Pass It On

"She considers a field and buys it;
From her profits she plants a vineyard"   Proverbs 31:16


This morning I felt inspired to turn to the passage in the Bible about  my favorite woman.  Every single time I read about the Proverbs 31 woman, I take something away from it.  But today, as I read through it, and felt encouraged in my daily duties as a housewife and mom, I noticed that something was missing.  There was one particular task that was left out of her list of exceptional achievements.  What struck me that was missing was that it never mentioned how she taught anyone what she was doing.  It never mentions once that she taught her daughters the ways of managing a household.  It never mentions that when she's sewing garments for her family, that she's teaching others to do the same.  And when she considered the field above and bought it, it never says a word about her teaching others how to do the same.  I found this very interesting.


Because that's exactly what I've been thinking about for some time.  I've often thought about teaching other people various abilities that I could pass on, but that teaching never really goes any farther than my own kids.  I remember last spring, thinking about my gardening and future salsa-making, and thinking that I should offer to teach people how to make their own salsa.  Time really ran away from me last year, though. I was making batches of salsa in my sleep sometimes, just to get it done.  I've thought in the past about teaching cooking classes, about passing on how to make simple meals homemade and from scratch.   Most recently, just this week I've been thinking a lot on the coming gardening season.  I'm in the planning stages for my gardens this year, and I thought about how it would be wonderful to pass on the love of gardening and get others to try their hand at planting a few seeds.  I wondered how I would go about doing such a thing, but then I've also wondered if I really know enough about gardening to help someone else get going.  I still have plenty of failures in that regard.


But you know, I don't think that any of those thoughts that I've had to pass on what I know have been completely futile and useless.  I do think that there will be a time in the future when those thoughts will come to fruition.


"O LORD, how great are Your works! Your thoughts are very deep."  Psalm 92:5

God gives us His thoughts sometimes, and I actually spent quite a bit of time yesterday thinking about gardening and teaching others how to do so.  And what do you think happened?  I got a brief little message on Facebook late last night from someone asking about gardening.  God couldn't have made it any more clear to me that this idea that's been rolling around in my head is a thought that He has shared with me.   I really think that in the years to come, home vegetable gardening is going to become a very important source of food for families all over the world.  Food prices are going up, and gardening is actually quite inexpensive- especially if you know people who already garden.  Gardeners love to share seeds, tips and fruits of their labor.  And with food safety in question all the time, it just doesn't get much safer than food grown in your own backyard.  I've been feeling an urgency in getting my gardens set up for the last few years, and that urgency has not gone away.  In fact, this year's gardens are already more about what I can grow in quantity, versus what I want to try growing.

So I'm thrilled at the idea of passing on gardening.  It's something that literally anyone can do- with a pot of dirt and a handful of seeds, a meal can be produced from the ground.


"The young lions lack and suffer hunger;
But those who seek the Lord shall not lack any good thing."  Psalm 34:10


God gave me this ability of being able to plant seeds in the ground and understand how to make them grow.  God gave me the desire to do so in the first place- He gave me a very good thing, and it is now my task to pass on that knowledge.  I'm really excited to do so.  It could be that I end up helping just one person.  It could be that I end up helping many.  No matter how many it is, what matters is that I follow the Lord's guidance and pass on what needs to be passed on.  


"Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good;Blessed is the man who trusts in Him!"  Psalm 34:8