Planting Seeds in My Heart

There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens
Ecclesiastes 3:1 (NIV)

One of my favorite places to be in the spring and summer is in my yard working in my flower gardens or just sitting on our patio enjoying the warmth of the sun. I love watching everything green around me bud, flower, and change almost by the hour. It fascinates me how quickly tiny seeds that I 

Stephanie Rogge

plant can sprout and grow to nearly three feet tall in a matter of weeks under the right conditions. It amazes me how perfect each plant becomes in the shape and design God intended. I would like to think it was because I’m such a great gardener, but I’m only the caregiver.

My role is to make sure that each plant is getting the water, feed, and sunshine they need. When weeds try to invade, I need to remove them. When the plants are done flowering or fruiting, I need to remove the spent flowers or harvest the fruit so that new blooms can replace them. But even though I do the work, I cannot make anything grow. God provides the seed, soil, water, sun, all the conditions needed for each plant to grow. He is the one that decides which seed will grow and what fruit it will produce. He only gives me the tools to care for the harvest He provides.

Forty-one years ago, God planted a seed in my heart. My brother was the caregiver in this case. He had become a Christian and wanted to make sure my parents and I heard the Gospel. When God saved me, my brother’s first response was to help me find a church where I could grow and get involved.


God hasn’t stopped growing me over the years. There are times when I was weak and He lifted me off the ground, knocked off the dirt in my life, and propped me up so that I could grow stronger. There were times that He had to prune me because I would try to get ahead of God’s plan for my life and He had to put me on the right path. Through my life His care for me has been constant in a way that shows that I am His and that He loves me. He shows me His love in His Word everyday and each day as I go about living life.

When I get the chance to sit on my porch and enjoy the beauty of the gardens around me, I sometime wonder if God is pleased with my life. Is my life beautiful in His eyes? Have I been a good caregiver of the things He has given me to do? I can only believe that He is happy with me, because of the peace He gives me.

In Christ,
Stephanie Rogge