This past spring I planted a garden. I had planned for it for months; everything was ready. One April morning, with great hopes and expectations, I started with the lettuce seeds. In the days following the planting, we had torrential rains. After waiting in vain for the lettuce to sprout, I determined that the rain had washed away the lettuce seeds. So, I planted lettuce again. After a few weeks of watering the seeds and tending to other areas of the garden, the lettuce finally came up. Unfortunately, I was not the only one interested in lettuce. The first signs of attack were noticed when I went to the garden one morning. The small but promising heads of lettuce had been turned into dejected stumps. However, I was not to be quickly defeated. Armed with a bottle of rabbit repellant, I went on the defensive. No more signs of attack appeared, and the lettuce seemed to have a new lease on life. Just when I felt safe in not applying rabbit repellant, they struck again. Again, I applied the repellant and all seemed well. Again, I felt safe in waiting just one more day to spray some more repellant. And once again, the wascally rabbits attacked. My hopes of a profitable harvest dwindled with the remains of the lettuce left from the last (and final) assault.
It takes perseverance to keep working in a garden when you seem to lose all your hard work to rabbits. In the same way, it takes perseverance when your schoolwork seems impossible. I’ve noticed that my baby brother needs perseverance as he learns to walk just as much as Nehemiah needed it when he was rebuilding the walls of Jerusalem in the face of persecution. Whether you’re dealing with annoyances, obstacles, or just plain hard work, it will take perseverance to keep doing what is right. What are your challenges right now? Is it school? Ask God to help you persevere and learn from your effort. Is it a bothersome brother or sister? Ask God to help you persevere and learn to love that brother or sister. Is it reaching a difficult goal? Ask God to help you persevere and learn that He will always help those who serve Him.
Gardening takes on new dimensions when you add persistent rabbits. This time it was easy to determine the victors in the perseverance contest: the rabbits got a lot more lettuce than I did. Next time I’ll have to remember that those who persevere get the lettuce!
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