Thousands of hours

I have spent thousands of hours journaling during my lifetime. It’s a discipline I learned many years ago. There are times when I journal more than others, but I rarely miss a day without writing something down. My journals are mostly notes I take during my devotional time. Jamie is often with me having his devotions as well. We will often interrupt one another with thoughts about what we are reading.

After all these years, I have come to a place where I look forward to my morning devotional time. But, I didn’t always feel that way. Even now there are days that I have to revert to disciplining myself. I have to stop and take care of my relationship with God. It’s not always easy or convenient, but I’ve learned it’s well worth the effort.

Not my highest-ranking post

This probably won’t be my highest-ranking post on the blog. I wish that it would be because I’ve learned the importance of pulling away to grow each and every day. And, it’s a process we have to go through alone. Yes, you can sit with someone during your devotional time, like I often do with Jamie in the morning. But, you can’t depend on having someone with you to make your journey with God.

Growing is what children do naturally. Parents must provide the right environment for proper growth: meals, sleep, playtime, bath time, and the like. Children participate, sometimes grudgingly, in their development. They eat, sleep, play, bathe, and grow because Mom and Dad have cultivated the environment. The soil of the household determines what kind of growth takes place. And it takes thousands of hours of discipline for that growth to take place.

Everything we need to grow

Individuals who grew up in abusive homes or whose parents were absent often struggle as adults. They struggle to find their footing as adults in many ways because of their experiences during their formative years. This does not mean that those who had a difficult childhood can’t change. They absolutely can. It serves only to remind us of the importance of cultivating an environment for healthy growth.

Our Heavenly Father has provided everything we need to grow. The responsibility we have is to participate. Children, for example, are spoon-fed their meals when they are very young. Even so, they have to open their mouths to eat.

Who doesn’t like mashed potatoes?

My youngest daughter, who is now 16 almost 17 (yikes!), was an extremely picky eater. I have vivid memories of her gagging when I tried to feed her mashed potatoes. Who doesn’t like mashed potatoes?🤷🏼‍♀️ My daughter! (She also doesn’t like chocolate, that is worthy of another post alone.) But, she loved, and still loves, snacking on potato chips and fries. Ironically, these are also made of potatoes but in a different form. I still wonder about those days 😂.

I struggled to get her to eat a balanced diet. Whenever I found a fruit or vegetable she tolerated, I felt like a champion. But she had to open her mouth for the food to go in.

There were many times when she was not fond of what I gave her. Her little head would shake “NO!” I would insist “YES!” The competition between us was fierce. She loved me but was not always a fan of what I offered her. And of course I loved her and I was not a fan of her response to my offerings. But because we loved one another and worked together, me more than her obviously, we got the food down.

And then, she grew.

Get-rich-quick

The message of our participating in our relationship with God is not a popular one among Christians. We tend towards gagging on the principle. Why can’t we just grow without the mashed potatoes of Christianity? Can’t we have treats? Cake and ice cream, please.

We like to hear about prospering, who doesn’t? We want to have money with little effort. We don’t want to hear about generosity, budgeting, and responsibility. That part of our persona remains stunted because it’s not easy to do those things. The world has figured this out and has responded. Have you ever considered how many have made money off this tendency we have?

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Our nature is to get by with as little effort as possible. This is where we stumble. It takes time and effort to grow a business to succeed. Even when it is successful, it takes time, thousands of hours, and effort to keep it in that place.

Brown and crunchy

Think about this, how many thousands of hours have we spent doing something for it to come to nothing? And we continue in those pursuits in different forms when one fails. The difference between spending thousands of hours pursuing things of this life and the things of heaven is immense. When we invest our time growing in our relationship with God, we will see change. We will see fruit.

We’ve recently moved into a home with a small garden. I like to call it my patch of green. I love to garden, to see things grow. When we moved in, the lawn was brown and crunchy. It wasn’t nice to look at so I bought a hose and sprinkler. It is a humble sprinkler, the kind you have to move around periodically for the entire garden to get watered. But, it works. After only a week of watering, the lawn began to spring to life. Now, with my lawn growing greener by the day, I take care not to miss watering it. I just have to turn the sprinkler on and move it around.

It’s worth thousands of hours

I encourage you to water your spiritual garden. Don’t let it get brown and crunchy. If you’re going to spend thousands of hours doing something, spend it doing something that will result in positive change. Spending time growing in your relationship with God is a discipline. There’s no way around that. But, that discipline yields amazing fruit. God won’t rip you off like the get-rich-quick schemes of this world.

In a previous post, Your relationship with God: how to grow to get to where you want to go, I listed some “How-to” steps for growth. I encourage you to take the time to read it if you are wondering how to get started. Your relationship with God is worth it, it’s worth thousands of hours.