Tending Your Garden

The human mind is like a garden, filled with rich and fertile soil. Just like a garden, it must be nurtured and cared for continuously. Whether carefully cultivated or ignored, something will grow regardless. In either case, the garden of your mind will not stay empty for long. If good seeds are not proactively planted and watered, the weeds will come in and take over.

But it is not just the neglected garden that doesn’t produce good fruit. The Apostle Paul said, “A man reaps what he sows.” Another way to say this is, “the fruit you bear is directly related to the seeds you plant.” This is just common sense when it comes to a garden. If you plan tomato seeds, you expect to grow tomatoes. Pumpkin seeds should produce pumpkins. However, when it comes to the garden of our minds, we lose sight of that simple fact. People sow seeds of doubt and bitterness and fear in their thoughts and wonder why their lives are full of frustration, anger and anxiety. If you harness bitterness, and allow those seeds to be planted in your mind, is it any wonder the output is only bitter fruit?

You must guard your garden and be wary of the seeds you allow to be planted. This may be changing who you hang out with, what you watch on TV and what you read on the internet. But it will also be altering how you talk to yourself and the thoughts you entertain. Your own doubts and insecurities are likely to plant far more destructive seeds than anyone else you encounter.

Diligently strive to ensure only the best seeds are sown in the garden of your mind. Water them and fertilize them daily with the right influences and actions. But also, patrol your garden for weeds and poisonous fruits. Eliminate them before they spread. Your mind can only feed off the fruit from its own garden; make sure it has healthy produce to nourish it. Good fruit doesn’t grow by accident.

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