An anonymous piece portrays the family as a garden. It suggests various things we can plant in our family relationships that will result in great benefits.
A family is like many things, perhaps most like a garden. It needs time, attention, and cultivation. The sunshine of laughter and affirmation. It also needs the rains of difficulties, tense moments, serious discussions about issues that matter. And there must be spade work, where hardness is broken loose and planting of fresh seeds is accomplished with lots of TLC. Here are some suggestions for fifteen rows worth planting:
Four rows of peas:
Preparedness
Perserverance
Promptness
Politeness
Then three rows of squash:
Squash gossip
Squash criticism
Squash indifference
Along with five rows of lettuce:
Let us be faithful
Let us be unselfish
Let us be loyal
Let us love one another
Let us be truthful
And three rows of turnips:
Turn up with a smile
Turn up with a new idea
Turn up with determination
And then? Well, from then on it's pretty simple. Water, weed, tend with care, and patiently watch the garden grow. Someday you'll look back and realize it was worth all the years of all the work and effort and prayer. Like a lovely garden, your family will be a thing of grateful pride, of seasonal beauty, of daily sustenance.
Also, fathers, Happy Father's Day. And remember, it's better to take your kid fishing now, than to go hunting for them later.
Pastor John Giesbrecht
