My husband has a love for and great patience for gardening. It’s a great off-set to my totally black thumb. He tills and plants, weeds and waters, tends and picks, all for the rewards of the harvest he will reap. And I get the blessing of enjoying all the yummy vegetables and fruits he reaps too. You can only reap what you first sowed. You must plant it and tend it to make it grow. As it is with plants, so it is with faith. We must continue to tend our faith and take care of it and the Holy Spirit will use those things to make it grow. Unlike gardening though, it doesn’t have to take extra time. Nurturing faith can happen while we go about our regular days in life.

This fall, let’s nurture faith in our families as we go about our days:

• Bonfires-Sitting around a fire is a natural time to reflect, talk, and for some families, sing too! As you sit around a bonfire, talk about things you wonder about—how fire can have so many colors, why God made it do all that it can do, why the smoke seems to follow you wherever you move your chair, or how much you enjoy doing this simple, fun thing as a family—whatever you can think of. Then talk about the things you wonder about God too, letting everyone have a turn—is blue His favorite color, is that why so much of the earth is shades of blue? Was God running out of ideas when He made the platypus or was that a special one He had in mind all along? Did He create my favorite fruit with me in mind? Etc. (You don’t have to answer any of these wonderings…but if there is an answer in the Bible or it’s something we do know, point each other to God’s Word.)
• S’mores-S’mores somehow change an ordinary graham cracker into a sweet treat! God transforms each of us too through baptism. We enter as an ordinary sinner and come out of the water that’s been combined with God’s Word as a sweetly saved child of God. Talk about baptism and all that it does for us. (Forgives us, makes us God’s child, gives us the Holy Spirit, gives us faith, offers us the salvation Christ won for us).
• Raking Leaves-Raking leaves is a reminder of the seasons changing and with the new season, comes the need to “clean up” from the previous season. What are things we need to clean up regularly? We use rakes to clean up our leafy yards, how does God clean up our sin-sick lives?
• Apple Cider Mill-Apple cider is made by pressing apples through a huge press. It reminded me of how sometimes the world presses in on us and makes us feel like we can’t withstand it anymore. But 2 Corinthians 4:8 says, “we are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” How can we rely on God when it feels like things are pressing in on us?  

Deuteronomy 6:6-7 charges us to talk about faith as we go about life, “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be on your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the way, when you lie down and when you get up.”

As we all seek to reap faithful lives for Christ, let’s continue to nurture the faith He’s put in each of us!