Our lesson at Wednesday night Bible class was about bugs.  We were buzzing like bees, dancing like butterflies, and crawling like beetles.

Then we started talking about worms.  Even these four year olds knew that worms are good for the soil.

“Teacher, teacher!  They are good when they are in your garden!”

We can’t see always worms, yet they make a difference.  Without them, the soil can contain more harmful bacteria (they will eat the stuff) and not be as rich in nutrients (worm casts contain a lot of food for plants in the form of nutrients).

Worms are not the attention hoggers of the animal world, preferring to do their work in the dark, moist soil instead of in the light of day.  But even still, they are necessary.

How many things in my Christian walk are like that!  Others may not see them, or even esteem them if they do see them, but they are crucial to me surviving and growing in this Christian walk.

Nobody but me knows how closely I am resting in the Lord, as most of the activities that support this are done alone, in private.

Or do they know?

While these disciplines are different from fruit, they are instrumental in making fruit, just as worms are necessary to make a healthy garden.  These disciplines are the inner workings that make fruit possible.  Without them, the results will be different, not as good.

When I am not following my discipline of regular prayer and Bible reading time, I am not as apt to see another’s need…or to respond in a Christian manner to it.  Without soil that has been tilled properly in the Word, and enriched by prayer, I may pass by on the side instead of meeting needs that I have been called to meet.

When I am not disciplined in my quiet time and growth time, I become impatient and mean-spirited, not focusing on loving others as I love myself, and letting my mouth get carried away to places that are ugly and less than helpful.  I the grow these weeds instead of good fruit.

Shame on me if I allow myself to get into this position.

Jesus told a parable about different kinds of soil, and I will end with it.  I pray that with my proper care of the soil of my soul, worms and all, I can be the good soil!

Then he told them many things in parables, saying: “A farmer went out to sow his seed. As he was scattering the seed, some fell along the path, and the birds came and ate it up. Some fell on rocky places, where it did not have much soil. It sprang up quickly, because the soil was shallow. But when the sun came up, the plants were scorched, and they withered because they had no root. Other seed fell among thorns, which grew up and choked the plants. Still other seed fell on good soil, where it produced a crop—a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown. Whoever has ears, let them hear.” – Matthew 13:3-9