08/07/2026
A season of stewardship and lessons.
The season is slightly cooling but not enough to stop sweating while working outside, but just enough to not be completely miserable while doing so.
With my baby strapped to my back and three other kiddos playing with the garden hose and filling up our newly made frog habitat, I knelt over in the tomatoes searching for ripening fruit like a seek and find.
As I searched, a message struck my heart. The tomato plants were sprawled all over the ground. A result of my neglect, and things getting away from me. Simply put...I did not prioritize staking or trellising them up.
And as I searched and lifted their overgrown vines, I couldn’t help but think about how much easier it would have been now if I had put in the work when they were little.
I glance up at my kids. What a correlation to life and child rearing. If we put in the work while they are young they will come up right. "Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it," from Proverbs 22:6
With more searching for tomatoes, I noticed something else. The ones under the excess foliage were not ripening. But the ones in the light were. Another thought bubbled. When we have too much excess of the things that keep us in the darkness we can’t fully ripen and become the best version of ourselves. We need to remove the things that are hindering our growth in order to grow and be in the light with our Heavenly Father. It really made me think about how this year has been a season of stewardship. And making do with the abundance we already have. A season of stewardship, lessons, and just taking the best care of the things we’ve been given.
