Busy lives don't make good soil for growing healthy spiritual well-being but, what does? Discover two powerful ways to enrich the soil of your soul this weekend as Pastor Neal teaches the second of two messages based on Mark 4: 2-9.

1. For an overstimulated heart, spend time in solitude.
We say the heart is overstimulated with weeds because there are all kinds of seeds in our heart soil competing for our limited resources of time, energy, and even space for new ideas. We all understand how limited our time is as well as our energy. We only have so much. We use it on one thing and we don’t have it for another.

GROWTH GROUP / PERSONAL REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. Name the activities, hobbies, sports, interests that sap your time and resources.
2. Are you overstimulated with all of these things to the detriment of your spiritual growth?
3. Name some people who you know that are so invested in one thing that they give up the other things – the thorns that use up important resources.
4. If you could add one element of spiritual focus in your life, what would it be?
5. What could you put aside any of these other activities, even for a little while, to give yourself that spiritual focus?
6. Pastor Neal advised us to start with twenty minutes of solitude and to do something like walking or gardening while being alone. What activity would you do?

2. For a growth-oriented heart, pray with pen and paper.
We do this by sitting quietly with a pad of paper in front of us and a pen. We pick a topic we want the seed of God to touch in our hearts and we begin to write about it. We begin writing, Lord, I am thinking right now about how many competing activities I have in my life. Then begin to list them.

GROWTH GROUP / PERSONAL REFLECTION QUESTIONS
1. What is one topic, question, or concern that is especially important to you right now?
2. Take a piece of paper and write the words, Lord, I’d like to talk to you about... and write your concern.
3. Set a timer for two minutes and sit quietly, listening for any thoughts that come to mind. Write down whatever comes to mind about your topic. Respond to what you have written, either with a question or something you are thinking or feeling. Continue for two minutes.
4. Are you surprised by how much or how little you wrote?
5. Did any new thoughts come to mind?
6. Was this exercise worth continuing, perhaps for the twenty minutes you want to spend in solitude?

Next step:
Continue with your pen and paper prayer.