Tending....discerning

I was given a lady's finger plant a couple of weeks ago. I have been tending it (sort of) - just by placing it in bright sunlight and watering it and the 'one' fruit has grown to eatable size. However, i've been told that it would be better to let it dry up and then sow the seeds to produce new plants. Though i figure out that i would need a whole patch of ground or a trough to plant enough just for a 'stir fried ladies finger' dish.

It is very much like tending our souls. Sometimes we are quick to harvest the 'fruit' immediately, not realizing that it would be better left to mature and then multiply, to produce a hundred fold. There are seasons in our lives when we do not rush out and start doing good works, as we may be outpacing God's grace.

I reckon i am often tempted in both directions. Sometimes to 'hold back' when it would be appropriate to go ahead, trusting God for the resources......and sometimes to 'pushing on' when i am not fully supported by God's grace and i depend on my own strength.

Discernment is the art of being at balance in our hearts so that it is God's Spirit who moves us either one way or the other. It is in practice like being a balance of a scale at equilibrium, not tipping one side or the other, until the grace of God moves us. Perhaps this comes to me at the end of a year when i have not been too disciplined in this art, thereby sometimes feeling the pressure of 'many things' and at other times the temptation to fill in the 'empty spaces' that feel too unproductive.

At this point and as i look ahead to another year......i remind myself that my goal and purpose is the "praise, reverence and service of God".