Enjoying The Fruits of Your Labor

"And it is a good thing to receive wealth from God and the good health to enjoy it. To enjoy your work and accept your lot in life- this is indeed a gift from God. God keeps such people so busy enjoying life that they take no time to brood over the past." Ecclesiastes 5:19-20

I posted before about how excited I was to garden this year. How I'm looking forward to harvesting and putting food by for the winter. Well, that time is almost upon us. We have been enjoying lettuce and radishes, beets, and a few zucchini. The rest of the garden is about to explode as well. We're going to be gone for a week and I'm already planning ahead, because the day we get back I will likely be pulling out the canner for some pickles. Our timing away could not be worse for the garden. Then again, maybe it's not so bad because I won't be wandering out to the garden every day wondering when those beans will be large enough to pick. :-)

I'm ready to enjoy my work. I have enjoyed the work of putting in and tending the garden, and now I'm ready to enjoy the labor of the harvest. It is such a gift from God that I can enjoy this work to its fullest. Every time we eat something from the garden it's a moment of joy for us. A moment of "we grew this!" and "Look what the Lord has allowed us to do with a plot of dirt and our hands."

And while I could go on and on about the virtues of gardening, I would be remiss if I didn't address the second half of the verses above. That God keeps people so busy enjoying life that they don't have time to brood about the past. Isn't that wonderful! A busy life IS a gift from God. I know that can be a foreign thought to some, but really...think about it... the fact that I spend much of my week busy with school and church and dance classes and playing with my children, and this time of year with the garden, it's wonderful! This means I am in the midst of a gift from Above. A gift of enjoyment so that I don't have the inkling or the time to lament something about the past. I could lament the fact that we are so busy, but what for? According to the verse above, my business is my gift from God. And I accept that gift wholeheartedly. Is it not better to be busy and always looking ahead than bored and lamenting the past for what could have been? I think so.