Summer Gardening: A Decision, a Discipline, and a Delight

Summer Gardening

I’ve enjoyed sharing this little spin on Summer Gardening by growing in spiritual disciplines and in Christian life.

My summer of turning the soil (silence and solitude), soaking in Living Water (worshipping in His Presence), and fertilizing the soil (reading and listening to good books) has been and continues to be really wonderful!!!

It’s been a delight, but it hasn’t always been.

In summers past, I slept late everyday.  I had very little time to myself because taking care of the kids was is wonderful but nonstop. It seemed like by the time I got up and got rolling, the day was mostly gone. Even with the gift of summer days at home, I still wasn’t tending to my heart like I really wanted. I had the desire to deepen my relationship with God, but the choices I made was not getting me there.

Like with any summer gardening, you need the right tools to get the job done, to get to where you really want to be.

I had to make a decision and develop a discipline in order to make it a delight!

Decision– The routine I wanted to grow my heart wasn’t going to change until I made the decision to change. The desire for the outcome I wanted had to be stronger than my current habits which caused me to waste a lot of time. I had a lot of excuses too- I’m not an early morning person, I don’t have a lot of time for reading, I don’t have a lot of time by myself, etc. While I’m working during the school year, it truly is more difficulty to do the things I really desired to nourish myself so I knew I had to steward the gift of my summer days at home better than this. Nothing really changes unless you make the conscious decision to do something different. So, making the decision to make different choices was my starting point.

Making New Habits

Next came the Discipline. I am not an early riser by nature. I love to sleep late. I love my summer laziness. It’s the great gift of being a school teacher to sleep in and take it slow and easy through the morning…..at least it is for me! During that season where the kids were babies and toddlers, there was no sleeping late. I thought I would never sleep past 7:00 again! As they’ve grown, of course they are sleeping later! Hallelujah!

Following my decision to make new habits, I began the discipline of getting up before the family. At first, it was hit or miss. Some days I would and other days, sleepiness would win. With each day I said ‘yes’ to the discipline, the choice to rise up got easier and easier.

Proper discipline requires balance, and it is summer, after all. So, on Saturdays, holidays, and vacation I sleep in. Glorious! And, on Sundays, I’m getting ready for church.

Day after day of choosing to wake up early for silence, soaking and study quietly and almost without notice became a delight! I would find myself looking forward to this precious time. Even though I thoroughly enjoyed sleeping in Saturdays, I found myself thinking “oh, tomorrow is Monday, I will have my morning time!”

Delight in the Lord

Delight– Devotion to my spiritual disciplines has turned into a delight! When the alarm goes off, I roll out of bed and take my place. I still have days where I have to make a decision to get up, but it’s always worth it. When school starts again, I’ll have to amend this routine to fit the schedule. I’m not quite sure how that will work. It may be a new decision with a new discipline

I bet many of you are early birds and don’t have to work at rising early. What other areas could you make a decision and a discipline turn into a delight to deepen your faith and help your Summer Garden grow?

I’d love to hear about it!

Check out this Facebook Live video where I’m talking about the 3 D’s here.

~Amy