Choices

Published by mrsamydewey on February 11, 2021

I have had the most disappointing garden season ever (and in our part of the country, winter is prime gardening time)!

Most of my carefully tended, pre-sprouted seedlings got eaten by snails, birds or a rat. The few that remained have not been productive or sturdy. Only the radishes flourished, and even they were not what I had hoped for. I did not have any trouble with weeds, but all my vegetables are stunted. Four months of growth produced one head of broccoli an inch across!

About six months ago I bought steer manure to put in my garden. Seemed like a good idea at the time. Manure is a good source of nutrients for garden organisms. (I did have a little pinging warning in my head when I got it, because I had read that some stockyards, where this is collected, use a pre-emergent weed killer in their pens. I think this is so the cattle won’t eat anything other than the prescribed feed.) I am VERY careful to use only organic things on my ground, even in the non-garden areas. I believe that God has the best land-management strategy, that even weeds, pests and disease in the garden are under His care and control, and convey messages from Him about something in my life that He desires to change. However, I didn’t see any other manure at the local garden center, so I went with it.

Our lives are full of choices, some mundane:  “Should I wear a sweatshirt or a sweater today?” some momentous:  “Shall I marry or remain single?” We make many choices out of habit without realizing it. The range and depth of the consequences of our choices are not always apparent. Taking a few moments more to enjoy the billowy white clouds against the clear azure sky after several rainy days have cleared the air of pollution might result in lowered blood pressure that prevents a stroke, or delay a departure enough to avoid a car crash…we don’t know.

So…here I am, ruing my choice, mourning the loss of garden produce, with extra grieving because I added the same amendment to 2/3 of my garden plot! I don’t know the half-life of the pre-emergent; I don’t know its effect on the other inhabitants of the soil; I do not know how far it leaches into the surrounding soil…What I DO know, however, is that the choice to harden my heart against the voice of God brings devastating results. That is one reason I am always asking “God, what are You after in me today? What are You calling to me in this?”

I have several answers coming, but the first and most significant, I think, is: don’t ignore or dismiss the still, small promptings. Just because God is not shouting, does not mean the message is not important.

Lord, please keep my ears open, and my fingers out of them!

Deeply repenting, listening hard, and still

Following Jesus every day in the everyday,

Christi

P.S. More on His answers next week.