Devotionals for the Heart: A life lesson learned from growing a houseplant

Be a Houseplant
A devotional by Glynis Becker

“The LORD will guide you continually, giving you water when you are dry and restoring your strength. You will be like a well-watered garden, like an ever-flowing spring.” 

– Isaiah 58:11 (NLT)

I’m not a great gardener. I love the idea of planting seeds in the spring, watering them throughout the summer as the shoots grow into stalks, and enjoying bursts of colored flowers or delicious vegetables as they mature. But when it comes right down to it, I don’t enjoy the work it takes to get that end result.

I hate being outside in the heat of summer. I certainly don’t enjoy weeding. (Does anyone?) We don’t get a lot of rain where we live, so watering is a constant necessity which I sometimes (okay, a lot of the time) forget.

I do like houseplants, though, and I’m pretty good at keeping them alive, so this year when I saw an indoor cherry tomato plant kit, I thought it might be fun to try. In April I planted a few little seeds in a Mason jar and for months I’ve watered it, watching, fertilizing, and waiting.

One of my favorite parts of growing plants is watching how they move. During those early weeks when the stems were thin, the tiny shoots would bend almost in half trying their hardest to catch the sunlight. Every day I would rotate the pot a little bit, so they would learn to grow upright.

I love that plants have an instinct to turn their faces to the sun. They know what they need to grow and their instinct is to take as much of it as they need. They will send out roots as far as they need to go to get as much water and nutrients as they can because whether they know it or not, they have one purpose: to grow and produce fruit.

I am so much more stubborn than those plants! God loves me enough to let me make choices about how much I turn my face to Him, how much I want to grow, and how much fruit I want to produce. And I am so often too comfortable, too lazy, or too busy to make good choices. But what joy there is for both of us when I do!

Jesus wants us to choose Him—not because we have to, like that tomato plant—but because we want to. He wants us to choose today to turn our faces in expectation that He can take the tiny shoots of faith in our lives and make us powerful, fruitful witnesses to His love and care in this world.

So in case you’re wondering, it’s now August and my plant has three tiny green-olive-like tomatoes that haven’t grown bigger in weeks. I’m pretty sure my experiment in indoor gardening was a bust. But I am so thankful for a God who is a much, much better gardener than I am!

Let’s Pray: Creator God, fill me with Your Holy Spirit today as I go about my work. Be the gardener in my life, turning me to You. Prune away all of the things in my life I have no need for, and keep me close as I look to You to give me everything I need for this life and the next. In Jesus’s Name I pray. Amen.

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Author Bio:

Glynis Becker writes devotions and inspirational fiction, hoping someday to have a published novel on her resume. 

She has co-written several screenplays, including the film Sinking Sand, available on DVD and digital streaming. 

Glynis, whose childhood was spent all over the country as an Air Force brat, has called South Dakota home for many years, along with her husband and two college-age children.

When she’s not writing or reading, she is watching more television than she should and crocheting.

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Connect with Glynis:
Website: www.glynisbecker.com
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/beckerglynis/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/GlynisBecker7