The Joy of the Lord is My Strength | Cultivating joy!

Scripture often describes our spiritual lives in terms of a garden or a vineyard. These images of the fruit of the spirit, the vine, and the branches, are beautiful. I am reminded there is a need for personal cultivation, watering, pruning, and clearing away the debris for my spiritual garden to flourish and produce good fruit with a sweet aroma.

As I enter the time of life where there are more years behind me than before me, I am becoming more reflective. Is my spiritual garden healthy? Am I cultivating good fruit? Are the nourishing seeds of my life being dispersed? Are my roots deep? Have I been removing the debris of past hurts and disappointments?

There have been times I have left my spiritual garden unattended. When I see how quickly my winter garden dries up and stops producing from lack of attention, I realize my spiritual life is similar. It is essential for me to tend to it daily.

Cultivating Kindness and Faithfulness

I can cultivate kindness and faithfulness by keeping my heart soft and my spirit strong. I can pursue peace and the living water of Jesus through studying scripture and applying it to my life. I can refuse to let weeds of worry, stress, and past hurts take over. I do not need to allow them to take root. If I pull them out, chop them up, and turn them into compost daily, they will nourish me rather than rob me of my joy.

My sister-in-law, Edwina, is 98. She has cultivated a beautiful spiritual garden. Her life is full of the fruits of the spirit, especially love and joy. She has tended to her spiritual garden in a manner that produces healthy fruit with a sweet aroma. Everyone loves to be around her. She is such an example to me. The joy of the Lord is her strength.

**Dyann with Janice, Gary and Edwina Hemphill**
*“A joyful heart makes a cheerful face” Proverbs 15:13*

She has kept the weeds of bitterness and disappointment from taking hold and reproducing. Intentional acts of weeding have kept her garden beautiful. Praise and thanksgiving through the trials of life have deepened her roots and sweetened the fruit. Even though her body is frail, she continues to produce the fruit of joy.

Her joy isn’t dependent on her circumstances; it comes from the Lord. Everyone needs an Edwina in their life to remind them that regardless of age, or physical strength, God is always producing good fruit if we allow Him to do so. God wants to expand our gardens even when our physical world becomes smaller.

When we can no longer attend church and our bodies are unable to cooperate, we can pick up and use two of the most useful garden tools-prayer and praise. God made us for Himself, not for what we can do, but for what He can do in us and through us. We can finish strong!

Personal Parables is the blog of Dyann Shepard. Get Dyann’s complementary study in Proverbs and prayer guide, What to Do When You Don’t Feel Good Enough. If you need encouragement to remember the truth about yourself in times of doubt and anxiety, this free 5-day study is for you. Follow Dyann and Personal Parables on Instagram and Facebook. Dyann is available for speaking, guest blogging, and article writing.

Scripture for Meditation

This is scripture for meditation that corresponds to my post on Cultivating Joy.

Isaiah 55:12 (NIV)
You will go out in joy and be led forth in peace;
the mountains and hills will burst into song before you,
and all the trees of the field will clap their hands.

Romans 15:13 (NIV)
May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.

James 1:2-4 (NASB)
Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.