The Gardening of Our Minds
What is creeping around in your garden? Like millions of others at the beginning of the pandemic, I planted a vegetable garden. I love fresh, homegrown tomatoes. They taste better than store-bought ones.
I discovered there is a joy and a pleasure in carefully placing the plants into the ground and watching them grow. Watering the plants was calming and refreshing to me, as much as it was to the plants. Seeing how they were changing, growing, and flowering daily gave me confidence in my gardening ability.
One day, as I checked on the garden, I was taken completely by surprise. Most of the leaves on the tomato plants were gone. Something had eaten them. I moved in closer and found a big green worm. Yikes! A tomato hornworm caterpillar. The closer I looked, I found more. They blended in with the leaves and were unnoticed until the damage was done. They were a danger to the tomato plants. The garden was overrun with them. I needed to do something quick! Tomato hornworms can destroy a tomato crop overnight. Fear and panic rushed in. I hadn’t properly guarded my garden. What form of control measures was I to take? How could I fend off these devouring critters?
Sometimes this happens to our minds. We forget to properly guard the garden of our minds from devouring critters. We let ungodly messages and negative and worrisome thoughts creep in. These critters creep in unnoticed and help themselves to the fruit of our joy and peace.
The gardening of our minds is like tending a garden. Maintaining our joy and peace requires constant work—constant gardening.
Second Corinthians 10:5 (KJV) tells us to bring “into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”
We have to get to work and capture every rebellious thought and pluck them out. How do we pluck them out? What form of control measures do we take? Scripture—the Word of God. God’s Word is a mighty weapon to use to fend off these devouring critters. It’s powerful and effective.
These critters seek to draw our hearts and minds away from God. Gardening our minds requires us to be aware of how we really think and become more aware of how God wants us to think. We focus our thoughts on His thoughts. God’s Word is His “thought.”
As Paul said to the Philippians, we need to "fix our thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise” (Philippians 4:8 NLT).
It is important to fill our minds with the Word of God because it leads to success. The Word keeps critters out. If our minds are not fed daily with the Word, we may awake one day to find that devouring critters have helped themselves to the fruits of our joy and peace. Properly gardening our minds protects our joy and peace. How might God want you to garden your mind today?
Copyright © 12/2020 Audrey Tyler, used with permission.
