Why a Garden?

Why a Garden?

As I raise my children, I have noticed something interesting. 

They LOVE mud. They LOVE to forage and collect bits of nature. They LOVE experiencing the rain and wind and sun and all of God's weather. But best of all, they LOVE to eat food right off the bushes and vines and out of the dirt.
 

My son's favorite toys, from the time he learned to walk were: STICKS.
He has a total meltdown if one of his friends takes one of the sticks- we're talking total complete meltdown. He could care less about the expensive toys he gets for Christmas. If he can't build with it - he doesn't play with it. My daughters collect and carry tiny stones and seeds and flowers. They build little dioramas around the house and yard as they explore. It is adorable to watch them build a little world and act out different stories. 

Which leads me to my question- WHY a GARDEN?

God has commanded me to care for my children in HIS ways.
What did He provide for His children upon their first excursion into this mortal world?
Did He build them a beautiful mansion full of fancy light-up toys and every useful convenience?  

No.

8 ¶ And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.
9 And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.
15 And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the gardenof Eden to dress it and to keep it.
16 And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, Of every tree of the garden thou mayest freely eat:
17 But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.
18 ¶ And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him an help meet for him.
21 And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and he slept: and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead thereof;
22 And the rib, which the Lord God had taken from man, made he a woman, and brought her unto the man.
23 And Adam said, This is now bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh: she shall be called Woman, because she was taken out of Man.
24 Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.
25 And they were both naked, the man and his wife, and were not ashamed.


Instead he planted a garden and commanded them to learn how to care for it.
To learn the skills they would need when they left the garden.

• How to work, 
• how to wait until the fruit is ripe
• how to listen to their body's signals
• and most of all, to turn to Him always. 

Counsel with the Lord in ALL of thy doings, and He will lead thee for good.

I  had a dream...

Actually, I have a lot of dreams. It's how my brain figures out how I feel about my situations in life. So I've learned to pay attention to the feelings in my dreams- the events are made up, but the feelings are real.

In this dream (October 3), I was moving into yet another new apartment. This particular model had a very narrow kitchen and I was trying to determine the placement for the stove. While I was rearranging the kitchen parts and pieces, my best friend asked for help making holiday decorations. So I left off the kitchen and went to help her. While there I felt impressed to pay closer attention to her words and then to testify to her of her own innate self-worth, which happens to be one of her earthly challenges.

Then I was back in the kitchen moving the stove. Another friend came by with her young family and as I watched her infant daughter cry, I quickly realized that her milk supply was diminishing. Knowing her past challenges, and remembering my own milk supply difficulties, I realized it was because she was trying to lose weight. I felt impressed to help her adjust her diet so that her body wasn't mistakenly going into "famine" mode and instead going into a "use our resources" mode. In the dream, this understanding unfolded: (I still have yet to test it out.) Our bodies are designed to hold onto sugars and fat stores when it is cold outside, and designed to use those fat stores when the weather warms before the harvest begins. During these lean times of year (February-May), after a cold winter, people craved green foods. Dandelions were one of the first green edibles that grows after winter. By eating lots of salads while restricting calories and going outside to feel the warmth from the rays of the sun, our body metabolism will shift. Weirdly enough, maintaining a healthy body is one of her earthly challenges.

They left and I was again shifting the oven around, this time accidentally knocking a hole in the wall that opened into a bottomless pit with rickety stairs going down. (Dreams are awesome in that way). The ghost of a Native American princess floated up and began ordering me around. Again, I felt an impression to pay closer attention to what she was saying and what I felt. She had very little power of presence, and I somehow realized that this was not a princess, but her true form was that of a worm found in apples. She worshipped the apples. I summoned my own inner powers to decide what influences would be allowed in my home and dismissed her, despite her protests that she had a great treasure to give me if only I would help her get to the apple.

And yet again I was left to figure out the layout for the kitchen. As I pondered my situation, I was given an impression again: You can't make a mistake on this one. Try it one way, and if it doesn't work, try something different. This challenge is for you to learn through your own experience, through trial and error, because it doesn't really matter in the eternities any more than wearing a brown shirt or a blue shirt matters.

As mothers we will receive specific and powerful guidance
1) as we minister and testify to others of their worth
2) as we minister to the physical needs of our children's bodies and our own body's role in meeting those needs
3) to protect our homes from other influences that would be damaging and distracting to our purpose of coming to Christ.
Or we will be given the knowledge that this particular decision really doesn't matter in the eternal scheme of things and therefore, we are free to make our own decision.

But when everything is small decisions, we can't always decide when the decision doesn't matter. That's why the Lord expects us to Counsel with him in ALL of our doings.

Scriptures to ponder: (I would love to hear your thoughts)
Alma 29:8
Doctrine and Covenants 3: 4,7, 13, 15
Psalm 73: 24
2 Nephi 28:9, 28-29