Intentionally Improving.

I’m excited about our garden prospects this year. Last year, my wife and I took about the only spot in the yard with an appreciable amount of sun throughout the day and planted it. We put out tomatoes, hot peppers, squash, pumpkins and pole beans. We didn’t have many of each plant, but enough to keep us busy tending the garden all summer.

Last year, we purchased our plants in a generic fashion. Turned out all our tomatoes were Roma size or smaller. While we had lots of tomatoes, it wasn’t the same on sandwiches. The hot peppers were plentiful, but I wanted the taste more like a jalapeno. Our pole beans went in the ground a little late and we had too few plants for a robust harvest. The pumpkins and squash took over the planting bed, but very few of the fruit made it to maturity before they began rotting for some reason. And last, we were well into the season before we realized deer were eating garden.

This year we’re more intentional. We plan to space our plants better and put up fencing earlier. Still doing tomatoes, peppers, and pole beans. We’re focusing on sandwich-size tomatoes, jalapeno peppers and planting our beans earlier. New to the garden will be cucumbers for my wife. We’re adding okra, both regular and Chinese. No small tomatoes, squash or pumpkin this year. Well, maybe one or two squash.

At the risk of sidetracking, I want to hit on a theological term—sanctification. When you think of the Christian walk, think of sanctification as growth. Sanctification is our becoming more Christlike. Growth powered by the Holy Spirit but carried out by us.

For me, sanctification is a lot like gardening.

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Last year’s garden gave us great joy. My wife and I benefited from home-grown, tasty, nutritious food, while at the same time enjoying hours together planting, weeding, pruning, and harvesting. Not to mention the few nights we armed ourselves with a black light and hunted horned worms, who were clearly determined to destroy our tomatoes. Fun times all around. But with a little experience, we wanted to improve.

Growing in Christ is like that. My knowledge and understanding of God improve when I bounce around with a devotion here and there. I know there are those who are blessed when I take time to pray. And, as practically difficult as it can be during a pandemic, taking time to join in providing for others always makes me smile.

But if I want to improve in my walk, I must be intentional. Paul talks about being intentional in Philippians.

“Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, think about these things.” (Philippians 4:8, NASB)

I must intentionally look for the true, honorable, pure, lovely, commendable, excellent, and worthy of praise. In all areas of my life. Anything I think, say, read, watch, or experience should fall under those categories. It’s even more than simply applying this gage to what I do. I must plan to be intentional.

If we are going to space our tomato plants out better this year in our garden, we must first measure our garden area, count the number of plants, consider how we might maneuver around them, then plant.

If I’m going to experience areas of spiritual excellence, I must plan my days around commendable actions, purchase or download reading material worthy of praise, filter out impure TV shows, and show up at places where I can expect honorable interactions. It takes effort and is worthwhile.

What about you? Do you want to improve your walk? I’d love to hear how you are intentional about it.

Today’s feature photo comes from a “photo-a-day” challenge I pursued several years ago. The photo inspires the topic. For me, the posts challenge my creativity, writing discipline, and dependence on God for His message. My prayer is that you find hope in God’s Word, and that you’ll share your hope with others.