Day 4: Tending to Your Heart

This summer we decided to plant a little garden in our backyard. We started with tomatoes, basil, mint, and sunflowers. I’m slowly learning how to care for these little seeds. I have been amazed at how I can go to the garden every other day and pick fresh tomatoes to pair with eggs in the morning or gather baskets of basil for Jeff’s homemade pesto. And I love looking out Jeff’s office door at the little sunflowers sprouting up.

There was a season a few years back when life just felt heavy. I was emotionally processing so much—my heart ached, and my burdens felt like they were going to be the death of me. So I scheduled a weekly getaway to journal and talk to Jesus.

A friend of mine said our hearts are like gardens. God wants us to flourish, but we have to do the work. We have to dig the well.

We have to take up the shovel and uncover our hurts and sorrows and all the bitterness within us. We have to admit our failures, confess our sins, open our hands that long to grasp for control. We have to till the ground. Plant the seeds. Water the soil.

Colossians 3:15–16 says, “And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God.”

If you’re not already, start making time to be alone with Jesus so that you have time to tend to your heart. He will make a way.