Growing hurts.....

Thank you for commenting on that last post...I was so blessed to receive messages from some of the dearest people in my life. That blessed me. Thanks.
I took this picture last night totally in awe of God's faithfulness in my garden. I usually only plant perennials because I really don't like to see what little money I can use toward gardening flushed down the toilet with flowers that never come back...I like knowing that the plant will come back. And so...I wait for spring, hoping that the flowers that appeared last year, will come up this year.....
I have several plants (like a Passion Flower, which I'll write a post about later...it's that COOL!) that keep me guessing whether they survived the winter storms or if they gave up and died. This year, because of the crazy weather we've been having, was no exception. This year actually seemed the worst!

Well, let me tell you what happened!.....I went out a few weeks ago and scattered throughout the garden were buds and new growth....ALL OVER. I was FILLED with hope and very thankful to God for another year of a healthy garden....I only fertilize, weed, and prune....but God is the One that makes them grow, 'cuz hey, He created them in the first place! But as they grew and got new buds, flowers and leaves.....THE APHIDS came....and then THE ANTS, then THE WHITE FLIES......then, the most evil of them all....THE EARWIG infested my growing, healthy garden with their pesky eggs and sap-sucking, leaf-eating pincher mouths! I WAS SOOO MAD! I thought I had controlled them with all the "natural" pesticides....but they were trying to devour everything. I prayed and slightly panicked...I fingered through every plant smashing the pests between my thumb and first finger...."SQUASH"! bug guts all over and I must say, I found it very satisfying. :)
Then something hit me....the bugs didn't get all my flowers....they were still flowering....some of them were growing insanely out of control! Some of the flowers were HUGE, too! Then I felt a nudge from the Lord saying that "Bethany, when things grow, they will be under attack....but despite the attacks, I make them grow and bear fruit. Expect the harsh winters and the pests, but fight them,AND I have already overcome them and have shown you I've overcome them with the abundance of fruit seen."
I was sooo blessed! It was another reminder of how He cares for us, His very own. We all know that when we are growing and God is on the move in our lives, our advesary, the devil, seeks to destroy us and sends his pesky pests to keep us from bearing fruit and sharing that fruit with others.
For example, I have felt sick ALL THE TIME this year, from salmonella, to IBS, to the colds and flus.....and while I have been fighting those attacks ('cuz that's what they are!) with the antihistamine and trying to eat foods that don't irritate the symptoms, I know that the most effective way to fight these attacks is through prayer and perseverance....spending time with my Jesus, my Healer and my Friend. I see the devil trying to debilitate me through these sicknesses, but my Healer gives me strength to fight and strength to continue to bear fruit despite. Hey, my fruit may be dripping with runny snot boogers, but it's still good fruit! The Lord just gives it a good washing! ;p (Sorry to gross you out!) John 15:3-5 says, "You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing." THIS IS SOO TRUE! I cannot WILL my plants to grow and I certainly cannot make the seeds germinate and push the ground out of the way for its leaves, I can't choose the color of the flower or make the fruit healthy....it is the faithfulness of God and the feeding on His Word that makes me grow (and I think it has a lot to do with the success of my REAL garden, too!)
This is my prayer and the cry of my heart...Psalm 1:2-3 says, " But his delight is in the law of the LORD, and on his law he meditates day and night. He is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither. Whatever he does prospers." AND Psalm 92:12-15 -The righteous will flourish like a palm tree, they will grow like a cedar of Lebanon; planted in the house of the LORD, they will flourish in the courts of our God. They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green, proclaiming, "The LORD is upright; he is my Rock, and there is no wickedness in him." Oh, if only my garden in the front yard would last THIS long! :) Thanks for reading!