Personal Growth: 4 Life Lessons From The Garden
Life lessons from the garden can be part of one’s personal growth. Nature has a simple and beautiful way of teaching skills that can lead to greater happiness. Enjoy the following four resources:
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Life Lessons From The Garden
1. Conquering the Weeds
What a blessing it is to get an abundance of rain some seasons, but with the rain comes the weeds. One year, I was stunned to see how the weeds had taken over my front yard. Initially, I felt overwhelmed, wondering how I would ever get the weeds under control. Hesitantly, I grabbed a large box and began filling it, one pulled weed at a time.
Pull weed.
Put in box.
Pull weed.
Put in box.
The methodical repetition of pulling one weed at a time allowed me to fill and empty four boxes. When, after a couple hours of work, I looked behind me to see if my yard looked noticably better, I smiled, for the results were breathtaking. My efforts of pulling one weed at a time had made a noticeable difference.
I’ve still got work to do. After another emptied box or two, my weeds will be completely gone for now, but they’ll be back. That’s just how weeds work.
Weeds of Life
Like weeds, we can often feel overwhelmed by the things that need to be done in life: pray, study, minister, worship, repent, forgive, teach, prepare, rest. The list feels as endless as the weeds in my front yard.
My weeding experience taught me that addressing one task at a time in a methodical way can lead to big changes, for “by small and simple things are great things brought to pass” (Alma 37:6).
When I feel bad for not praying regularly, I can stop and say a simple prayer right then and there.
When I have not been studying my scriptures regularly, I can take a minute to read or reflect on one simple verse.
Should I feel guilty for not connecting with others and seeking ways to minister, I can choose to make a quick phone call, write a simple note, or send a text.
When listening to podcasts both inspires and overwhelms me, I can choose one simple thing from each podcast to focus on, and slowly work towards completing each mini-goal during the upcoming months.
It’s not about scratching items off one’s To-Do List, or trying to meet someone else’s standards, it’s about looking back on one’s life next year, or in 5 years, or on one’s death bed, and liking what one sees.
It’s about doing the work now, so we can reap the positive results later.
From my experience, the beautiful view that is available after the work has been done is worth every pulled weed and every completed task and goal.
So, what are you waiting for? Start pulling those weeds!
“God cares a lot more about who we are and who we are becoming than about who we once were. He cares that we keep on trying. ”
Dale G. Renlund
2. Garden-Fresh Life Lessons
The weather was beautiful today, which made me feel even more grateful that I was able to spend the entire afternoon in the garden: pulling weeds, pruning trees, planting seeds. The garden is my safe haven, where lessons and analogies surround me on all sides, preaching life-changing sermons without saying a word:
- delicate pea plants, reaching for the sky in search of more light
- a pink and black hummingbird, pausing for a moment before returning to flight
- worms working their way through the soil, aerating and fertilizing as they go
- an unseen ant hill, which led to multiple stings
- crossing paths with an injured bee
- the first pink blossom on a fruit tree, growing on a branch I feared was dead
- pruning back rose bushes in preparation for a season of new growth
- water giving life to every living thing
Each plant and insect caused me to pause and reflect on the lessons it had to teach.
I returned to the house feeling grateful, as always, for an abundant harvest of garden-fresh tomatoes, carrots, lettuce, radishes, and herbs.
But it’s always the harvest of garden-fresh life lessons that I relish the most.
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3. Sabbath Day Garden Devotional
Gazing into the night sky and reflecting on the vastness of the universe never leaves me feeling small. Rather, it reminds me that I am part of something infinitely more magnificent than I can even comprehend. Looking into the night sky makes me want to be a better person.
4. Nourish Your Testimony and Plant Seeds of Faith
Don’t think you can make a difference in the world? Consider the lettuce seed. Barely visible to the naked eye, it spreads far and wide with only the gentlest of breezes before creating new life wherever it lands.
Be like a seed.
Garden-Inspired Quotes
Enjoy this collection of garden-inspired quotes:
“To potter with green growing things, watching each day to see the dear, new sprouts come up, is like taking a hand in creation… Just now my garden is like faith — the substance of things hoped for.”
“The glory of gardening: hands in the dirt, head in the sun, heart with nature. To nurture a garden is to feed not just the body, but the soul.”
Alfred Austin
“Everything that slows us down and forces patience, everything that sets us back into the slow circles of nature, is a help. Gardening is an instrument of grace.”
May Sartin
“We must cultivate our own garden. When man was put in the garden of Eden he was put there so that he should work, which proves that man was not born to rest.”
Voltaire
“A man has made at least a start on discovering the meaning of human life when he plants shade trees under which he knows full well he will never sit.”
D. Elton Trueblood
