As a plant

I planted flower seeds this spring and we all watched eagerly for them to come up! They did, quite well, and were soon ready to plant. My son and I planted two in a jar, put a few snails in there,watered them and capped it all off with a 'breathing' lid. The rest we planted in the flower bed right behind the house. 6 weeks later here are their pictures!

There is a huge difference between the two!

It reminds me so much of raising children. Just like these plants they must be watered carefully (with prayer), and fed thoroughly (with Gods Word).

But the plants in the jar stayed little! (Tiny, in fact) And weak! Their roots 'give' readily when we try to remove old leaves, etc. They are alive, yes, but their leaves tend to be yellow or pale green. The leaves die quickly and food and water must be applied with great care or else the whole plant wants to die! These plants are so weak we could never move them to the flowerbed outdoors! They'd die off the very first day!

 Now I have seen parents treat their children in much the same way as we treated these flowers. They put them in 'glass boxes' and protect them from everything! Not giving them any chance to gain a deep root system in Gods Word or a strong 'stem' of conviction! When our children face a temptation do we help them overcome it or do we get all horrified and remove all possible sign or signs of these temptations? My husband loves his guns, but we have no gun closet so when my babies were babies I did not remove the gun/guns but instead trained my children to never touch them. So I'm not saying to let your children do anything they want!  I believe we as parents can go off the deep end there too!

But look at those plants we planted in the flowerbed! Strong, healthy, HUGE plants that are just blooming their hearts out with long white sweet smelling trumpet flowers. They smell wonderful! I protect these plants too. Once when they were just starting to bud they became infested with aphids. LOADS of aphids! So many aphids the plants appeared brown. So I got out my soap and oil and mixed up a solution and sprayed them all over. Then after about 10 minutes I washed them clean with fresh water. (Could this be likened to a loving rebuke coupled with punishment?) Several times we removed Tomato Hornworms from them.(A little here and a little there?) And once I treated them for slugs,etc. And I fed and watered them. But they faced to much sunshine (and recovered from the sunburn), strong winds and hail. Notice that I did plant them right along the house which provided about exactly the right amount of shielding.

One of the reasons these plants are all still alive and doing as well as they are is because I have studied up on how to garden. All my life I have loved plants so I have read all about it! The terarium was a study project to show my son the wonders of the plant world. (Not the first I've ever done tho.) It has been a learning experience for me as well as for him.

Have a Blessed day! (=