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A few weeks ago, a sweet lady from church sent me some beautiful blue flowers that were put on display at the Easter service, which I was unable to attend due to illness. Unfortunately, my thumb doesn\u2019t even come close to being green. So my first response was to wonder what I could do to keep from killing them. My daughter delivered them to me, and she, being like her mother, had nearly killed them in the two days they were under her care.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis morning, they were so droopy I thought they had died. But a little water works wonders, Mom. See? Nice and perky.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m pleased to report that I\u2019ve \u201conly\u201d come close to killing the flowers four times since they were delivered. Yes, four. They\u2019re still alive, because I remembered that \u201ca little water works wonders.\u201d But I\u2019ve noticed some of the leaves are beginning to turn yellow \u2013 probably because I\u2019ve been allowing the soil get as dry as the Mojave Desert before watering it. It seems I\u2019ve inflicted an unhealthy cycle on it that doesn\u2019t promote the best of health. The best<\/em> of health would come, I think, if I would be more disciplined about never letting it get parched in the first place.<\/p>\n Isn\u2019t that how it is spiritually? My tendency, especially when my kids were small, was to go a week here, four days there, without reading my Bible or praying. I\u2019d become parched. Then I\u2019d try and cram a large, profitable time of spiritual nourishment in whenever I could, like when the kids were sick and sleeping all day.<\/p>\n A lovely experience indeed, not unlike drinking from a firehose after a walk in that Mojave Desert!<\/p>\n Skipping spiritual watering is easy to do when the laundry piles are high, dinner needs to be made, and Johnny needs to be at football practice. As women and moms, we are constantly pouring ourselves into the lives of others. Our work truly is never finished. We are constantly nurturing. Loving. Discipling. Feeding. Sorting and folding. Or cleaning up. In the midst of it all, we tend to forget or even purposely neglect our own vital needs. But where our souls are concerned, while any feeding is better than no feeding,\u00a0regular feeding\u00a0<\/em>is the healthiest.<\/p>\n A little water works wonders. But a little water every day works bigger and better wonders.\u00a0When we are regularly filling our own cups, we avoid the parched phase, and are naturally able to spill over into the lives of others in a consistent manner. We overflow into empty vessels that need filling because we are full and have plenty to give, rather than working so hard just to maintain our own fluctuating strength.<\/p>\n When I was a young mom, I had to find simple, quick ways to be spiritually fed. If it was time to nurse the baby, I\u2019d turn on the radio and listen to Elisabeth Elliot\u2019s radio program. Or late at night, after the kids were in bed, I\u2019d turn the radio back on (I\u2019m really dating myself here), and listen to a kind, elderly man by the name of Bill Pearce who taught the Scriptures in a deep, soothing voice \u2013 exactly what I needed after a day of harrying activities. Another favorite spiritual watering method was to read snippets of the Bible or a book on spiritual growth during children\u2019s quiet times, during nursing, after they\u2019d gone to bed, or if they had a (seemingly) rare moment of playing well together. Prayer most often came as I was performing methodical chores, as that was the only time I could talk to God without falling asleep!<\/p>\n