The Garden Inside You

For most of my life, I have found that churches either focus exclusively on adherence to the Biblical law or on our freedom from that law which they often communicate as the freedom to do as we please without regard to the righteousness of those actions. In my searching for truth I have come to believe that we must take the principle character qualities that the scripture uses to define spiritual maturity and apply them to our everyday lives. The more clearly we reflect those character qualities, the more in line our actions are with God's law without the arrogance I have found in legalistic churches.

When I became a mother, I struggled with how I would teach my son these valuable lessons, when the church rarely mentioned them. I wrote him a story called, The Garden Inside You. It explains how that when God created him, God planted inside of him 12 seeds that represent the essential character qualities of the faith. I detailed how the fruit of each seed would help him live a life that would honor God and how we needed Christ to care for and maintain our garden or "weeds" would grow in our garden and choke the life out of the plants God had placed inside of each of us.

This weekend he was repeatedly faced with challenging situations that required patience. As he was struggling to apply patience to the situations he was facing, we were able to have a discussion about how Jesus must be weeding around his patience plant since he was facing so many situations that needed it.

This simple little story is becoming a tool for us to discuss behavior changes or to plan ahead for possible situations he might face based on our activities. I am grateful to be able to share my faith with my son in a way that he can take it and apply it directly to his own life.