Helping Hands

Today's passage:  I Corinthians 3:9
     "For we are labourers together with God..."
     Yesterday, as I was sweeping my kitchen, Youngest (now three) decided he wanted to help.  He grabbed his kid-sized broom and eagerly whisked the crumb piles I had already accumulated.  Needless to say (but I will say it anyway) he mostly succeeded to make a bigger mess than was already there.  Then he grabbed the dustpan and hand-held broom to sweep up the now scattered crumbs.  This was an amusing sight as he circled over and over, backing up the dustpan while sweeping, always missing some particles which made it necessary to back up the dustpan again.  Let's just say his hand-eye coordination could have been a little better.  He sure got one area of the kitchen floor clean, but not much else.
     I could have done this chore faster without his help.  I could have gotten the floor cleaner without it also.  But he would have missed out on some training, and I would have missed out on watching him learn something.  I guided him and praised him throughout, but I knew without a doubt that it might have been easier had I done it all

The Sunday Wood
From "Out to Old Aunt Mary's" by James Whitcomb Riley
USA, 1904
Courtesy of www.fromoldbooks.org

     If God ever feels that way about me, I would never know it.  He praises me for a job well done, even though He could do it better, faster, grander.  He chooses to let me help.  Why?  Because it gives me much needed training, and it gives Him the pleasure of watching His child accomplish something for His glory.  He gives me guidance and praise, but He could have easily done the job without me.  As I gain more experience, I gain a little more confidence, and I get a little better at the job He's given me to do.  As my littlest practices these chores, with age and knowledge, he will get a little better at them. He may not even need my guidance anymore.  I can't say that about the work God gives me.  I will always need His guidance and reassurance that I am doing what He wants me to do.  He will always let me depend on Him for the things He wants me to accomplish for His glory, and He will never say to me, "Just give me that, I'll get it done faster."  I will never hear him say, "Can't you do anything right?"  Because He knows I can't.  And if I do get it right, it can only be with His help.
     Thank you, Lord for allowing me to participate in work that you can accomplish without me.  Thank you for giving me the chance to learn through my mistakes (all mine) and successes (all Yours).  I can be sure that  You are glorified because You never had to let me help in the first place.  May I always look to You for guidance and help.

How Does My Garden Grow?

Today's passage: Isaiah 65
     I have been doing a lot of gardening lately.  I have been working a little in the yard each year, but not as extensively as this year.  I'm pretty happy with what I've accomplished.  Our yard has always been prone to weeds and in years past, I work on weeding a plot, move to another section to weed, and then another section.  By the time I return to the first section, it is as bad as before I weeded it.  That's frustrating!  In years past, I give up halfway through the process.  Sometimes I have been able to get some tomatoes in the ground, and some herbs and that is about it.  This year I am determined to make some flower beds.  I've established one, and am working on the second.  I have dreams of all the flowers I want my garden to have, but it is hard work.      
     As I've been working outside, I've been thinking a lot about spiritual applications.  I imagine those pesky weeds as sin.  They completely crowd out anything good that could grow.  They feast on all the nutrients the soil could be giving flowers, they slurp up any rain or water my bushes could use, they are monstrously ugly.  When I am digging up these menaces, they have an intricate root network.  This network is barely noticeable until I start digging really deep.  It reminds me how the little sins in my life do matter, because they eventually join up and produce the ugliest things in my life.  Once they are there, it is very difficult to be rid of them.  I really have to dig to unloose them from my life.
     "And they shall build houses, and inhabit them; and they shall plant vineyards, and eat the fruit of them.  They shall not build, and another inhabit; they shall not plant, and another eat:  for as the days of a tree are the days of my people, and mine elect shall long enjoy the work of their hands."  Verses 21 and 22 cause me to think about my garden.  I am working hard out there and although other people may enjoy it, it is mine, I want the fruit from it.  When my beefsteak tomatoes grow in, I don't mind sharing some with friends and neighbors, but I want a majority of them, I did the work.  When my lilies bloom, I want to cut them and put them on my table because I watered them, I weeded around them, I tended to them.  How God wants us for Himself!

Girl Watering Flowers in the Garden, Taken from Standard Bible Story Readers, Book Two
By Lillie A. Faris, Illustrated by O.A. Stemler and Bess Bruce Cleaveland
Standard Publishing Company, 1925

      In this passage of Isaiah, God expresses his disappointment with Israel for the adoration they have spent on other idols.  God did not grow His flowers to put in another garden.  He grew them for Himself, for His enjoyment, for His pleasure.  He caused the sun to shine on them, He pulled out the weeds, He caused the rain to fall so they could grow.  He did the work, He should get the glory.  How true that is in my life!  God sometimes has to work me over to pull out that weed network that is growing deep underneath.  He has to turn the soil so that he can uproot them.  Others may not be able to see the little sins in my life, but He does, and He wants to destroy them before they have a chance to surface and ruin His beautiful garden.  Once He has conquered pulling the weeds, He cultivates me by His Word, His Holy Spirit, and prayer. I can blossom in God's garden, if I allow Him to do the work I need in my life.  Pulling weeds is not any fun, but the end result is beauty I can enjoy.