Posts
Sunday, May 13
Spring always makes me think of my dad. I was thinking about
him the other day. Nostalgia set in. Thinking how he would have thoroughly
enjoyed his three great-granddaughters. My heart ached that they never got to
know him.
I thought how much fun they would have had in his
greenhouse. Dad had a green thumb, as they say. Well, no, not really. He had
green fingers! All of them! Anything he planted always grew.
He could stick any wilting flower, dying plant, or practically
dead twig he picked up off the ground into his special blend, water it,
fertilize it, put it in the right spot of the greenhouse for the perfect warmth
and healing power of the sun, and otherwise coax it back to a healthy, strong,
and flourishing condition.
The secret of his special concoction for nurturing dying
plants back to life died with him. I never found out what it was. He left this
earth sooner than any of us thought.
I miss my dad. I miss his hugs. I miss seeing him in his
jeans and nourishing his fledgling plants.
As I reminisced, I thought about how he and my mom nurtured
me as their daughter. I was just like one of Dad’s plants: I was placed into
the special blend of people as my family watered me, feed me, protected me,
supported me, encouraged me, brought me up in church and to know the Lord, planting
the seeds of Christian values with me, and nourished me in every way they knew
how, placing me in the right spot for the Son to coax me to a healthy, strong,
and flourishing condition.
They believed in “Train up a child in the way he should go,
and when he is old he will not depart from it.” (Prov. 22:6 NKJV) I love the
way some other versions state it:
* “Teach a child to choose the right path...” The Living
Bible
* “Direct your children onto the right path...” New Living
Translation
* “Start children off on the way
they should go...” The new New International Version
* “Bring up a child by teaching
him the way he should go...” New Living Version
* “Teach children how they should live, and they will remember
it all their life.” Good News Translation
They taught; I remembered.
And when circumstances hover over me as a black shroud and I
feel them sap my strength, leaving me like the wilted flower or the stick lying
on the ground, giving up, my heavenly Father comes along, picks me up, and sticks
me in His special blend of love, encouragement, and peace, nurturing this
fledgling back to health and strength.
The Lord is our Husbandman, the One who knows His soil and
purposes to have a harvest. When circumstances hover over you, beating you
down, allow Him to do His nurturing in your life, coaxing you back to a
healthy, strong, and flourishing condition.
“You have allowed me
to suffer much hardship,
but You will restore
me to life again.”
(Ps. 71:20 NLT)
Today, I’m hooking up with
the blog chain for Christianwriters.com. For other great posts on the topic of nurture, please find the list in the
right sidebar.
Also with...
