life as a garden

My mother is visiting.
This morning she noticed my neighbor watering the potted flowers on her deck.
"You see how much water she is putting on them, that's what you have to do".

"You all don't put enough water".

I know this...half the time we (read that I) don't remember to water the flowers at all.
Hubby dear hasn't thought twice about them since he picked them out at the nursery...guess he figured that was the end of his husbandly horticultural duties.
Anyway, this reminder (guilt trip) motivated me to get up, go out, pick up the hose and stand there for as long as I could take it.
While I was giving our few flowers (including the living, the dead, and the nearly dead) their necessary liquid nourishment, I had a revelation.
It went something like this: hey, life, hope, and faith are a lot like gardening.
You plant a seed, a flower (a hope, a dream, a prayer) and then you wait for it to grow.
But, waiting doesn't mean just standing there until something happens.
What you plant in your heart -- in your life --- needs time, attention, nourishment...just like what you put in the ground.
Hopes and dreams have to be tended to... to be weeded, cut back, pruned...watered with prayer and patience and essential action.
What we give our attention to grows.
And just like my half-dead garden...what we don't attend to can wither and die.
Sometimes it seems our dreams(relationships, hopes, jobs, etc) are already dead, buried and back to dust, but maybe they just need to be dead-headed.
Lop off the buds that are lifeless (the negative and useless mindsets, habits, people) while reserving the roots in which life remains.
It is the root buried deep and unseen(like the Word buried deep in our hearts) that sustains what is visible above ground.
So get up, get out and get to watering.