What Grows in a Heart

 Guajillo Pepper Flower

A little green pen constantly rides around in my pencil pouch, and serves one simple purpose.

In the series of books I'm reading for my evening worships called Testimonies for the Church (by White, Ellen G--I'm in volume 7), I use that little green pen to draw a box around one word every time it appears on the page.

My husband once said it would be a fascinating word search to look up every passage in which this word occurs, and try to learn and apply the lessons surrounding it, and ever since then I've had it in my some-day-I-will-do-this list to make an index for every time I've noticed the word, perhaps turning it into a series of devotional writings--a commentary, of sorts--of my own. 

Of course it's not something I've attempted to do just yet, but every little green box gets me closer to the goal, and every little green box makes me think about that word and all it entails more deeply.

Guajillo Pepper Infant

Perhaps about a week ago I bought a new spray bottle, replenished my supply of Epsom salts, and sprayed a little mixture of water and Epsom salts all over our many pepper plants.  Having read that the leaves will absorb the nutrients quickly that way, and wanting to see the increased blossoms and harvests I've heard about, I set to work for my garden. 

I've wanted good things to grow there, you see, and I'm discovering that I must research and understand the different nutritional needs of each plant in order for them to bear the kind of crop I'm looking for.

It's all part of my plan to cultivate them diligently.

Did you see that little green box?  Yes, cultivate.  That's exactly the word I've been seeing in my worship readings for months and months and months on end.

I can't begin to tell you how many things I've read about that need good heart cultivation.  

This week, love, patience, and true courtesy made the list of desirable heart plants, and I got to thinking....

Do I know as much about what it means to cultivate patience, to really make it grow, as I know about peppers?  It's not that I know very much about peppers, it's more that I so much want the plants to survive and to produce well that I'm willing to spend extra time researching their needs and trying out new things until I see the results I want.

I'm afraid I'm not so diligent about cultivating the patience seedlings in my heart.

While I still have much to learn about which nutrients make patience bear all the more fruit in my life, I'm beginning to see the journey to taking the best care of patience in my heart begins with a bow at Jesus' feet, {yet another} request for the Holy Spirit who bears that fruit, and a willful determination to let my Savior do His work in my heart and to cooperate under His guidance.

I wish such a thing were as easy (and, let's face it, cheap) as a little spray bottle and some Epsom salts.

Yet while I sense that cultivating this patience-fruit will cost me everything in laying down myself to be crucified afresh, it will also yield everything and more in the Christ-like life which alone can bear a rich and abundant harvest.