Gardening Fun…

Last week, we finally got around to putting in our garden. It’s the first one we’ve had since we’ve been in St. Joseph, and the first one our kids have had a chance to help with. As you can see from the photos below, they had a blast!

Aside from the simple joy of playing in the dirt (definitely one of the big attractions for the kids!), this exercise is a great learning opportunity for them. They’ve now experienced first-hand how much work goes into making something grow… the installation of the garden itself (digging up sod, building the garden box, filling it with dirt), preparing the soil (spreading manure for fertilizer, mixing it into the soil, raking everything so the soil is loose and ready to plant), planting, watering, and… well, waiting for the harvest. And of course there’s the follow-up care from now until then.

But aside from that, the REALLY cool thing about this gardening stuff is how it presents great opportunities for Nancy and I to continually teach our kids, via object lessons, of the things of God. Of course there’s the parable of the sower… how people with receptive hearts (of good soil) receive and accept the gospel, producing a harvest of spiritual growth. Obviously that’s something we want to encourage in our kids. But beyond that, there are other lessons: our total dependence on God (we can’t MAKE anything grow outside of his provision), the immense amount of work that God puts into us to help us grow (much as we put a tremendous amount of work into our garden), patience (God grows things according to His timing, so we’ve got to learn to wait on Him), among others.

So it’s a good thing all around. Family fun… many teaching opportunities… and at the end? Fresh-grown vegetables!

And who knows… maybe as an added bonus we’ll be able to get Jeffrey and Jenna to eat some of what we’ve grown. They do struggle with vegetables! 🙂