{"id":11141,"date":"2017-07-02T00:10:03","date_gmt":"2017-07-02T07:10:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lccredding.com\/lcc\/?p=11141"},"modified":"2017-07-02T00:10:03","modified_gmt":"2017-07-02T07:10:03","slug":"july-2-2017","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/2017\/07\/02\/july-2-2017\/","title":{"rendered":"July 2, 2017"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

\u201cLet us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.\u201d<\/em>
\nGalatians 6:9<\/span><\/p>\n

Lessons From an Orchid<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n

\u201cWell, family, enjoy this while it lasts because it will be dead in a week,\u201d I announced as I unceremoniously plunked the perky purple orchid on the counter. The plant had been unintentionally bequeathed to me when a tenant in our rental home left it behind when they moved. I eyed the beautiful, exotic plant with resigned indifference as visions of all the dead plants I had inadvertently killed off danced through my head. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I have a long history of accidentally killing green things. Even plants deemed \u201chearty\u201d and \u201cdrought resistant\u201d have not been immune to my destruction. So you can imagine how I felt staring down an orchid\u2014the highest maintenance, diva plant in the known world. I knew that it would never stand a chance.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s beautiful,\u201d my sweet-voiced 12-year old daughter piped up. \u201cI\u2019ll take care of it.\u201d I raised my eyebrows at her plucky determination and warned, \u201cOkay, but they\u2019re really hard to take care of. It\u2019s going to take some work to keep it alive.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

With the dedication that abounds in the most hopeful of hearts, she began researching how to take care of her new charge. The orchid required daily misting, a weekly drip flooding, careful pruning, highly regimented light exposure, anti-bacterial protection, and special plant food. \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Wouldn\u2019t you know? Under her careful care and tending, not only is the orchid still alive three years later, it has bloomed multiple times! In addition, since the care and keeping of the plant brought her so much joy, she\u2019s now the proud owner of four more orchids and keeps our home in multicolored blossoms year round.<\/span><\/p>\n

I love it when God uses our children to illustrate the beauty and power of His truth and promises. Have you grown weary and lost hope in doing good in situations that look like a hopeless cause? Have past failures and fears made you hesitant to try again? \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Be encouraged and of good cheer! God, the Lord of the harvest, hears your faithful prayers, He sees your good deeds, and He knows the tears you have sown. More than that, He knows the song of joy that will be on your lips when, at the proper time, you see His glorious harvest in the land of the living. (Psalm 126:5, Psalm 27:13, Matthew 9:38). \u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cLord, give us faith and endurance to continue doing good in the \u201cfields\u201d that You have placed us in. We thank You now for the harvest that You have planned.\u201d<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cLet us not become weary in doing good, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we […]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[47],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-women"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p92wjD-2TH","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11141\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lccredding.org\/church\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}