Patience the companion of a gardener

I tried baking mini pastry pies that required me to cut small strips of the pastry to cover the pie top. Halfway into the process, I was placing the strips everywhere to just finish the job.

I planted seeds while waiting for them to germinate, I will grow impatient and plant something new in the same place because what I planted previously was taking time to grow. But as I dig the ground I would find that the seeds had started to germinate under the soil.

I have uprooted perennial plants because they withered during wintertime, I did not wait long enough to give the plants a chance to grow back in Spring.

The common denominator of the above stories is “Patience” or the lack of it.

James 1 verse 4 says let patience have its work, that you may be perfect and complete. The is something about patience and perfection that goes hand in hand. Impatience disturbs the process and when the process is disturbed the quality is compromised. Good things take time to produce, patience is a fruit of the Spirit that one needs daily. The bible says by your patience possess your soul. 

In the book of Ecclesiastes 7 verse 8, the end of anything is better than its beginning. Enjoying the herbs from my garden is better than planting, watering, fertilizing, and pruning. But the end to be enjoyable, you have to be patient with the process, because if the process is not disturbed then good quality is produced. One might say patience a day keeps mediocre away. The would not be a need for patience if the process did not take time, quality takes time to produce so wait! Let us also learn to wait on the Lord as he produces his best work “YOU”.

James 1 verse 

2 My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, 3 knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. 4 But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.

From all my pastry pies, only one looked good, why? Because I had learned with that pie that perfection demands patience. My mustard green looks a whole lot better after a few pruning’s why? I did not just dig them out and plant new ones, I am learning to respect the process by excising the fruit of the Spirit patience.

Sometimes our lives are filled with incomplete projects, because of the lack of patience. When something is starting to happen like my seedlings, we move on to the next project, because the process demanded time. Sometimes we can even see it has the potential to work but because its taking time, we shelve it or give up and move to something new. The worst is when we are impatient with ourselves because you failed once or twice, we give up forgetting that we are not other people, that we are unique. Germination period for Kale can be seven to fourteen days while Parsley can be ten to twenty-five days. Be you and do you. 

Indeed, patience it’s a fruit of the Spirit, a companion of a gardener and producer of quality, let patience have its work in you so you may be perfect and complete lacking nothing.