Tending to your spiritual growth

These early days of summer offer the best time to get outside, put your hands in the dirt, and garden. There is a quiet, age old pleasure in planting, nurturing, and watching life grow and shape and change in front of you. 

But, while gardening is a fun and relaxing hobby, it's also a lot of work. For every breezy sunny morning where it's a joy to get outside and make sure your plants are watered, their branches trimmed, and any weeds are plucked, there is a drizzly, miserable morning where you'd rather just stay inside. Or a scorching afternoon where just walking outside gives you the sensation of being an ant cooked under a magnifying glass.

But, without constant attention and effort, your plants will die. If you only tend to them on the nice days when everything is relaxing and fun, and ignore them when it becomes a nuisance, they won't reach their full potential. Their roots will shrivel and dry up. Their vines and branches will become intertwined with other plants and choke each other out. They'll die of thirst on those sweltering days when you'd rather just stay in the comforting cool of the air conditioner.

The same is true of your spiritual growth. What is inside of you is also growing and changing all the time, just like that backyard garden you're so proud of. And just the same, it also needs constant work, nurturing, and patience to grow health and strong. 

Unlike our plants however, we tend to ignore our spiritual growth during the easy times and only focus on it when things turn sour. When the heat rises or the bad news pours down, we're all concerned with our spiritual health. We'll go to our core and look for strong roots to hold us down during the maelstrom, we'll seek shade and comfort under our spiritual branches. Only, tragically, to discover that those qualities aren't there because we forgot to nurture our spirit while times were good and the sky was clear.

Tending to your spiritual growth needs to be approached like any other plant. It can't be a sometimes thing, or a when I feel like it thing. It needs to be a constant focus. You should be supplying your spiritual growth with the healthy nutrients of reflection, thought, and prayer on a regular basis. You should be tending to it the same way a careful gardener watches for weeds and pests that starve or eat away at otherwise strong roots and gets rid of them before they do any damage.

How are you watering your spirit? What are you feeding it? Are you taking time to reflect on the Lord? Do you prayer regularly and with thought and care? Are you sharing in the community with your Christian brothers and sisters in any way? 

And what about the spiritual pests in your life? Do you have bad habits that are standing between you and the Lord? Do you find yourself allowing sin to take root in your spirit? This is the time to take stock and get rid of those spiritual weeds. 

This summer, make tending to your spiritual growth a daily part of your routine. Plant strong roots in the love of the Lord. Tend to your spirit like growing a sapling into a powerful trunk, and you'll be able to withstand any storm life throws your way.