Day 90- The Garden of Your Heart
📖Daily Reading
Psalms 35-45
🎥 Video
Join me on my morning walk as we rise and shine together by walking through the Bible daily and learn a practical applicable coaching nugget from the ultimate life coach - our creator (whatever that means to you). No judgement zone here, all are welcome, we are all on a spiritual journey because we are after all spiritual beings having a human experience.
📝 Reflection
Psalm 40: 8
I take joy in doing your will, my God, for your instructions are written on my heart.
Wow, God really spoke to me today and gave me the analogy of a garden. I am not a gardener, that is how I know it is God - so bear with me! I also had someone ask me about what the Bible says about breaking generational cycles. Who better to ask than God, because I am not a theologian or bible expert. Just a regular gal trying to improve her life and fulfill God’s potential in my life and currently on the adventure of reading the Bible cover to cover for the first time myself and asking God to speak directly to me in a practical way day by day. So here we go…
In psalm 40 David seems himself to have a break through and it seems to me even another prophetic vision as well. In verse 6-8 he says “You take no delight in sacrifices or offerings. Now that you made me listen, I finally understand - you don’t require burnt offerings or sin offerings. Then I said, “Look, I have come. As is written about me in the Scriptures: I take joy in doing your will, my God, for your instructions are written on my heart.” David understands that his heart is his responsibility to tend, to nurture and grow. He knows that God is the master gardener. As humans we will have weeds that grow in our gardens.
If we can use this analogy of our own hearts being a garden on a micro/individual level we can also enlarge it and think of our families and generations as a larger garden that we are a part of affected by. When one generation doesn’t deal with their own weeds then those weeds get passed on. I want to also be careful to say that it is not that we don’t love our families or family members by taking notice of the weeds. We are all doing the best we can with what we know. So if we have generational weeds in our gardens it is not necessarily our faults, but it is our responsibility. We are each responsible for our own lives and our own hearts. It is easy and tempting to use the generational, societal, experiential things in our lives to abdicate this responsibility.
We will use excuses like not having time, the work is too hard, not wanting to deal with the consequences of growth and change, comfortable how things are, things aren’t bad enough, it’s fine, wanting more is selfish, and on and on. For some, myself included we wait until the pain of staying the same outweighs the pain of changing. So there is no judgment coming from me in this topic, in fact I heard God tell me quite frankly that not only do I have weeds still in my heart, but that I have been a weed and still am. Ouch! This may be part of the reason I have not been able to plant solid roots and feel at home anywhere. My life had been overtaken by weeds from previous generations and they were so familiar to me I couldn’t see them for what they were, so along with trying to grow my garden I was also growing and nurturing my weeds. We know that weeds are invasive and will divert nutrients from gardens and take over if not dealt with.
I am not necessarily at fault for the weeds that got planted in my garden from various sources, but I am responsible for how they are dealt with. As I deal with them in my garden I am also responsible to others whom I am in relationship with and interacting with to go back and try to get the weeds I have inadvertently planted in their garden. Now they may or may not be receptive to this, but I will at least take care of my responsibilities and then have peace about it. Each step I take in tending my garden and taking care of the weeds, not just at the surface level but deep into the roots systems, the more I allow myself to be transformed from a weed into the beautiful flower I am designed and have the potential to be with God’s help and guidance. I will sacrifice and offer myself as a living sacrifice to the master gardener to be weeded and tended to, so that I can minimize the weeds that I pass on to the next generation as well. My hope and understand is that as I grow in my skills as a ‘gardener’ I can also learn techniques and practices that will keep weeds from being able to take root in my heart. This is one of the promises of God, he is our shield and our protector, if we abide in him he will help us and our hearts to stay healthy and blooming.
✍🏼Daily Journal Prompt
How did God speak to you through this analogy of your heart being a garden and even your family and previous generations and being part of a larger garden? Are you allowing weeds to grow and take over? What steps can you begin to take to become a better gardener of your heart?
📖Tomorrows Reading
Psalms 46-48
Coaching Opportunity
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