Diligence Pays Off

I’m out in the garden today, working hard at keeping plants thriving. What does that look like? Well, for the potatoes it means checking every other day for potato bugs. I squat or kneel next to each plant and carefully check the leaves for bugs, picking them off and dropping them in soapy water when I find them. Then I check the underside of the leaves for eggs and pick those leaves off. Is this fun? Do I love doing it so much and that’s why I’m out there every other day?

Absolutely not! For one, I despise bugs, be they friend or foe. They’re just gross to me. And potato bugs are exceptionally gross to me. They come in all sizes from teeny tiny to downright disturbing. And they’re ugly and squishy. Believe me, gloves are necessary.

So, then, why do it?

If I don’t, I know what the consequences will be. I can’t possibly catch all the bugs and eggs in one shot! The complete loss of all my potatoes. Maybe you’re saying, who cares, just buy some potatoes at the store!

If you’ve ever had fresh garden potatoes, you know. Store potatoes honestly taste awful in comparison.

Being diligent in the garden reaps great rewards. There’s no way I could just go pick potato bugs once and expect a great return on my efforts. There’s no way I could just choose to turn a blind eye and expect a harvest that will last all winter. I’d get nothing. And the potato bugs would get everything.

It’s the same when it comes to our children.

We can’t correct our children once and expect a great return. If we wait until the behavior is annoying us and react, we’re not going to see good results and if we turn a blind eye we certainly won’t reap a great harvest. Being diligent with correction and training takes daily effort and time. It takes going into the garden of our child’s heart and lovingly and repeatedly picking out the bugs of sin. If we pick it out once and think we’re done, we’re bound to miss some and allow our child’s heart to be overrun by sin.

Turning a blind eye can look like a couple of things. It can be that we make excuses for our child’s behavior and sin. “Oh, he’s just tired today, that’s why he’s acting this way.” “My kid is really a good kid, this isn’t the way he normally acts.” “She does a lot of good things and is usually a great kid so I don’t have to worry.” It can be that we compare and look at how other kids act and think, well my kid isn’t that bad at least. And it can be that we just don’t see the behavior as sin that’s rooted in their heart.

So, how do we overcome this? Diligence.

I have to choose to enter that garden daily. I have to make time for my kids and believe that they are my priority. My house, my garden, our activities, church, all those things have to take a back seat to my children. They are my most important work each day. It means I have to set my phone down too and pay attention. It means I have to be present with my kids. And it means I have to take responsibility everyday for their hearts and minds.

I can’t just do it once. I can’t just do it once a week. It needs to be repeated and consistent.

I need to be diligent.

Not only do I need to be diligent, I need to be in prayer. But that’s a story for another day.