BE FRUITFUL
BE Fruitful
Back in the beginning, God created us as His children to be fruitful. He wants a huge family, so He commanded us to be fruitful and multiply! “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish…27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it…”
FRUITFUL LIFE MEANS ABUNDANCE
We may disagree with His mandate to humankind, but the fact remains—His nature is LIFE! Look at it this way, when we eat a delicious piece of cake, don’t we want more? Or when we’re having fun doing something we really enjoy, don't we want to keep doing it? Life is to enjoy forever so I love the fact that a forever God is a God of fruitfulness and plenty, abundance and prolific life! Thus, I can’t think of a better analogy to reveal His heart for mankind than growing a garden. We can draw much wisdom from it, especially when we compare our family to a garden.
DO WE HAVE GOALS TO BE FRUITFUL?
Like me, do you enjoy gardening? If so, are you thinking about producing a fruitful garden as your spade turns up that first shovelful of soil? Or how about your family? When that first baby is born, are you preparing your mind ahead for adding more children to your home? Do you have a long-range plan for your garden or for training and educating your children? As avid gardeners, when we sow those precious little seeds into the dirt, do we not all expect to reap an abundant harvest? I can’t imagine any of us wanting to sweat and labor over it just to watch our gardens wither and die! So it is with our children.
FRUITFULNESS MUST BE INTENTIONAL
Looking back years later, I see great wisdom in setting goals and having a purposeful plan. If at first we’re not intentionally working to produce a fruitful garden, we might easily lose our harvest if we were to leave it all to chance. Or possibly be tempted to give up completely before we reap the fruit of our labor. As a young woman, concerning my family, I should have given these things much more thought. Neither my husband nor I were consciously thinking ahead. I suppose I took it all for granted that it would “just happen”. You could say I operated on 'autopilot' for quite a number of years. Now, as an older Mom with grandchildren, I have a way better perspective. At least now I can help you reap the benefit of wisdom from my own short-sightedness. (Note: God did, thankfully, intercept my life mid-run and steer me in the right direction!)
Our family is to be a fruitful garden
So consider the photos. You may be asking yourself; if my family is like a garden, how do I ensure we'll reap a good harvest? What are some of the things I need to do? These are great questions. Because I firmly believe, as with any garden or any family, we can expect it to be fruitful virtually every time. And we should! I also believe God wants us to derive great joy and satisfaction from our labor.
consult the planting guide
Thus, in order to avoid unnecessary and costly mistakes, we should first consult a planting guide and follow good gardening practices. Granted, weather and outside circumstances will factor into our success, but I believe we have a lot of control over the outcome. Just as with a garden, we can find answers for 'growing' our family by turning to the Master Gardener Himself. When we consult our 'Gardening Guide', the Bible, we will find abundant insight into God's ways, especially on how to raise (rear) a crop of children!
GOD SEEKS A GODLY SEED
Again, comparing our own family to a fruitful garden, notice in the photos we can observe 4 simple elements—the soil, plants, weeds, and a fence. However, it is essential that we first discuss the unseen, which are the seeds. Like plants and other forms of life, God begins with a seed. In fact, His Word is a type of Seed. (Mark 4:14). Did you know God calls our children “godly seed”; that He seeks a “godly seed” in the earth? (see Mal. 2:15). In God’s seedtime and harvest economy, all children are, in fact, like seeds. As you know, we were all conceived by two seeds merging to form an embryo. We then become a fertilized seed, containing a unique blueprint, ready to develop into a full-grown individual.
SEEDS PRODUCE A HARVEST
From this humble beginning, in the warm, secret place of a mother's womb, a brand-new life ‘germinates’ and grows—until the long-awaited day a precious child is born into the family. Just as when a seed is sown into the earth, where the tiny germ of life inside the seed sprouts and will eventually bear vegetables or fruit according to its kind. In this same way, God ‘plants’ our children into our family with a future harvest in mind—i.e. He has already written a beautiful story for each life that He will in due time, ultimately bring to fruition.
Proper cultivation Produces a fruitful garden
Considering all these things, let’s think of ourselves as earthly gardeners, called to manage and cultivate His beautiful garden. For most of us, this is usually the hardest, hottest, and dirtiest part of the job. Also, that we might persevere during these sometimes tough years, it's good to remember as we labor—God is always there to help us. Also, one thing that boggles my mind--He has simply lent these beautiful children to us. Incredible! As parents, He has entrusted us with a grave responsibility to faithfully admonish and nurture that child. This is just amazing to me. God calls us to carefully instruct, justly correct, and show loving affection, just as He does for us. What?? God, how can You trust us to conceive, train, mold, and nurture a child to adulthood with these earthly hands of clay?
GOD IS THE PERFECT FATHER
This is so brilliant of God, though! As a perfect Parent with imperfect children, He receives the most glory when we learn to rely on Him. He loves it when we come to Him with our burdens and cares and throw them all in His capable Hands. Whether we come from highly dysfunctional homes, loving, stable families, or anything in between, we can fully trust Him to guide us and redeem any situation. God’s wisdom and His loving devotion will carry us faithfully through the entire process. I have seen Him do it again and again—God can handle anything!
GOOD SOIL IS THE FOUNDATION
Now considering the soil in our family garden, we can compare soil to the heart, which is the seat of our will, affections, moral attitudes, etc. So as parents, we must first examine our own lives, and ask, “What is the condition of our own ‘soil’?” (See Jesus’s parable in Mark 4:1-20.) Then as any good parent, if our ultimate purpose is to produce a good harvest in our children, we must ask ourselves if the ‘soil’ is good in our children’s hearts. Is it soft, aerated, and well-watered? In other words, have we firmly yet kindly corrected them so that we can plant and fertilize them with the Word of God, allowing the Holy Spirit to breathe upon that Word (Seed)? Or is the ground of their hearts hard, shallow, stony, or full of weeds? Clearly, a successful garden will likely yield an abundant crop when viable seeds are planted in well-prepared soil.
GUARD YOUR PERIMETERS!
Finally, we must examine what grows nearest our family. As a gardener, I’ve painfully discovered we must effectively deal with what is outside the enclosure as much as to apply diligence to tending the inside. It is very important to ask ourselves–what is in closest proximity to our children? What kinds of things influence our children the most? TV shows, movies, gaming, books, friends, neighbors, YouTube? Hopefully, as their parents, we ourselves are maintaining primary influence over them. If we are intentional, we will be building a firm foundation of love and trust from birth. However, even though we may miss it or blow it, God is still gracious. As I mentioned previously, He is well able to redeem whatever messes we make, and turn it all around for our good at any time!
WEEDS ARE AN ENEMY TO FRUITFULNESS
Again, consider the photos above while I tell my story:) Now that it’s just my husband and me, I only tend a tiny garden in my old compost pile. This, after several larger 4’x 4’, or 4’ x 8’ organic gardens. I thought this would be an easy way to grow a garden, with very little work…ha! As I discovered, there was a caveat. Even though I’d always been careful to pull out weeds inside my garden, this time I wasn’t paying attention to what was going on outside my garden. To begin with, I had sown good heirloom seeds (transplants) into rich, aerated, loose, beautiful, black soil. And my plants were close enough together to keep the soil well-watered and void of most weeds. However, much to my dismay, in time those pesky weeds outside the perimeter of my garden were stealthily starving out my harvest!
PULL THOSE SUCKERS OUT!
Because I’d gotten too busy, I hadn’t noticed each sneaky little weed, like enemy soldiers, silently invading my whole garden. And because the soil was so nutrient-rich, they grew extra-large and more prolific than normal. Every gardener knows the time to pull weeds is when they’re small, AND that you have to pull them out by the roots, or they will Just. Grow. Back! Not only that, there were also several varieties of weeds. Some were small with shallow roots, some had tough, thick taproots, some were just pernicious or aggressive grasses that seemed to take over the ground. I ended up weeding several large piles, way more in volume than my vegetable plants. Once the weeds were all pulled, though, my lovely clean garden yielded a bumper crop that year!
A GARDEN PARABLE
How is God speaking to you through my garden parable? I hope you’ve gained insight and understanding that will guide you well as you grow your family garden! My plan is to continue to discuss these topics in other posts. You may also read more on the subject of organic gardening in my book, GROUNDED, Simple tips for Living Well, 2nd. Ed. In the meantime, I trust God will reveal valuable truth to you through my experiences. I pray you will receive much wisdom, knowledge, and understanding as you seek Him, so that you can effectively train and nurture your own precious ‘seed’. xoxo
