Morning Devotionals

by Don Emmitte

 

February 29th, 2008

 

“Tending Your Garden”

He who tends a fig tree will eat its fruit…” (Proverbs 27:18).

It won't be long until it is time to plant a few summer vegetables. I have a small plot in the backyard that I like to grow tomatoes in. There's really nothing quite as good as homegrown vegetables. It seems they are always better tasting. The real trick, though, is in tending the plants. There's more to it than just planting them and watering them when it’s dry. My father-in-law taught me that lesson many years ago. There are little things to do to each tomato plant that will make them produce bigger and better fruit.

Remembering that, I recalled the wisdom of our reading today. The principle here is that if you grow fig trees, you will get figs. Sounds easy doesn't it? I guess you could also say that if you grow tomato plants, you will get tomatoes. Well... not exactly! As I said, there are right ways and wrong ways to grow them. I remember when I was in seminary and thought that I could grow some tomatoes without much thought in tending the plants. I did till the soil. I planted good quality plants and fertilized and watered regularly. In fact, the plants grew over five feet tall! However, they didn’t produce one tomato! I later found out that the reason they grew so tall is that they were starved for sun. I had planted them on the wrong side of the house! There was too much shade in that spot.

How you grow them determines the kind and quality of fruit. Let me make a clear application to our families. He who tends to their children will determine their “fruit.” That’s a tough one to learn, but it is true.

There are so many practical suggestions I could make at this point. Let me single out just one principle: Both quality and quantity times are essential for your children to grow effectively. Do your best to spend as much time with your children as possible; and, make that time as good as possible. Without doing both, it’s like planting in the shade for full sun plants!