When the Garden Attacks

Last time we were together I mentioned the word ants and the fact that I was wearing gloves to protect me from their fiery stings. Apparently I have been trying to make a garden in the world's largest ant-bed. These little critters are EVERYWHERE! I can't work in the same patch of grass for more than a few minutes at a time because they invade my shoes and sting my toes.

Did I mention that these were FIRE ants? Take the good ole Louisiana fire ant bite and then rub some Tabasco sauce in it and you will get close to what these feel like when they strike. If I showed you a picture of my legs right now you would see that they are peppered with red bite marks from these evil critters.

I tried poison.

I tried digging into the ant pile to kill the queen ant.

I tried different poison.

I almost tried diesel...I am a desperate woman.

Finally I have decided that I will have to share the ground with them....for now. I will keep killing them, one by one, if I have to, but for now the only thing I can do is protect myself. My armor: gloves, socks, pants, shoes, and long sleeves. I'll never get a tan at this rate, but at least I won't become one big, red, itchy bug bite.

Now, I know the ants are out there. I know what I have to do to protect myself. And yet, I still get the occasional sting...here's why:

1. I am too prideful. Yep, prideful...I know they are there so I will just watch for them and kill them before they sting me. HA, that never works.
2. I say, "I'll just be out there a minute, they won't have time to sting me." You know how long it takes for an ant to sting you? Me neither, but it is quick, like lightening. You can't out run them.
3. I am too lazy to put on all of the armor. I'll just wear my gloves, and then I get stung on the toe.
4. I stay in one spot too long. If I am there long enough, that one rogue ant will pick its way through all of my defenses and strikes. 

It is so interesting that these are the most common causes, in my life, for sin. I am being prideful, lazy, or I am around sin too long and then it just becomes natural again. But God gives me grace, and strength, and energy when I ask for it to overcome these things. His mercies are new every morning!

The Seed Saga

Apparently, the garden of Eden was not located on the equator, because there is a total of 27 minutes that fall into the "cool of the day" category. This morning working a section of dirt (with gloves on to shield me from ant attacks).

I wish I had taken a before picture of the garden for you, but it won't be hard to imagine. I'll describe it for you: grass. Yep, and lots of it. See, that was easy. This whole garden idea started about a year ago when I started buying vegetable seeds that I came across in the hardware store. I was like, hey, one day I should plant a garden. Little did I know that seeds have an expiration date, so when I planted them all a year later they didn't do what seeds are supposed to do...grow.

I had my little seed pods, and even special seed dirt (yep, there is such a thing) and I still got nothin'. Nada. Oh wait!!!! Three weeks after the seeds were supposed to germinate something started happening!!!! Little green things started sprouting all over the seed cups! Success!

Wait a minute...all these little green things look the same. Let them grow a little longer, and see what happens. Maybe plants look the same when they start sprouting. Fast forward a week, and they still look the same. Apparently, I was successful at growing grass. Great.

And the Lord saith to me, you can have bad seed. Really? I thought seeds were like super freeze-dried protected plants. That even after millions of years they can sprout again and make a little replica of mommy and daddy. Nope. I was wrong. You can have bad seed that makes bad fruit, or you can have just plain ole bad seed. The no grow kind, the stagnant christian life kind, the make you wait a month before you find out you have wasted your time and energy because nothing is ever going to grow kind!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

OK, venting complete.

So really folks, take a look at the seed you are planing. Are you sowing old seed and expecting it to produce?

But, great news, Mark's mom brought me a bunch of seeds from the great US of A, so I should be up and running again soon. =D

In the Garden

There is an old hymn that bears the name of this post, and its gentle refrain sings the words

...And He walks with me and he talks with me, And He tells me I am His own, And the joy we share as we tarry there, None other has ever known...

 I don't think it was an accident that the place God chose to put Adam and Eve was a garden. In fact, He didn't just plunk them down in the middle of some pretty flowers and call it good, nope, Genesis tells us that He prepared a place for them. He separated the water from the land, separated the day from the night, added animals and plants, and then He created man and woman and placed them into what we know as Eden. Eden...the closest place to Utopia we could ever hope to find. 

God was first. He was there before anything was, so He gets to be first at everything. Therefore, He was the first gardener. And since that is the first thing recorded in the Bible, His written communication to us, I think gardening is special to Him. Even Jesus used a lot of agricultural references in His parables and teachings.

I have started a garden. There are a lot of benefits to having a garden, but the one I hope to get is knowing God's mind a little better. So I am out there in the yard with my hands in the dirt realizing what God meant when He told Adam that, "...by the sweat of your brow you will have food to eat..." (Genesis 3).

I think to myself, He should have added, "and by the stinging of ants."

So, maybe there will be some more posts in the future about my gardening adventures and how God speaks to me there. Would y'all like that?