It is the last Monday in April! This year is flying by so quickly! I hope everyone had a GREAT weekend serving the One who loves us most!
This week’s devotion is “Grow in Love” written by Vicky Mutchler! Please take the time to read as she shares her heart with us!
I hope you have an AMAZING week!
Grow in Love – Vicky Mutchler
Spring is here and it’s getting that time where we get excited about plants and dirt and ceilings even if we don’t have a gardener’s heart. We may have killed more plants than we’ve ever grown but still, there’s something in the air about planting, nurturing, and seeing something Bloom.
Location, location, location as they say. The environment has a lot to do with how a plant grows and even more on how we grow in our homes and our marriages.
We GREW apart!
How many times have you heard these statements?
“We just grew apart!”, “We live in the same house, but it seems we are more like roommates!”, “We just don’t LOVE each other anymore!”
I am afraid that the above sentences just come way too easy to say! How did they get to that place? How could it have been avoided!?
Before we can learn how to avoid saying this and feeling this way…. we must first understand what’s wrong with the idea “We grew apart.” Are we plants? No. In marriage, we agree to be gardeners. The plant is love, which, when tended, bears fruit. When we marry, we vow to tend the garden … to love, honor, cherish … remember you vows? To have a healthy, beautiful garden, we must fertilize and water. When making a garden, we DO NOT make a path to the weeds…or a row for weeds! (PULL THEM OUT!) I am afraid sometimes in a marriage we do just that!
I have NEVER planted flowers ….and planned for the plants NOT to come up! I’ve never purchased artificial ones to poke in their place …you know, JUST IN CASE!
It was no accident that God placed Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. He gave them the opportunity to live in the perfect garden with all their needs supplied. Their only requirement was to “TEND IT!”.
When Adam and Eve sinned, it was the sin of self-centeredness. What keeps us from tending the garden? It is self-centeredness…we focus on ourselves, we focus on our needs and desires. Resentment shows up because our spouses don’t meet our expectations, or we feel like they are not doing what they are “supposed to be doing.”
Is your love planted in godly soil?
Actively seek God by praying together and for each other daily. Dedicate a specific time to pray together, away from the kids and the distractions of daily living.
Satan loves to hear the words “We grew apart.”
God loves to hear you say, “We grew in love and in Christ for His glory.”
