If you ask a child what they want to be when they grow
up you may hear replies such as, firefighter or doctor. You
may even hear ballerina or veterinarian but I bet you won't
hear many kids say they want to be a gardener.
As I was lying awake in bed the other night, thinking about
the day, what went great and what I wanted to do better
tomorrow... my thoughts began to shift to my kids. I began to
wonder what they will become personally and professionally as
they "grow up." I then started thinking about what I wanted to
be when I was small, looking at the future through the eyes of
a child. I remember always wanting to own my own business,
wanting to create something from scratch and build it into a
giant that even Microsoft would bow down to. To buy a big
house, have fancy cars, and travel all over the globe.
I guess I am a "grown up" now and the dreams and hopes of a
boy have continued to grow, to expand and to change as I
mature and become more familiar with who I am and what I was
put here for.
As I laid there, reflecting, I realized that just because I
am an adult... it's still okay to continually ask myself what
it is that I want to be when I "grow up." After all, we're
always continuing to grow and should often stop to take a
personal inventory of ourselves... who we are, where we are
at, and where we want to go in life. We should also reflect
and look at the signs to see that perhaps we are being led to
a certain destination and we need to wake up to, grab a hold
and embrace that direction before the opportunity passes us
by.
As the thoughts of reflection turned to self evaluation, I
thought of my journey from one who was focused on "stuff" to
one who is now more concerned with "purpose" and asked myself,
knowing what I know now, "What do I want to be as I continue
to grow up?" No, not a firefighter or a doctor. Not even
Donald Trump's Apprentice... okay, maybe that would be neat
but what I really want to be is a gardener.
A gardener? Yes, a gardener.
A gardener is one who cultivates life. They start with a
seed; provide it with love, nourishment and the tools it needs
to grow into what it was created to become. Whether that is a
beautiful rose, a watermelon, a complex bonsai, or a tree that
produces fruit... the gardener pours his life into unleashing
the beauty of what the seed originally contained.
I'm not saying I want to run out and build a greenhouse,
but rather I want to develop myself to be a gardener who
positively impacts those I come in contact with, each day, by
growing and cultivating the Fruits of the Spirit within me and
by sharing it with others.
Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control are all Fruits of
the Spirit.
Being a gardener, to me, is something that we all can
become, regardless of our positions or status in life. A
gardener, in the sense I am referring to, first turns to God
for nourishment and life as without God, who planted
you as a seed, nothing else is possible. God
gave each of us the Fruits of the Spirit and he, as our Master
Gardener, is there to help us grow and become what we were
truly meant to be. God gave us these seeds (Fruits of the Spirit) as
something of beauty and purpose for us all to enjoy and
benefit from. We often just need to give a little water, maybe
a little sunlight, and often a lot of love to these fruits in
order to allow them to sprout and grow.
So this week, don't worry about heading out to Home Depot
to buy a packet of seeds but instead, consider becoming a
gardener of yourself and to those whom you interact with each
day. Ask God for guidance and to help you ripen your Fruits of
the Spirit. Remember to start with your garden though. Helping
someone else with their garden usually only works if they
respect yours and see the quality of the garden you have
already created.
Be kind.
-Daniel
