Give it to God

Early last summer, we harvested a crop of white potatoes. It was my first time planting them, but Daddy grew up farming and he really wanted to plant some. We planted them a little late in the season, but we ended up with a lot more than I expected. Daddy rigged up a hanging basket under the house to store them. I suppose it’s like a modern day root cellar.

We ate them often and like everything that you grow for yourself, they were really good. As our other veggies matured and we worked on canning, we forgot about the potatoes. They were out of sight, so they were out of mind.

Then, last week, I read that it was time to plant potatoes. Remembering that we didn’t eat all of last year’s crop, I went to retrieve what had been left under the house and hoped we had enough sprouts to plant. Imagine my surprise when I discovered more sprouts than I could count and way more than we could possibly plant in our available space.

As Daddy and I stood together cutting the sprouts to get them ready to plant, I marveled at the growth that had happened in the dark.

When the garden is in its growing season, I inspect my plants daily. I water them. I add fertilizer. I look for pests and remove them as quickly as possible. I harvest and prune. I spend a lot of time thinking about everything I need to do to make it successful.

Yet, in that damp, dark space with no light and absolutely no help from me, an exponential amount of growth occurred, growth that would eventually lead to an entire new crop of potatoes.

I feel like life is sometimes that way. We try our hardest to make something thrive. We do everything in our power to nurture it and help it along and then we spend countless hours worrying about the growth, (or the lack of). Sometimes the best course of action when we have done all we can humanly do, is to pray about it and put it down; give it to God.

When we are brave enough to do that, our faith grows along with our patience and we are often amazed at what He can do without all of our micromanaging. Some sprouted potatoes reminded me that growth and success doesn’t always depend on me. I worship a God who loves me and is always working for my good. Sometimes I need reminding. Perhaps you do too.

Have an awesome day!

Wendy 🙂