What is my favorite thing about winter? The end! There is little in my garden that looks decent in wintertime. I do have a few plants that should liven it up, but they are still in pots, along with the other orphan plants that didn’t make it to their “forever home” yet.
Blue Princess holly, purple Muhly grass, and a baby Nandina sit patiently in the cold and promise to give color and shape to the drab landscape once they are in the ground and growing. I believe them! But I will have to plant them before the ground freezes again.
The spring garden is when the yard really shines. With the kaleidoscope of colored iris and the nodding yellow and white daffodils, it really comes alive. Add some fluffy cherry blossoms and the happy yellow arches of the forsythia, and my heart unfolds with joy as quickly as the blossoms unfurl their petals. However, those flowers were planted years ago.
A few clearance-sale day lilies have turned summer into an adventure to anticipate, rather than a sad farewell to the spring. Oh, they didn’t look very good that first year. They were wilted and the blooms were gone.
The zenith of summer is welcomed by the annuals that have finally matured, after being carefully tended and protected in the winter and lovingly planted among the perennials in the spring. The vinca begin their love affair with the butterflies, and the zinnias come rushing in like ocean waves with their billows of blossoms.
Then comes the autumn, when insects and summer heat have cut down the soldiers of the garden beds and the lushly crowded plantings have succumbed to mildew. A few strategic plants then take over and dress up those spots that would otherwise be stripped bare as the gardener clears out the decaying plants.
Oh, but don’t think of planting them in September! They won’t be big enough to command attention unless they were planned ahead of the season.
So it is with a plan for a Christian life. We want to know more about the Bible, even memorize more of it. We want to get closer to the ideal family life and be good examples to our children. We resolve to quit bad habits. Better church attendance might also be a new goal for the year.
Will all this happen without a plan? It won’t come about just because we want it. Just as the garden unfolds and develops by planning and tending it, we will need a defined strategy. A goal requires action.
You want to read and study the scriptures more? Well, when will you do it? Before your morning coffee? At your lunch hour? Before bedtime? Consider setting a reminder on a mobile device, computer, or old-fashioned alarm clock. I have daffodil bulbs shriveling in the garage that should have had a “reminder” alarm set to plant them. Don’t let that happen with your scripture reading!
Spending more time with the family is a great objective. Why not put a sticky note on the television reminding you to play a board game or visit an elderly relative with the kids?
Pencil in your plan of action right on your calendar.
Goals are great. Plans are a means to reach them. Use every means possible to make things happen.
“The sluggard does not plow after the autumn, so he begs during the harvest and has nothing. A plan in the heart of a man is like deep water, but a man of understanding draws it out” (Proverbs 20:4-5, NASB)
–by Christine Berglund @ www.forthright.net