In this Issue:
- Devotion: A Heart Rooted in God’s Word
- Book Review: Frog and Toad Together
- New Group! Being the Pastor’s Wife
- Opportunity: Piano Lessons
- From My Heart to Yours: How Does Your Garden Grow?
Children's Book Pick of the Month:
Frog and Toad Together
By Arnold Lobel
Who can resist the charm of Arnold Lobel’s characters, Frog and Toad? My pick for the month, Frog and Toad Together, is a 1973 Newberry Honor Book, and still remains popular today. This book contains 5 short stories that can be read by a child at the 1st or 2nd grade level.
During this time of year, it is fun to read, “The Garden.” In this story, poor Toad takes great pains to get his seeds to grow. He does everything from shouting, “NOW SEEDS START GROWING,” to staying up at night to read the seeds a story. Finally, in due time, the seeds sprout and begin to grow.
The obvious follow-up to this story is to plant some seeds with your youngster. You can skip the shouting and midnight storytelling though!
A Heart Rooted in God's Word
Spring has come to our region of Western New York, and my husband has “garden fever.” Weather permitting, I find him outside during all his spare time. His goal is to take a once overgrown garden and make it beautiful again.
One of my husband’s tasks was to move the bleeding heart plant from the poor soil on the side of our house to a more suitable area in our backyard garden. The bleeding heart is a unique plant producing flowers that look like chains of hearts. Last year, it struggled along in the poor soil, untended. This year, after being transplanted to better soil it is starting to thrive.
Our hearts are much like that bleeding heart plant my husband tended. We may be rooted in poor soil and barely struggling along, or we may be planted in the rich soil of God’s Word. In Isaiah 61:11 we read “For as the soil makes the sprout come up and a garden causes seeds to grow, so the Sovereign Lord will make righteousness and praise spring up before all nations.”
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New Group! Being the Pastor's Wife
Are you a pastor’s wife or do you know someone who is? This group is geared towards women who are a pastor’s wife, who have been a pastor’s wife, or who are becoming a pastor’s wife. During the twice monthly conference calls, you will be able to discuss the unique joys and frustrations of your ministry in a confidential setting. You will also receive coaching around your specific situations.
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Opportunity: Piano Lessons
If you live in the Buffalo-Niagara Region, you may consider adding music to your child’s activities this summer. I am offering piano lessons in my home for $10 per half hour. I will start with children as young as 4 years old. Please contact me for details.
From My Heart to Yours: How does your garden grow?
"Mary, Mary, quite contrary, how does your garden grow?” Living your life or raising your family can be compared to growing a garden. There are decisions to make and work to be done? What kind of garden do you want. Do you like roses and herbs, or do you like tomatoes and squash? Do you want to stay home fulltime with your children or do you prefer to work outside the home? Do you want to use all organic materials, or will you use chemical fertilizer? Do you want to homeschool the children, or send them to a local school. Will you send them to a public or private school.
As the gardener, you are responsible for many of these decisions and much of the work. You may wish to talk to someone close to you as you make these decisions. (If you have a spouse, you will definitely want to talk with him!) You may even wish to talk to a life coach. A life coach will not give you the answers, but she will help you to clarify what you want and the steps to take as you grow your garden.
Of course you will also wish to consult with the Master Gardener. God knows what is best for your garden. Stay close to Him, and He will cause your garden to grow along His paths of righteousness and in the light of His love.
Growing with You,
Deborah Duke
Rooted in God's Word, continued...
Where are the roots of your heart? Are you rooted in poor soil, or in the rich topsoil of God’s garden? If you are rooted in poor soil, God, the Master Gardener, is able and willing to transplant you to His garden. In fact, the angels rejoice each time someone is transplanted into the Kingdom of Heaven. Jesus tells us in Luke 15:10, “There is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”
“Wait a minute,” you may be thinking, “where did sin enter the picture?” Well, the short answer is, sin entered the picture with Adam and Eve way back in the Garden of Eden. Ever since then, we’ve all been sinners. We’ve all been sinners, that is, except for Jesus. Jesus paid for our sins so that we could all be transplanted into the Kingdom of Heaven.
When you are living in the Kingdom of Heaven, your roots are planted firmly, in rich, moist soil. You are tended by the Master Gardener, our Heavenly Father. As you grow, He encourages you to accept all kinds of natural fertilizer. He encourages you to read His Word, to come to Him in prayer, to receive His sacraments, and to join in worship and fellowship with other believers.
Life in God’s garden is not perfect, at least for now. There may be storms that rock us, disease that eats at us, hail that pounds us, but in the midst of all this we have a Gardener who cares for us. He will make sure that our roots stay firmly planted in His soil. Then sometime will come a day when we are all transplanted into a new and perfect garden as Jesus takes us home to heaven. Here there will be no storms, and actually no sun either. Instead there will be the brilliant light of God’s love as we live with Him in His Garden forever.
Being the Pastor's Wife, continued...
Two free introductory calls will be held on June 10 and June 24 at 8:00 pm, Eastern Time. After that, we will meet on the second and fourth Tuesdays of every month. This group is ongoing and you may join at any time. Contact me for more information about Being the Pastor’s Wife.
