and desirability of the dahlia, it does share characteristics of strength and determination. Knotweed, I’ve realized, is a solid example of resilience.

     My journey with Japanese Knotweed started a few years ago when this pesky plant kept popping up in a flower bed that I had painstakingly arranged with my desired decor and plant life. This determined pest didn’t fit the profile for what I had planned. My husband dug the root out and burned it, only to have it grow back quickly. The first summer I was mildly annoyed at it. By the next summer I was too busy to worry about my flower beds, therefore the persistent plant was allowed to grow as it wanted. Our third spring with our unwanted guest was a new story for me.

     As the new growth of the season began to sprout up out of the ground, I decided to discover what this species of plant life was and eradicate it for good. My iPhone revealed to me what we were dealing with. Japanese Knotweed. Wanting to learn what I was up against, I dove into finding out about this invader. My soft investigation on the  web yielded enough information to know this plant would be a challenge to rid my yard of. Determination drove me to try nonetheless. Advice from the web was mixed. Some said don’t mess with it. Others gave simple detailed instructions as if it were an easy thing to do.

Web details about Japanese Knotweed:

~ It’s considered one of the world’s 100 worst invasive species. Its bamboo-like stems can grow up to 15 feet tall at a rate of up to four inches a day.

~ Live Knotweed is practically immune to burning and it releases chemicals into the soil that can stop other plants from growing.

~ Shoots can grow through weak spots in walls, asphalt, and concrete.

     I set out determined to win this battle. No plant was going to defeat me. I would dig every last root out of the ground. My first attempt seemed like a win, briefly. My husband and I dug up many shoots, laid them on boards to dry out and be burnable. This was a defeating exercise! Each root we dug out revealed more below the surface. Every small win seemed to be a bigger loss. Hours upon hours of digging resulted in more and more shoots coming up out of the ground within 48 hours. I lost sleep. Japanese Knotweed became a topic in most of my conversations and even a blog post or two. I wanted to warn everyone about this extreme invasive plant that was near impossible to eliminate. 

     Feeling defeated and at my wits end, I called an organization that deals with invasive plants. The expert on the other end informed me it’s best to leave it alone or hire a knowledgeable landscaper specially trained to uproot/destroy it. This at a cost of about $100.00 an hour with a time frame of 5-10 years to be completely rid of it and no guarantees it would be entirely gone. Our other option was to personally spend 5-10 years treating the plant leaves each fall with two potent chemicals, at a cost of around $125.00 a year. None of these options seemed doable to me. I lost more sleep. Hiring someone wasn’t an option we could afford. The thought of putting strong chemicals in the ground where our drinking water comes from wasn’t an option I was in favor of either. I decided to concede to the knotweed. It will just grow in the yard, untampered with by me.

     Through the course of battling this formidable opponent, I began to ask God, “What do you want me to learn or take away from this experience? There’s got to be something good in this.”

Look for the conclusion in Part 3.

Standard

Inner Strength…Resilience

Inner Strength…Resilience 3 Part Post

PART 1 DAHLIA FLOWER-INNER STRENGTH

     Recently a friend said to me, “Amy, you like to research, you should look into the Dahlia flower.”

     She was told, in the growth process, a dahlia bud will begin to bloom and close up. Bloom fuller and close up. This cycle continues until it has fully blossomed. Hearing the description touched something in my heart. I have gone through seasons of feeling and knowing I’m growing closer to God. Then, out of nowhere it seems, I’m shot down and I close up. I can relate to the dahlia. Learning about it gave me hope. Going through these seasons of feeling closed up and defeated have left me asking myself, “Where did I go wrong? What did I do to get here?” 

     God spoke to my heart the day my friend told me about the dahlia, “My daughter, you ARE growing. This is PART of the process.”

     A glimmer of hope. I had to know more about this special creation of God called the dahlia. When I hear about something new that intrigues me, I dove in to learn all I could about it.

Dahlia details I found interesting, and how they relate to me.

     ~This flower symbolizes inner strength because of all it endures. 

     Recent life lessons have made me keenly aware of how my God-empowered endurance through the many traumas and difficult circumstances in my life have contributed to my inner strength. I have experienced seasons of obvious growth that have been met with opposition. At times, the opposition felt like an outright smash in the face. My emotional reserves seemed to be depleted and I would close up like the dahlia bud until more strength built up for me to open up fuller. Fully blossomed, I’m not…yet. 

     ~The more a dahlia is cut, the more it will bloom. When the plant is about a foot tall, pinching out three to four inches of the center branch will encourage bushier plants, increase stem count, and the stem length.

     Not long ago I was serving in what I thought was my dream role. I was learning and growing closer to God. Seemingly, out of nowhere I had to decide between that role and whatever was next for me. OUCH! This hurt and still does at times, however, I know that God allowed this pruning for me to be even more fruitful in the plan he has for me. Knowing that when God is doing this work he couldn’t be any closer to me than he is, brings me comfort. “I [Jesus] am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful.” (John 15:1-2 NIV)

     ~Removing the dead flowers will keep flowers blooming for months.

     God’s pruning away at the dead things in my life is leading me to be more alive than I’ve ever been. This is painful. Releasing those things to God can be difficult because they have been a part of me for so long. I have to trust that God knows best, he is THEE Master Gardener.

Standard